How big is Leonardo da Vinci's Last Supper painting, and where is it located?

Last Supper (Leonardo da Vinci)
The Last Supper (in Italian:Il Cenacolo or L’Ultima Cena) is a late 15th century mural painting by Leonardo da Vinci in the refectory of the Convent of Santa Maria delle Grazie.
Commissioned to Leonardo Da Vinci by the Duke of Milan, Ludovico Sforza, The Last Supper was part of an overall renovation of the church and its convent buildings, and was commenced around 1495.
In the painting, which represents the scene of The Last Supper of Jesus with his disciples, as told in the Gospel of John, 13:21, Leonardo depicted the consternation that occurred among the Twelve Disciples when Jesus announced that one of them would betray him.
Santa Maria of the Grazie
Santa Maria della Grazie (“Holy Mary of Grace“) is a church and Dominican convent in Milan, northern Italy, included in the Unesco World Heritage sites list.
The church contains the mural of The Last Supper, which is in the refectory of the convent.

Located on the wall of the dining room of the former Dominican convent of Santa Maria delle Grazie in Milan, exactly in the refectory of the convent, the Last Supper, a late 15th-century mural painting by the great Italian artist Leonardo da Vinci, is one of the most famous and fascinating, most studied and reproduced and the subject of many legends and controversies. Commissioned by Ludovico Sforza, the Duke of Milan and painted by the master artist between 1495 and 1498, the coloured plaster of the enormous fresco measuring 15 by 29 feet (4.6 x 8.8 meters), covers the entire wall of the refectory, although the room was not a refectory at the time that Leonardo painted it.
Instead of using tempera on wet plaster, the usual method of fresco painting, Leonardo painted it on dry plaster, as he sought a greater detail and luminosity than could be achieved with traditional fresco and it resulted in a more varied palette. In fact, traces of gold and silver foils have been found which testify to the artist's eagerness to make the figures much more realistic. He chose to seal the stone wall with a double layer of dried plaster, composed of gesso (gypsum prepared with glue), pitch, and mastic. After that, he added an undercoat of white lead to enhance the brightness of the oil and tempera that was applied on top. Unfortunately, his experiment did not work, as the painted plaster began to flake off the wall almost immediately. Various authorities have struggled to restore it ever since.
The layout of the fresco is largely horizontal. All the figures are set behind the large table, which is seen in the foreground of the image. The painting is also largely symmetrical with the same number of figures on either side of Jesus.
The Last Supper is the visual interpretation of the artist of an event chronicled in all four of the Gospels, depicting the evening before Christ was to be betrayed by one of his disciples. He gathered them all together to eat and to tell them that he knew what was going to happen soon. The fresco depicts the next few seconds in this story after Christ dropped the bombshell that one of his disciples would betray him before the sunrise and the different reactions of horror, shock and anger of the twelve apostles.

By Mike Shoopman
The painting that I chose is entitled The Last Supper by Tintoretto. This magnificent painting shows a great amount of detail and it seems to draw in the viewer more than Leonardo da Vinci’s depiction of this important event in history. In Tintoretto’s The Last Supper, Jesus is shown with a glow about him that instantly grabs the viewer’s attention and leaves no question about which person is Jesus. Each of Jesus’ disciples, except for Judas whom is kneeling on the opposite side of the table from the others, also has a small glow around their head that sets them apart from the other people in the painting. In addition to Jesus and his disciples, there are several other people in the room preparing the meal for Jesus and his disciples. Not only has Tintoretto portrayed the physical realm, he has also included a spiritual realm. Several angels are shown flying in the room, which along with Jesus’ illumination depicts his divine nature.
This amazing work of art was painted from 1592 to 1594 (Matthews, Platt, and Noble 396). Tintoretto was in his middle 70’s when he painted it, and he died within the same year that he finished this great painting (Matthews, Platt, and Noble 396). Tintoretto’s the Last Supper is in good condition and is located in Sam Giorgio Maggiore Church in Venice, Italy (Matthews, Platt, and Noble 396).
I viewed this painting in The Western Humanities: Fifth Edition on page 396. This magnificant work of art can also be found on the internet at http://www.artbible.info/art/large/353.html.
Tintoretto’s The Last Supper is an oil painting on canvas. This painting is twelve feet tall and eighteen feet and eight inches in width. With the height of the painting being twelve feet, the individual on the right in the blue would seem to be about six feet tall, making this painting to be life-size if viewing it in person.
The artist used several lines to show the light in this painting, including the lines of light extending from Jesus’ head as well as from the lamp that sheds light on the things going on in the room. In addition to the lines of light, the lines in the ceiling and the floor of the room pull all parts of this painting together.

Along the right side of the church are pairs of ogival windows with round oculi set between the points of each pair.
Santa Maria Delle Grazie: The Last Supper
The Last Supper was painted between 1494 and 1497 within the framework of the major renovation of the Monastery of Santa Maria delle Grazie commenced by order of Ludovico Sforza in 1492. Instead of fresco, the normal Renaissance technique for wall paintings, Leonardo used tempera on a dry wall, which gave him the greatest possible freedom to alter and correct the composition while the work was in progress and enabled him to obtain particular effects of colour. It is, however, partly as a result of this choice that the painting is now in a very poor state of preservation.
Although the Last Supper — a representation of the Eucharist — was a subject traditionally depicted in the refectories of monasteries, especially in Florence, Leonardo took a radically innovative approach with marked accentuation of the dramatic elements of the scene.
Christ’s announcement to the disciples that one of them will betray him causes reactions of shock and astonishment, typical instances of the ‘motions of the mind’ that Leonardo investigated with such interest in his studies. In a setting of extraordinarily exact perspective, which seems to suggest that the scene is taking place inside the refectory of the Dominican monks in Milan, colour is used to define the effects of the light entering both from the three windows in the background and from the real one in the room.
Previously distorted by attempts at restoration carried out over the centuries, Leonardo’s original painting has now emerged as a result of the work begun in 1978 and completed in 1999. This involved This involved addressing complex problems as regards not only the painting itself but also the environment of the refectory in order to protect the work from the dust, fumes and humidity identified as the primary causes of its constant deterioration.
Tours & Tickets for your Visit:

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Discover anything and everything about Leonardo da Vinci. Including his written works, drawings, paintings, news, and original content.
This website started as a way to post research for a book I was working on for the previous 11 years (various titles) but has since been abandoned, perhaps to be revisited in the future, but until then I am working on other project(s) which are upcoming and heavily influenced by my "da Vinci days" albeit focused more towards the future than the past - which I guess you could say is what I learned from Leo. "Think well to the end, consider the end first."

Supersizing The Last Supper
LINDA WERTHEIMER, host:
Good morning. I'm Linda Wertheimer. Leonardo da Vinci's�mural of Christ and his apostles, "The Last Supper,"�is one of art history's most famous depictions of a meal. Nutrition experts say the size of the supper has grown significantly. They studied different paintings of the same event from the last millennium, and there's been a lot more bread to break. Experts found the portions grew by 69 percent.
It's MORNING EDITION.
NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by Verb8tm, Inc., an NPR contractor, and produced using a proprietary transcription process developed with NPR. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.

It paints the exact moment when Christ reveals to His apostles who are seated around the table, that one disciple among them will betray Him, before sunrise.
Christ has also given instructions on how they are to eat and drink in remembrance of Him, as a ritual in the future, after His death. The different reactions of anger and shock are vividly portrayed by Leonardo da Vinci. The most striking feature of this painting is how Leonardo places the vanishing point of the perspective in the Last Supper, where the vanishing point is behind the right temple of Christ.
This points exactly to the location of the center of the composition. The Last Supper also shows the love of the symmetry of Leonardo. He uses a horizontal layout here. The supper table is put in the foreground of the image of Christ. All the apostles are behind, with the same number of figures on each side of Christ. This shows the symmetrical composition of da Vinci.
Further, the perspective that da Vinci used highlights the positions of the figures and the architectural features in the composition. It is no wonder that this painting figures prominently among Leonardo da Vinci's famous paintings. In this work, a large scale wall painting, Leonardo as an artist had no prior experience in mural painting.
Experimental pigments were applied on the dry plaster wall. The usual technique with frescoes was that pigments were mixed on wet plaster. Hence, problems cropped up such as paint flaking off the wall. Today, the current masterpiece that remains has little of the original version.
This painting is the first painting by the twenty-year-old Leonardo da Vinci. Its composition is traditional in the portrayal of the figures, with the angel kneeling on the left and Mary seated at the right. A lectern is between them.
The scene is in an architectural setting with a landscape in the background. The composition resembles the medieval iconographic presentations of the Annunciation. The sfumato technique of da Vinci, his dramatic interplay of light and dark, his aerial perspective are not evident.
Hence, these painterly techniques are still in their developmental phase in the artistic palette of Leonardo da Vinci as an innovator. The painting is nevertheless regarded as the achievement of a master. It is considered as a showcase of the pictorial talent of Leonardo da Vinci and therefore is a forerunner of Leonardo da Vinci''s famous paintings.

Toward the end of his life in 1508, he accompanied King Louis XII of France to Milan where he stayed to practice anatomy and other scientific fields until 1512. When the French lost Milan, he moved to Rome, where he remained until his death in 1519.
After his death, his close friend Francis I said of him, “there had never been another man born in the world who knew as much as Leonardo da Vinci, not so much about painting, sculpture, and architecture, as that, he was a very great philosopher.”
Leonardo’s artistic works are considerable and have had a monumental influence on not only the artistic scene of the day but are still studied and analyzed to date. Two of his pieces, The Last Supper and Mona Lisa are not only his most famous but rank as some of the most famous pieces of art of all time.
The Last Supper was painted for the refectory of the Convent of Santa Maria Della Grazie in Milan. It is the final meal that Jesus and his disciples ate before the crucifixion and the piece specifically showcases the moment where Jesus has just told his followers, “one of you will betray me.” The time after uttering these words is the moment the painting encapsulates – which we can see by the expressions of the disciples. The work showcases Da Vinci’s total mastery of form, characterization and setting in a blazing fire of talent.
The painting itself is massive – it stretches 180 in x 350 in and covers an entire end wall of the dining hall in Santa Maria Delle Grazie. It, unfortunately, has been damaged and, despite restoration efforts, very little of the painting remains today.
Mona Lisa or La Gioconda, is arguably one of the most famous paintings in the world, to this day. The elusive smile on the face of the woman, front, and center, has brought a mystery to the world that remains unsolved after more than five hundred years. The shadows hint at so much and offer so little, and indeed, the shadowy quality the piece is known for came to be called, “sfumato,” or “Leonardo’s smoke.”
The Mona Lisa also plays on the religious culture of the time; the woman pictured bearing a strong resemblance to depictions of the Virgin Mary herself, who was seen as the ideal of womanhood for the time.

The last supper (Leonardo Da Vinci) large light color
The last supper (Leonardo Da Vinci) large light colorTHE supper was help by Christ and his disciples on the eve of holy Eucharist.
during the meal, christ washed feet for all his twelve disciples and told them someone would betray him.,everyone felt sorrowful and asked Christ whether the betrayers was he. Jude then closed to Christ's and asked; ''Is it I? Christ said the one whose hand dipped into the dish with his hand betrayed him, that is Jude,\ . Yes . it is you. Please go and do what you want to do. Jude left the table and Christ was after the supper.

Art and science intersected perfectly in his sketch of “Vitruvian Man,” which depicted a male figure in two superimposed positions with his arms and legs apart inside both a square and a circle. A man ahead of his time, da Vinci appeared to prophesize the future with his sketches of machines resembling a bicycle, helicopter and a flying machine based on the physiology of a bat. 'The Last Supper' and Other Works Leonardo was commissioned to work on numerous projects during his time in Milan. His painting of the “Virgin of the Rocks,” begun in 1483, demonstrated his pioneering use of chiaroscuro—a stark contrast between darkness and light that gave a three-dimensionality to his figures—and sfumato—a technique in which subtle gradations, rather than strict borders, infuse paintings with a softer, smoky aura. Around 1495, Ludovico commissioned da Vinci to paint “The Last Supper” on the back wall of the dining hall inside the monastery of Milan’s Santa Maria delle Grazie. The masterpiece, which took approximately three years to complete, captures the drama of the moment when Jesus informs the Twelve Apostles gathered for Passover dinner that one of them would soon betray him. The range of facial expressions and the body language of the figures around the table bring the masterful composition to life. The decision by da Vinci to paint with tempera and oil on dried plaster instead of painting a fresco on fresh plaster led to the quick deterioration and flaking of “The Last Supper.” Although an improper restoration caused further damage to the mural, it has now been stabilized using modern conservation techniques. In addition to having da Vinci assist him with pageants and designing a dome for Milan’s cathedral, the Duke of Milan tasked the artist with sculpting a 16-foot-tall bronze equestrian statue of his father and founder of the family dynasty, Francesco Sforza. With the help of apprentices and students in his workshop, da Vinci worked on the project on and off for more than a dozen years. Leonardo sculpted a life-size clay model of the statue, but the project was put on hold when war with France required bronze to be used for casting cannons, not sculptures. After French forces overran Milan in 1499—and shot the clay model to pieces—da Vinci fled the city along with the duke and the Sforza family.

On the 15th August, 1943, bombing destroyed the great cloister of the Santa Maria delle Grazie monastery, but miraculously spared the three walls of the refectory, including the one with Leonardo Da Vinci’s famous ‘The Last Supper’. Was it a case of divine intervention or just dumb luck? Maybe we should thank the British and American air bombers for their bad aim? (It wasn’t until the US obliterated the monastery at Monte Cassino, Italy in February 1944, that US attitudes changed to the preservation of historical monuments and sites.) Nevertheless, it was the frantic efforts of the people of Milan, who helped stabilize and sandbag the painting against any further bombing splinters. Then, after the Second World War, the monastery was rebuilt with a ‘clean and stabilise’ resortation undertaken by Italian restorer and painter, Mauro Pellicioli between 1951 and 1953.
It wasn’t the first time in its history that Da Vinci’s painting of the Last Super needed some love and care. Its last major restoration took placed between 1979 to 1999. (The main source for the restoration was Giampetrino’s extract copy of The Last Supper which he copied in 1520. It includes lost details such as Jesus missing feet and the salt-cellar spilled by Judas. Giampietrino is believed to have been one of Leonardo Da Vinci’s pupils who worked closely with him when he was in Milan.) Today, the refectory wall that the painting sits on is sealed in a climate controlled room. Hopefully, generations of art experts, people and pilgrims can enjoy viewing the original for a few more centuries.
This is an image of what remains of the refectory of the Santa Maria delle Grazie monastery after the 15th August bombing. You can see the protective sheets that were assembled to protect the Da Vinci wall painting of the Last Supper.
This is another view of the Santa Maria delle Grazia, in Milan, after the allied bombing on 15th August 1943. The Da Vinci ‘Last Supper’ was arguably within metres of being destroyed.
Da Vinci wasn’t the first to paint a Christian view of the Last Supper. This is Ugolino di Nerio’s The Last Supper circa 1325-30. Judas is the only one without a halo.

To add further insult to injury, another so-called expert tried removing the painting to a safer location before realizing he had damaged a major middle section of the painting. But don’t worry, he glued it back together! Finally, as mentioned, we came awfully close to losing the painting in 1943 during the allied bombings.
Only around ten completed paintings by Da Vinci survive today. The Last Supper is one of them. Though, there is also another one of his great works and arguably the most famous painting of all time that I would one day like to give some attention to: Mona Lisa. Thank goodness, he decided to use a more traditional method to paint her and so we don’t have to worry whether or not she will flake! But, Da Vinci and the Mona Lisa will be our focus for another day.
Da Vinci’s greatest work ? The Mona Lisa.
Photo Credit: Every effort has been made to trace and acknowledge appropriate credit. The header image is The Last Supper, circa 1520, by Giovanni Pietro Rizzoli (Giampetrino). It is an exact, full-scale copy of Da Vinci’s painting. It is currently in the Royal Academy of Arts, London, collection. All other images are in the public domain too with the possible exception of the two images of the ruins of the Santa Maria delle Grazia, in Milan. The image of what remains of the refectory of the Santa Maria delle Grazie monastery is used under the ‘fair use’ rationale to highlight a unique historical moment in time. I believe that words alone cannot describe how close we came to losing Da Vinci’s famous painting. The 2nd image of the Santa Maria delle Grazia, in Milan, appears to be in the public domain with an expired copyright. I believe my inclusion of this image constitutes as ‘fair use’ to highlight a unique historical moment in time.

Around 1495, Ludovico commissioned Da Vinci to paint “The Last Supper” on the back wall of the dining hall inside the monastery of Milan’s Santa Maria delle Grazie. The masterpiece, which took approximately three years to complete, captures the drama of the moment when Jesus informs the Twelve Apostles gathered for Passover dinner that one of them would soon betray him.
After brief stays in Mantua and Venice, Da Vinci returned to Florence. In 1502 and 1503, he briefly worked as a military engineer for Cesare Borgia, the illegitimate son of Pope Alexander VI and commander of the papal army. He traveled outside of Florence to survey military construction projects and sketch city plans and topographical maps. He designed plans to divert the Arno River away from rival Pisa in order to deny its wartime enemy access to the sea.
Da Vinci started working in 1503 on what would become his most well known painting—and arguably the most famous painting in the world—the “Mona Lisa.” The privately commissioned work is characterized by the enigmatic smile of the woman in the half-portrait.
Da Vinci moved to Rome in 1513. Giuliano de’ Medici, brother of newly installed Pope Leo X and son of his former patron, gave Da Vinci a monthly stipend along with a suite of rooms at his residence inside the Vatican. His new patron, however, also gave Da Vinci little work. Lacking large commissions, he devoted most of his time in Rome to mathematical studies and scientific exploration.
After being present at a 1515 meeting between France’s King Francis I and Pope Leo X in Bologna, the new French monarch offered Da Vinci the title “Premier Painter and Engineer and Architect to the King.” Da Vinci did little painting during his time in France. One of his last commissioned works was a mechanical lion that could walk and open its chest to reveal a bouquet of lilies. He continued work on his scientific studies until his death at the age of 67 on May 2, 1519.

The Accidental Masterpiece: Leonardo and “The Last Supper”
Ross King, author. Although celebrated today as one of the world’s greatest paintings, Leonardo da Vinci’s The Last Supper had unusual and inauspicious beginnings. In this lecture recorded on June 9, 2013 at the National Gallery of Art, author Ross King discusses the circumstances surrounding the creation of The Last Supper, including Leonardo’s unorthodox painting technique and his relationship with his patron, the Duke of Milan. King describes how despite never having worked on such a large painting and never having worked with the difficult medium of fresco, Leonardo created the masterpiece that would define him forever.

Tuesday, May 4, 1999 Published at 23:28 GMT 00:28 UK
Peek at the Last Supper
The restoration work means more detail can be seen
One of the masterpieces of Renaissance art - The Last Supper by Leonardo da Vinci - will show radical changes when it is unveiled after 20 years of restoration work.
Exclusive preview access to the restored masterpiece, which is already dividing the art world, was given to the BBC's Nine O' Clock News programme.
The old master used an experimental fresco technique and as a result the painting started to flake away almost as soon as he finished it 500 years ago.
Restorers have taken the bold step of stripping away all the paint from previous restoration attempts.
Bare areas of plaster were then painted in with watercolour.
Pinan Brambila, head of the restoration team, said the painstaking work had revealed formerly hidden detail.
She said: "Many faces were enlarged so they had a different physical structure. Some eyes had been rubbed out and painted over with small brush strokes.
"Underneath we found the original eyes - the eyes as they were originally painted."
Photographs of the painting taken in the 1940s show it had been in dreadful condition, but now lines which were crude and inexpressive are delicate and refined.
The food on the table and the creases on the cloth can now be seen clearly.
The mural is still far from perfect, and some critics feel too much paint has been removed.
Oxford University's Professor Martin Kemp said: "The gains are that we now have a much better idea of what Leonardo's picture would have looked like from the surviving details, but we know that recovering what it looked like in total is in a sense an impossible job, so what has been fabricated is a late 20th century picture on the best information we have."
Restorers have also taken possible future pollution of the masterpiece into account.
Visitors wanting to see it will have to pass through a glass tunnel and several pressurised chambers, walking on anti-bacterial carpets while a stiff breeze blows any dirt or dust from their clothes.
It is estimated that nearly half a million people will see the painting this year when it is put on public display again.

See Da Vinci’s painting “The Last Supper” in Milan’s church of Santa Maria delle Grazie. Get a brief introduction to an Italian masterpiece of the Renaissance, and enjoy at least 15 minutes to appreciate it at its best.
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Why is Da Vinci’s masterpiece so important that we feel obligated to preserve it year after year, or should I say century after century? Certainly, other great artists have painted the ‘last supper’ of Christ before, but arguably not quite like Da Vinci. His remarkable interpretation of Jesus sharing a meal with his disciples (in what is the first Eucharist where Jesus announces that one of them will betray him) shows everyone interacting with each other with amazing emotion. Furthermore, from an artistic or technical point of view, Da Vinci draws our attention straight to the centre of the painting with Jesus, before we scan with our eyes to see what is going on around him. Many have seen this, as the quintessential reason why preserving it is so important. Art and history at its zenith?
Whether Da Vinci painted it purely for financial reward or for a higher spiritual reason, it is frustrating to think, why didn’t he put more thought into it, in terms of making sure it would still be around for future generations to admire. Almost immediately after he had finished painting it in 1498, it began to flake off. Da vinci’s problem was that he was such an imaginative artist and inventor that he was always trying to invent the next best thing and remain one step ahead of his contemporaries. He tried coating the Santa Maria refectory wall with an experimental waterproof undercoat, which he believed would help him in his process of painting. Unfortunately, as already mentioned, it was a disaster. If we are to believe Leonardo Da Vinci’s biographer Giorgio Vasari, he describes the painting as ‘ruined’ and unrecognizable by 1556.
Da Vinci’s painting as it looked in the 1970’s prior to its major restoration between 1979 and 1999.
Da Vinci’s ‘The Last Supper’ after its major restoration works in 1999. Notice the undesirable doorway that was cut into the painting in 1652.
We almost lost Da Vinci’s painting ‘forever’ on several other notable occasions throughout its history. The most notable being in 1652, when somebody thought it appropriate to insert another door to the refectory. Further mishaps saw restoration artists in the eighteenth unintentionally damage the painting by applying, removing and then re-applying oil paint and vanish. French troops in 1796 apparently threw stones at the painting chipping it and later even scratched out the eyes of the disciples.

A recently discovered Jesus painting by Leonardo da Vinci is being revealed to the public eye for the first time starting Nov. 9 in a London exhibition and via a television series.
The painting, titled "Salvator Mundi" (Savior of the World), depicts Christ with his right hand raised in blessing and his left hand holding a transparent globe. It is painted in oil on a wood panel and measures 26 by 18.5 inches in size.
It was discovered at an auction in the United States in 2005 and officially identified as a da Vinci in July of this year. It is the most precious art acquisition of the century, experts say.
The now cleaned and restored 500-year-old work went missing for most of the 17th through the 19th centuries, only to be discovered, hundreds of years later, in a private collection in the United States. It is now owned by a consortium of art dealers, including Robert Simon, a New York-based specialist in Old Masters, according to ArtNews.
Only 15 paintings by Da Vinci still exist, including, "Mona Lisa," "The Last Supper" and "Lady with an Ermine" as probably the most famous ones.
"Salvator Mundi" might presently be worth $200 million, according to ArtNews.
London's National Gallery exhibition, "Leonardo da Vinci: Painter at the Court of Milan," is the most complete display of da Vinci's rare surviving paintings ever held, museum authorities claim. After opening on Nov. 9, the exhibition will run until Nov. 5, 2012. Da Vinci's works from multiple museums across the world were brought to London for the purpose of the exhibition.
The exhibition is inspired by the recently restored National Gallery painting, "The Virgin of the Rocks," museum authorities said.
It is also the first exhibition to be dedicated to da Vinci's goals and techniques as a painter, the museum authorities said in a statement. It concentrates on the work he produced as court painter to Duke Lodovico Sforza in Milan in the late 1480s and 1490s.
"As a painter, Leonardo aimed to convince viewers of the reality of what they were seeing while still aspiring to create ideals of beauty – particularly in his exquisite portraits – and, in his religious works, to convey a sense of awe-inspiring mystery," the exhibition description states.

The Last Supper, Leonardo da Vinci, Fresco, Santa Maria della Grazie, Milan
Madonna and Child with Saint Anne, Leonardo da Vinci, Oil on Panel, Florence
Mona Lisa, Leonardo da Vinci, Oil on Panel
Pieta, Michelangelo, Marble, saint peters cathedral, vatican, rome
David, Michelangelo, Marble, palazzo dei priori
Madonna of the Meadows, Raphael, Oil on Panel
Sistine Chapel, Michelangelo, Fresco, vatican, rome
The School of Athens, Raphael, Fresco, stanza della segnatura, vatican, rome
Transfiguration of Christ, Raphael, Panel, cathedral of narbonne
Foreshortened Christ, Andrea Mantegna, Canvas
Tempestuous Landscape with the Soldier and the Gypsy, Giorgione, Oil on Canvas
Bacchus and Ariadne, Titian, Oil on Canvas
Venus of Urbino, Titian, Oil on Canvas
Rape of Europa, Titian, Oil on Canvas
Last Supper, Tintoretto, Oil on Canvas, san giorgio maggiore, venice
Victory, Michelangelo, Marble, For tomb of Pope Julius II
Descent from the Cross, Pontormo, Oil on Panel, capponi chapel, santa falicita, florence
Descent from the Cross, Fiorentino, Oil on Panel, san francesco, volterra
Assumption of the Virgin, Corregio, Dome Fresco, parma
Madonna and Child with Angels and St. Jerome (Madonna of the Long Neck), Parmigianino, Oil on Panel, church of servites, parma
The Last Judgement, Michelangelo, Fresco, sistine chapel, vatican, rome
Tempietto, Bramante, san pietro in montorio, rome
Assumption of the Virgin, Titian, Oil on Panel
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The article states, "Leonardo da Vinci drew Jesus's [sic] Last Supper on a wall in 1498, and it was immediately recognized as a masterpiece."
Da Vinci was commissioned to paint by Ludovico il Moro, from 1496 to 1498, in the refectory of the Dominican convent of Santa Maria delle Grazie.
This was extraordinarily hard work, the technique used to apply the paint to the wall is called fresco, not "a drawing". The technique involves a great deal of knowledge and experience to know how the paint and plaster will dry; how much color medium, (in this case egg tempra), could be added to the plaster and still allow the latter to dry correctly; what sort of colors will be produced. Samwell 19:35, 8 September 2007 (EDT)
Recat, and probably unprotect
Could someone please recategorize this to Category:Bible? Thanks. Also, there's been no vandalism to this page, and it could probably use an expansion; if you could unprotect it too. Thanks. TheEvilSpartan 19:14, 10 January 2008 (EST)

In Leonardo da Vinci’s interpretation, the moment represents the moment before the birth of the Eucharist, with Jesus reaching for the bread and a glass of wine that would be the key symbols of the Christian sacrament.
In recent years, much of the interest in the painting has centered on the details hidden within the painting. Many scholars have discussed about the hidden meaning of the spilled salt container near an elbow of Judas. The spilled salt has been said to represent his betrayal or could symbolize bad luck, loss, religion or Jesus as the salt of the earth. It is also claimed by some biblical scholars that the disciple, painted at the right hand of Jesus, is John. However, many art and biblical scholars believe that actually the person is a woman, since he/she is the only person in the picture wearing a necklace or a charm, which is not a small one and in all probability, she is Mary Magdalene.
It is quite evident from the painting that, many of the figures on the right side of the table seem to be talking to or at Mary, while Jesus appears to be engaged with those on the left, who reflect the concern the disciples must have felt when told one among them would betray Christ. A closer look will at ‘John’ will also reveal a resemblance to Mona Lisa, which the master artist painted five years later.
Unfortunately, in the ensuing centuries, the Last Supper had been a victim of abuse for several times. In 1652, a new door was cut in the wall of the deteriorating painting, which removed a chunk of the artwork showing the feet of Jesus. The painting endured additional irreverence in the late 18th century, when the invading troops of Napoleon Bonaparte used the refectory as a stable and further damaged the wall with projectiles.
During World War II, the roof and one wall of the refectory collapsed due to the bombing of the Allied forces. Though the painting survived, it was exposed to the elements for several months before the space was rebuilt.
The Last Supper was subject to numerous restoration attempts and it underwent an extensive and controversial 20-year restoration that was completed in 1999. However, many critics argued that the restorers had removed so much of the painting that very little was left of Leonardo’s original work.

Skip the Line: Entrance Ticket to Leonardo Da Vincis The Last Supper in Milan
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Fill your day with art, and see Leonardo da Vinci’s “The Last Supper” in Milan with a skip-the-line ticket. The biblical scene painting has become one of the world's most famous pieces of art. So skip past the long lines of people waiting to see it, and head straight inside for an up-close look at the masterpiece itself. From a knowledgeable guide, learn about Leonardo and the Renaissance, and take in the splendor of its setting, a Dominican convent near the UNESCO World Heritage–listed Church of Santa Maria dell Grazie.
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When you go, make sure you turn around to appreciate the painting at the opposite end of the room. I was so overwhelmed by the pale beauty of the Michelangelo that I did not give due attention to this other painting. This wall of the refectory is covered by the Crucifixion fresco by Giovanni Donato da Montorfano, to which Leonardo added figures of the Sforza family in tempera.
Leonardo’s painting, as we all know, represents the scene of the Last Supper of Jesus with his apostles, as it is told in the Gospel of John, 13:21. Leonardo has depicted the consternation that occurred among the twelve disciples when Jesus announced that one of them would betray him.
Photo Credit: Italian Renaissance.org.
Leonardo da Vinci, Last Supper, 1498, tempera and oil on plaster (Santa Maria della Grazie, Milan); (photo: public domain)
But what are they eating at this important last dinner together as a group of friends? Well, what’s left on the table gives us a bit of a clue – plates of fish, bread, salt and wine. Perhaps, because it was a Passover meal, they had eaten bowls of slow cooked beans – cholent – and had olives with a minty herb known as hyssop. Doubtless, they ate a salad of bitter herbs with pistacchio and date choroset, a chunky fruit and nut paste.
The disciples, in groups of three, are physically linked by their gestures, but seem not at all interested in the table and its remains. Judas, deep in shadow, is looking rather withdrawn and taken aback by the sudden revelation of his plan. He is clutching a small bag, perhaps signifying the silver given to him as payment to betray Jesus, or perhaps a reference to his role as treasurer. He is also tipping over the salt cellar. This may be related to the expression to "betray the salt" meaning to betray one's Master. He is the only person to have his elbow on the table and his head is also horizontally the lowest of anyone in the painting. Peter looks angry and is holding a knife pointed away from Christ, perhaps foreshadowing his violent reaction in Gethsemane during Jesus' arrest. The youngest apostle, John, appears to swoon, it’s all very dramatic.

Shortly after the unveiling Tuesday morning, the painting left for a world tour, traveling to Christie’s locations in Hong Kong (October 13-16), San Francisco (October 17-21), and London (October 24-26) before returning to New York, where it will be on view from October 28 to November 4.
The November 15 sale in New York will also feature a more recent masterpiece: Andy Warhol’s Sixty Last Suppers, a 1986 silkscreen grid that gives Leonardo's The Last Supper the Marilyn Monroe treatment. The estimate? A far more affordable $50 million.

This could either be that they had been taken for cleaning, lent to other museums for short-term exhibitions, or even for restoration. On best of being the most visited museum in the planet, it is also the biggest covering an location of 652,300 square feet . Luckily, I have had the opportunity to go to the Louvre Museum on 3 diverse occasions , taking benefit of getting young and getting free of charge admission.
Consequently, the vanishing points of lines Φ2 and Φ3 will also be along the horizon line. The projections of Φ2 and Φ3 on the base line will be Φ2’ and Φ3’ (Figure 14/Figure 15). Consequently, if we had the position of the projection of viewpoint O’, to uncover Φ2’ and Φ3’ we would draw parallel lines from O’ towards the two diagonals. The locus of the points on the plane that meet section Φ2’Φ3’ at a 90˚ angle is a semicircle whose diameter is Φ2’Φ3’, as shown in Figure 15.
These viewpoint lines blend in with the ceiling and walls. His most famous painting, the Mona Lisa stands proud amongst the collection of the Louvre, along with many of his other functions. Leonardo da Vinci was arguably one particular of the greatest men to have ever lived.
Major editors give you the stories you want — delivered appropriate to your inbox every single weekday. “Leonardo, a vegetarian, has given Christ and the Apostles a vegetarian — or rather a pescatarian — meal.” “So in quite a few ways the painting is — amongst other factors — a representation of the court of Lodovico Sforza, the work’s patron,” King said. King said that the tapestries adorning the walls are really related to those in the castle in Milan.

You can take a look at the movie we made of the Last Supper in Milan and the excellent copy by Cesare Da Sesto in Ponte Capriasca in Switzerland. You can read about this adventure in my article: Second Helpings of Leonardo's Last Supper. Now its time for me to read Revelations again.

Obesity experts at Cornell University say that depictions of the Last Supper, such as that of Leonardo da Vinci (above), have shown increasingly larger meal portions for the past thousand years:
They found the main courses, bread and plates put before Jesus and his disciples have progressively grown by up to two-thirds.
This, they say, is art imitating life.
Professor Brian Wansink, who, with his brother Craig, led the research, published in the International Journal of Obesity, said: "The last thousand years have witnessed dramatic increases in the production, availability, safety, abundance and affordability of food.
Link | Image: Art Renewal Center

The Last Supper - a picture that tells thousands of words
There is something for everybody in this painting, depending on how you interperet the way the elements are arranged and how they interact. In the end, it is up to you what you make of it.
The Last Supper (Ultima Ciena) is a late 15th-century mural in the refectory (dining hall) of the Convent of Santa Maria Della Grazia in Milan. The large mural was commissioned in 1495 as part of a scheme of renovations to the church by Leonardo's patron Ludovico Sforza, the wealthy Duke of Milan. The original story of the Sun (Helios or Son of God) and His betrayal (during the autumn equinox) are depicted in code by Da Vinci in this painting of Christ and his twelve disciples. We visited the painting and had no time to take in all the details. If ever you go to Milan, be well prepared with all the information before you do so.
He arranged the 13 men in such a way as to suggest astral ambiguity. Let us explore the background to Leonardo’s beliefs to find out more. The cycle of birth, death and resurrection of the sun (Helios) of God have been going on since the beginning of creation. The cycles or circles of day and night, the twelve months and the four seasons. They travel round the heavens and spin like wheels. In the Book of Revelations John mentioned wheels, animals and strange beasts to describe the characteristics and activities of the stars of heaven, where God is. "Our Father who art in heaven."
Exploding Myths and Legends about Da Vinci’s Last Supper
Dan Brown is not the only one to set off a volley of speculation about Leonardo da Vinci’s Last Supper. What about the star gazers? Some Christians tend to regard the symbolic significance of heavenly bodies in the sky as coming from the devil’s fortune tellers. To them the zodiac and information about how the universe works belongs to demons and soothsayers because it can foretell the future. The truth is that a cyclical event such as the changing of the seasons within a twelve month cycle goes on regardless of how people try to foretell its future. We have different characteristics and are connected to groups of stars. ("Thy will be done on Earth as it is in Heaven" – the stars.)

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Design Toscano The Last Supper Religious Wall Frieze Sculpture, 23 Inch, Polyresin, Antique Stone
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- LAST SUPPER WALL FRIEZE honors one of the world's most famous religious images, Leonardo da Vinci's painting of the last meal of Jesus Christ before His crucifixion.
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Honoring one of the most famous images of all time, this nearly-two-feet wide replica wall frieze draws upon Leonardo da Vinci’s famed work, and then brings it into a new realm in dimensional bas-relief. This impressive museum replica is cast in quality designer resin and finished with the patina of an aged stone. Our timeless classic will fill a privileged place in home or gallery.

On first glance: fish – tiny herrings, anchovies - lots of bread, salad, fennel and wine. According to his whim, on this day at least, he also liked stuffed pasta – maybe tortellini.
I was mightily impressed with Michelangelo’s parsimony until Gastro Obscura flipped the letter over to reveal the date – March 18th, 1518 – the beginning of Lent and therefore, perhaps uncharacteristically frugal. But by all accounts – letters to his brothers, and notes to friends – Michelangelo was indifferent to food though he produced wines from his vineyards, and olive oil from his own groves. He was (according to author, Fred Plotkin, The Splendid Table) inordinately fond of pears. A standard gift to friends was 33 perfect pears, one for each of Christ’s life.
By 1518, the date of the shopping list (or more precisely the date of the letter), Michelangelo had already finished many of his most celebrated works, including the Pietà, the David, and the Sistine Chapel ceiling. But among all his work, this shopping list is perhaps the most intimate insight into the man himself. He wrote to his brother during the time he painted the Sistine Chapel ceiling: “I have not even time to eat as much as I should.” And yet such abstinence did him no real harm. He died at age 89.
It set me thinking: I wonder what the shopping lists were like for some of the Renaissance painters of the day. What, for example, did Leonardo da Vinci have to buy to set the scene for The Last Supper – Il Cenacolo or L’Ultima Cena? Everyone who goes to Milan should book an allotted time of fifteen minutes in a group of no more than 30 people, to see the rapidly fading mural housed in the refectory of the Convent of Santa Maria delle Grazie in Milan. The Last Supper measures 460 cm × 880 cm and covers an entire end wall of the dining hall. To my mind, it is one of the world's most moving paintings.
The work is presumed to have been started around 1495–96 and was commissioned as part of a plan of renovations to the church and its convent buildings by Leonardo's patron, Ludovico Sforza, Duke of Milan.

Tickets for The Last Supper: Skip The Line
The ultimate Da Vinci experience - available on Wednesdays and Saturdays
- See a late 15th-century mural painting by Da Vinci in the refectory of the Convent of Santa Maria delle Grazie – it's one of the world's most famous paintings!
- The church was heavily damaged in an Allied bomb attack during WWII. Somehow, Da Vinci's fresco survived
- Learn all about Da Vinci's life and work from our free downloadable brochure
Tickets to see Leonardo da Vinci's The Last Supper in Milan are hard to come by, but we've got them! You'll also get to roam around the rest of the stunning Santa Maria delle Grazie. Other highlights are the altarpiece by Titian and Bramantino's fresco. But, of course, you're here for The Last Supper.
These tickets are for early evening entrance to see Da Vinci's 15th-century fresco of The Last Supper, one of the most studied and revered artistic achievements in the world.
Not actually a true fresco, Da Vinci chose to experiment with layering tempera paint. This technique has caused problems with the preservation of the work, but after surviving an Allied raid in 1943, it's clear this work was meant to endure.
Lovingly restored to its original glory, da Vinci's masterpiece is even more impressive when you don't have to queue. You can also explore the rest of the stunning Santa Maria delle Grazie church while you're there.
Don't miss out on this once-in-a-lifetime experience!
- Skip-the-line access to The Last Supper
- Downloadable mobile brochure
- Show your smartphone ticket at the entrance of Santa Maria delle Grazie
- Make sure to be there at least 10 minutes before your chosen timeslot
Cancellations are not possible for this ticket.
- Metro: MM1/MM2 to Cadorna
- Tram: 16 or 19
- Bus: 18, 50, 58 or 94
If you really want to understand the great art work itself, I recommend you will get a lot more valuable information at the Leonardo3 museum.

Picture Leonardo da Vinci as a 42-year-old artist, struggling with ideas in his head and a world that won’t allow him to bring them to fruition. Ross King planted that picture firmly in this critic’s head, before slowly creating an arresting image of his own — of how one of the world’s most famous paintings was born, thrived, painted over and eventually restored to glory.
It’s an astonishing story, not least because it demolishes tin-pot theories floating around the painting that made a certain writer of thrillers an enormous amount of money. The good thing Dan Brown did, in retrospect, is draw a lot more attention to The Last Supper, probably prompting people like Ross King to look at it anew. If that is indeed the case, Brown deserves a Thank You note.
Another man trapped in the footnotes of history, but equally deserving of thanks, is the ruler of Milan, Lodovico Sforza, who commissioned Leonardo’s work on the refectory wall of his family mausoleum at the church of Santa Maria delle Grazie. “Paint a wall,” one imagines Sforza saying to da Vinci, a request one of the world’s greatest artists may not have taken in the right spirit. And yet, as King shows, that wall — with its 40-square-metre experimental oil-and-plaster masterpiece — went on to change the way people looked at art. It took what was supposedly familiar, and made it new.
Dan Brown fans, here’s what Ross King has to say: The figure at Jesus Christ’s right is not Mary Magdalene; it’s his disciple John. For his particular reasons, his story of how the painting survived the ravages of time and even a bomb (!) and other interesting things you had no idea about, I strongly suggest you read this book.
— Leonardo and the Last Supper, Ross King, Bloomsbury, R399. Available at leading bookstores.
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Despite being created approximately 500 years ago, the work of Leonardo is just as influential to the art that is being created today as it was in the 15th and 16th centuries. We felt that offering this painting within the context of our Post-War and Contemporary Evening Sale is a testament to the enduring relevance of this picture.’. Loic Gouzer 」 Leonardo da Vinci, Salvator Mundi. Oil on walnut panel. Panel dimensions: 25 13/16 x 17 15/16 in (65.5 x 45.1 cm) top; 17¾ in (45.6 cm) bottom; Painted image dimensions: 15⅜ x 17½ in (64.5 7 cm). Estimate on request. This work will be offered as a special lot in the Post-War and Contemporary Art Evening Sale on 15 November at Christie’s in New York
Its inclusion in the National Gallery’s landmark exhibition of 2011-12 — the most complete display of Leonardo’s rare surviving paintings ever held — came after more than six years of painstaking research and inquiry to document the painting’s authenticity. This process began shortly after the painting was discovered — heavily veiled with overpaints, long mistaken for a copy — in a small, regional auction in the United States. The painting’s new owners moved forward with admirable care and deliberation in cleaning and restoring the painting, researching and thoroughly documenting it, and cautiously vetting its authenticity with the world’s leading authorities on the works and career of the Milanese master. Dianne Dwyer Modestini, the conservator who restored the work in 2007, recalls her excitement after removing the first layers of overpaint, when she began to recognise that the painting was by the master himself. ‘My hands were shaking,’ she says.

Around 1568, Florentine nun Plautilla Nelli—a self-taught painter who ran an all-woman artists’ workshop out of her convent—embarked on her most ambitious project yet: a monumental Last Supper scene featuring life-size depictions of Jesus and the 12 Apostles.
As Alexandra Korey writes for the Florentine, Nelli’s roughly 21- by 6-and-a-half foot canvas is remarkable for its challenging composition, adept treatment of anatomy at a time when women were banned from studying the scientific field, and chosen subject. During the Renaissance, the majority of individuals who painted the biblical scene were male artists at the pinnacle of their careers. Per the nonprofit Advancing Women Artists organization, which restores and exhibits works by Florence’s female artists, Nelli’s masterpiece placed her among the ranks of such painters as Leonardo da Vinci, Domenico Ghirlandaio and Pietro Perugino, all of whom created versions of the Last Supper “to prove their prowess as art professionals.”
Despite boasting such a singular display of skill, the panel has long been overlooked. According to Visible: Plautilla Nelli and Her Last Supper Restored, a monograph edited by AWA Director Linda Falcone, Last Supper hung in the refectory (or dining hall) of the artist’s own convent, Santa Caterina, until the house of worship’s dissolution during the Napoleonic suppression of the early 19th century. The Florentine monastery of Santa Maria Novella acquired the painting in 1817, housing it in the refectory before moving it to a new location around 1865. In 1911, scholar Giovanna Pierattini reported, the portable panel was “removed from its stretcher, rolled up and moved to a warehouse, where it remained neglected for almost three decades.”
Plautilla’s Last Supper remained in storage until 1939, when it underwent significant restoration. Returned to the refectory, the painting sustained slight damage during the momentous flooding of Florence in 1966 but escaped largely unscathed. Upon the refectory’s reclassification as the Santa Maria Novella Museum in 1982, the work was transferred to the friars’ private rooms, where it was kept until scholars intervened in the 1990s.

There are also going to be major showings of his work in Paris, London, and Madrid (an exhibition on which I’ve been privileged to work). Fittingly, the Museo Leonardiano in Vinci, Leonardo’s hometown, is planning a show linking his work to the beautiful Tuscan landscape. And the house in which Leonardo died, at Amboise in the Loire Valley, will display a tapestry of The Last Supper loaned by the Vatican.

Leonardo da VinciLeonardo da Vinci is one of the greatest artists of the Renaissance time period, especially in sculpturing, architecture, engineering, and science and painting. His new styles and techniques in painting have influenced many Italian and other artists around the world. Leonardo's did also scientific studies and experiments in anatomy, optics and hydraulics. Many of these studies have anticipated modern scientific developments.
Leonardo was born in Vinci, near Florence, where his family settled in the mid-1460. He was given the best education in Florence, a major intellectual and artistic center of Italy. About in 1466 he was apprenticed as an assistant to Andrea del Verrocchio, the leading Florentine painter and sculptor of his day.
In 1478 Leonardo became an independent master. His first large painting, The Adoration of the Magi was left unfinished. Although the painting was left unfinished the Monastery of San Donato in Scopeto bought it in 1481.
The painting introduced a new approach to composition, in which the main figures are grouped in the foreground, while the background consists of distant views of battle scenes.
About in 1482 Leonardo entered the service of the Duke of Milan, Ludovico Sforza, as principal engineer in military enterprises and as an architect. The most important of his paintings during this period was The Virgin of the Rocks.
From 1495 to 1497 Leonardo worked on his masterpiece, The Last Supper, a wall painting in the refectory of the Monastery of Santa Maria delle Grazie in Milan. He also did other paintings and drawings like theatre designs, architectural drawings, and models for the dome of Milan Cathedral. Most of these paintings and drawings have been lost.
In the 1500 he returned to Florence, where two years later he entered the service of Cesare Borgia, the Duke of Romagna. As...

The citizens of Florence have an exceptional reason to celebrate today, as one of the city’s most treasured artworks has been restored and is back on display. Hidden from view for the past 50 years to the day, The Last Supper (1546) by Giorgio Vasari has returned to the Museum of the Opera of Santa Croce in Florence after a decade-long conservation project.
Painted on five large panels, each constructed of several planks, and measuring over 8 by 21 feet, the painting was damaged in the disastrous Florentine flood of 1966 and considered beyond repair. Or, at least, that was the opinion of experts up until ten years ago. With the support of a grant from the Getty Foundation’s Panel Paintings Initiative, a team of experts at one of the foremost conservation centers in the world, the Opificio delle Pietre Dure (OPD) in Florence, have brought Vasari’s artwork back to life.
A Miraculous 470-Year History
I am a firm believer in miracles, but not of the kind shrouded in mystery with billowing smoke and flickering lights. I believe in miracles that happen because of human ingenuity and resilience, such as the rescue and restoration of The Last Supper. Vasari started the work in 1546 and painted it over a six-month period for the Murate Convent, located only a few blocks from the Basilica of Santa Croce.
The convent and church are located in one of the lowest parts of Florence, so the painting has been subjected to no less than seven major floods in its 470-year lifespan. The first happened shortly after the artwork was finished, when the Arno River spilled over its banks in 1547. After 1845, the Murate Convent was repurposed as a prison, so The Last Supper was moved to the Santa Croce, where it continued to remain vulnerable to the Arno.
The most disastrous Florentine flood of modern times occurred on November 4, 1966. After heavy rainfall in Tuscany in October and early November, a flood wave burst into the city, covering more than 7,000 acres with water and sewage, and depositing 600,000 tons of mud and debris. The water reached heights of over 22 feet in the lowest parts of town, including the area of Santa Croce.

Retrieved November 5, 2019, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article5370367
- Visual Arts Data Service: National Inventory of Continental European Paintings ( on-line inventory of all the 22,000 pre-1900 Continental European oil paintings in the UK’s public collections) copy of “Last Supper” in Huddersfield Art Gallery https://vads.ac.uk/large.php?uid=86573 and another copy in Paisley Museum and Art Galleries https://vads.ac.uk/large.php?uid=85151

Renaissance women “could obviously paint as part of their cultural education,” Falcone says, “but the only way they could paint large-scale works and get public commissions was through their convent.”
Most paintings produced by Nelli and her workshop of some eight fellow nuns were smaller devotional works made for outside collectors. But some canvases—including Last Supper and others designed for private use within the convent—were monumental, requiring expensive scaffolding and assistants that the nuns paid for with funds from their commissions.
Per the AWA statement, the newly restored work was created in true “workshop style”—in other words, different artists of varying levels of expertise contributed to the religious scene.
As Chernick reports in a separate Atlas Obscura article, Nelli chose to depict Jesus and his 12 apostles dining on fare typically enjoyed by the residents of Santa Caterina. In addition to traditional wine and bread, she included a whole roasted lamb, lettuce heads and fava beans. And unlike Last Supper scenes painted by male artists, AWA founder Jane Fortune pointed out in a 2017 essay for the Florentine, Nelli’s tableware is incredibly elaborate; among the items on display are turquoise ceramic bowls, fine china platters and silver-adorned glasses.
According to historian Andrea Muzzi, Last Supper builds on the style established by Leonardo da Vinci’s similarly themed work. This monumental fresco, painted for the refectory of Milan’s Santa Maria delle Grazie between 1495 and 1498, was so influential, Muzzi writes in her essay “A Nun Who Paints,” that the “sacred subject could no longer be represented without his work being taken into account.” An apostle painted fourth from the left in Nelli’s version, for example, gestures with open hands in a manner reminiscent of Leonardo’s composition.
For Financial Review, Lobo paints an apt portrait of Nelli’s singular skill: “Picture the nun in her holy garments, mixing her pigments and stepping up onto scaffolding to brush enormous strokes of paint onto a canvas taller than her and wider than a contemporary billboard,” he writes. “The physical undertaking would have been immense, requiring great strength, focus and discipline—to say nothing of the will required to take on this sacred subject attempted before only by the male greats.”
An inscription hidden in the upper left corner of the painting suggests Nelli was keenly aware of the landmark nature of her creation.

Hi freakzz !!
Here comes another fully loaded friday,,
Leonardo Da Vinci .. his masterpiece “The Last Supper” made a rumble in the world. What is the fact behind his artz ? It took 4 years (1495 to 1498)for him to complete and he was trying out his newly invented technique know as tempera (egg yolk and vinegar) plus oil painting ON dry plaster so that he could retouch and use more colors.
Initially some argued he was using the FRESCO technique. Fresco is a way of painting were the plaster is made wet first and then painting on it. When the plaster dries up the paint is mixed and permanent. This technique had a color limitation and cannot be retouched coz once the plaster is dried then its like playing with gluezz 😉
Herez a copy of “The Last Supper”
For more secrets

Here are 20 of Leonardo da Vinci’s most famous paintings:
- Mona Lisa by Leonardo da Vinci
- The Last Supper by Leonardo da Vinci
- The Annunciation by Leonardo da Vinci
- Portrait of a Man in Red Chalk Drawing by Leonardo da Vinci
- Madonna and Child with the Infant Saint John the Baptist by Leonardo da Vinci
- The Virgin of the Rocks by Leonardo Da Vinci
- Madonna Litta by Giovanni Antonio Boltraffio and Leonardo da Vinci
- St John the Baptist by Leonardo da Vinci
- Mary Magdalene by Leonardo da Vinci
- Study for the head of Leda by Leonardo da Vinci
- The Virgin and Child with Saint Anne by Leonardo da Vinci
- Madonna of the Carnation by Leonardo da Vinci
- Madonna of the Yarnwinder by Leonardo da Vinci
- Salvator Mundi by Leonardo da Vinci
- Bacchus by Leonardo da Vinci
- Head of a Woman by Leonardo da Vinci
- La Belle Ferronniere by Leonardo da Vinci
- Lady with an Ermine by Leonardo da Vinci
- La Bella Principessa by Leonardo da Vinci
- Portrait of Ginevra de' Benci by Leonardo da Vinci
Leonardo da Vinci Artworks
Mona Lisa is prominent among Leonardo da Vinci's famous paintings. Her enigmatic facial expression, her smile, has given this work the appeal that gave it fame. Leonardo models her features softy.
The painting is done with oil paint on wood. Mona Lisa wears Florentine clothes which are the fashion of her day. At the backdrop is a mountainous landscape where da Vinci uses his sfumato technique as he gives it heavy shading. The sitter is Lisa Gerardhini, wife of Francesco del Giocondo.
The sfumato technique of da Vinci is infused into the curves of Mona Lisa's hair and clothing; this is further applied to the valleys and rivers in the backdrop. There is a dramatic interplay of light and dark in the composition backdrop. The painting is one of the first works of da Vinci, where an imaginary landscape recedes into the distance. This is also one of the early instances where he used aerial perspective to achieve this.
The theme of this painting by Leonardo is Christ's Last Supper with His apostles, which is narrated in the four Gospels of the New Testament.

In 1482 Leonardo went to Milan at the behest of Lorenzo de' Medici in order to win favour with Ludovico il Moro, and the painting was abandoned.
A marked development in Leonardo's ability to draw drapery occurred in his early works.25 At the start of the Second Italian War in 1499, the invading French troops used the life-size clay model for the Gran Cavallo for target practice.The conversion to the New Style calendar adds nine days; hence Leonardo was born 23 April according to the modern calendar.84 While the painting is quite large, about 200120 centimetres, it is not nearly as complex as the painting ordered by the monks of St Donato, having only four figures rather than about fifty and a rocky landscape rather than architectural details.Leonardo was also later to visit Venice.He found it difficult to incorporate the prevailing system and theories of bodily humours, but eventually he abandoned these physiological explanations of bodily functions.
Everyone acknowledged that this was true of Leonardo da Vinci, an artist of outstanding physical programma per tagliare musica e video beauty, who displayed infinite grace in everything that he did and who cultivated his genius so brilliantly that all problems he studied he solved with ease.
Whether or not Vasari had seen the Mona Lisa is the subject of debate.It is thought that Leonardo never made a painting from it, the closest similarity being to The Virgin and Child with.He spent the last three years of his life here, accompanied by his friend and apprentice, Count Francesco Melzi, and supported by a pension totalling 10,000 scudi.It is unknown for what occasion the mechanical lion was made, but it is believed to have greeted the king at his entry into Lyon and perhaps was used for the peace talks between the French king and Pope Leo X in Bologna.All these qualities come together in his most famous painted works, the Mona Lisa, the Last Supper, and the Virgin of the Rocks.Technological Concepts and Mathematical Models in the Evolution of Modern Engineering Systems.A b c d e f g h i Rosci, Leonardo, chapter 1, the historical setting,.920 a b c Brucker, Gene.
Leonardo da Vinci: Flights of the Mind.

Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519) was a painter, architect, inventor, and student of all things scientific. His natural genius crossed so many disciplines that he epitomized the term “Renaissance man.” Today he remains best known for his art, including two paintings that remain among the world’s most famous and admired, Mona Lisa and The Last Supper. Art, da Vinci believed, was indisputably connected with science and nature. Largely self-educated, he filled dozens of secret notebooks with inventions, observations and theories about pursuits from aeronautics to anatomy. But the rest of the world was just beginning to share knowledge in books made with moveable type, and the concepts expressed in his notebooks were often difficult to interpret. As a result, though he was lauded in his time as a great artist, his contemporaries often did not fully appreciate his genius—the combination of intellect and imagination that allowed him to create, at least on paper, such inventions as the bicycle, the helicopter and an airplane based on the physiology and flying capability of a bat.
This self portait was painted in 1512 using red chalk, when Leonardo da Vinci was 50 and living in France. The original painting measures 33.3 x 21.3 cm (13 1/8 x 8 3/8 in).
Synopsis Born on April 15, 1452, in Vinci, Italy, Leonardo da Vinci was the epitome of a “Renaissance man.” Possessor of a curious mind and keen intellect, da Vinci studied the laws of science and nature, which greatly informed his work as a painter, sculptor, architect, inventor, military engineer and draftsman. His ideas and body of work—which includes "Virgin of the Rocks," "The Last Supper" and "Mona Lisa"—have influenced countless artists and made da Vinci a leading light of the Italian Renaissance. Humble Beginnings Advertisement Leonardo da Vinci was born on April 15, 1452, in a farmhouse nestled amid the undulating hills of Tuscany outside the village of Anchiano in present-day Italy. Born out of wedlock to respected Florentine notary Ser Piero and a young peasant woman named Caterina, he was raised by his father and his stepmothers.

Painting is poetry that is seen rather than felt, and poetry is painting that is felt rather than seen.”- Leonardo da Vinci
During the years 1482 until about 1499, Leonardo was able to make a living for his artistic skills while in Milan. It was there that he was able to prove his superb talent as a painter, as he was
commissioned to complete two significant paintings. These artworks included The Virgin of the Rocks, which he painted for the Confraternity of the
Immaculate Conception. Another painting that he made was The Last Supper, intended for the Santa Maria delle Grazie Monastery. In 1485, Leonardo decided to
visit Hungary, where he met the artist Matthias Corvinus. This man was believed to be the painter behind the masterpiece "Holy Family".
Between the years 1513 and 1516, Leonardo spent a huge amount of his time in the Belvedere, situated in Vatican, in Rome. Two other artists were quite popular at that time including Michelangelo and Raphael. Leonardo, along with these two artists, were under the guidance of Pope Leo X.
In 1515, Milan was recaptured by Francis I. In a meeting of the Pope and Francis I, Leonardo was among those who were present at that time. The said meeting was held in Bologna. After knowing about Leonardo's exceptional skills, he was commissioned by Franci to create a mechanical lion that had a capability of moving forward and opening its chest filled with lilies.
During the year 1516, Leonardo became a part of Francis' service, and he was given a permanent residence at the Clos Luce, which was the manor house locted ner the Chateau d'Amboise or the king's royal residence. Leonardo lived the final three years of his well-lived life. Alongside him was an apprentice and friend by the name of Count Francesco Melzi. Furthermore, Leonardo obtained a pension that amounted up to 10,000 scudi.
On May 2, 1519, Leonardo died at his residence at the Clos Luce. It was also noted that during his last years, Francis I had become one of his closest friends. In fact, the king held the head of Leonardo in his death. However, there were accounts that this story may be more of fictitious.

Twelve years ago, a once-lost painting by Leonardo da Vinci—possibly his last ever—titled Salvator Mundi was unearthed. Six years later, the painting, which was once a part of the Royal collection of King Charles I and eventually made its way to an American estate sale in 2005, was displayed for the public to view at London's National Gallery in the exhibit, Leonardo da Vinci: Painter at the Court of Milan. Now, the painting will be hung for the public to see once again before it is auctioned off by Christie's.
The painting, which features Christ as Savior of the World and dates to around 1500, isn't just rare because it was thought to have been lost between 1958, when it sold for just £45 by Sotheby’s to Sir Charles Robinson for the Cook Collection. (At that time, it was thought that the artist wasn't Leonardo da Vinci but was one of his followers, Bernardino Luini.) It's also rare because it's only one of less than 20 paintings that are known to exist by da Vinci. Also, Salvator Mundi happens to be the only one in private hands, as Christie's points out.
Come November 15, the painting will change hands once again as Christie's auctions it off at Rockefeller Plaza. Estimated at around $100 million, the painting could go for a record-breaking sum. This past May, a painting of a skull by Jean-Michel Basquiat did so when it sold for $110.5 million in a Sotheby's auction, becoming the sixth most expensive work of art to be sold at an auction, as The New York Times reported. Thankfully, for those whose art budgets are more limited, the painting will still be able to be enjoyed by the public ahead of the auction.
Leonardo da Vinci's Salvator Mundi painting is going on a world tour of Christie's flagships, starting October 13 in Hong Kong, where it will stay on view until the 16th. After, the painting will travel to San Francisco to be displayed October 17 to 20. The London location will show the painting next from October 24 to 26. Finally, the painting will be on display in New York, at the Christie's in Rockefeller Plaza, from October 28 to November 4.
The opportunity is indeed a rare one.

The Supper was inspired by Leonardo daVinci's "The Last Supper" painted 500 years ago on the wall of a Dominican Cloister in Milan, Italy.
The twelve disciples and Jesus, Left to right : Bartholomew, James the Younger, Andrew, Judas, Peter, John, Jesus, Thomas (finger raised), James brother of John, Philip, Matthew , Thaddeus, Simon. An image that is twice the size (232KB), is available here
An example of some of the pictures that await.
I would like to introduce you to my daughter's new quilt book "House Party, Coordinated Quilts and Pillows". Here's a brief description (pdf). And to order from the publisher, Martingale & Company ., And available from Amazon.
Some Videos of Don discussing different aspects of the Supper Quilt. For a full listing, go to YouTube and search for "Supper Quilt".Talking about his first quilt Dyeing for Jesus (Joy Press) Be careful where you put the Staple Flash photography Treatment The burning bush? Thing Long Arm Quilting (Linda Taylor)
We estimate that over 850,000 people have viewed The Supper Quilt. We would like to visit every state, but we are short 12. Please help us out.

In contrast, the number four is important in the classical tradition (e.g. Plato’s four virtues).
*: In contrast to Andrea del Castagno, Leonardo simplified the architecture, eliminating unnecessary and distracting details so that the architecture can instead amplify the spirituality. The window and arching pediment even suggest a halo. By crowding all of the figures together, Leonardo uses the table as a barrier to separate the spiritual realm from the viewer’s earthly world. Paradoxically, Leonardo’s emphasis on spirituality results in a painting that is more naturalistic than Castagno’s.
*: Because Leonardo sought a greater detail and luminosity than could be achieved with traditional fresco, he covered the wall with a double layer of dried plaster. Then, borrowing from panel painting, he added an undercoat of lead white to enhance the brightness of the oil and tempera that was applied on top. This experimental technique allowed for chromatic brilliance and extraordinary precision but because the painting is on a thin exterior wall, the effects of humidity were felt more keenly, and the paint failed to properly adhere to the wall.
*: mathematical symbolism, psychological complexity, use of perspective and dramatic focus, make it the first real example of High Renaissance aesthetics.
*: In short, the painting captures twelve individuals in the midst of querying, gesticulating, or showing various shades of horror, anger and disbelief. It’s live, it’s human and it’s in complete contrast to the serene and expansive pose of Jesus himself.
*: As in all religious paintings on this theme, Jesus himself is the dynamic centre of the composition. Several architectural features converge on his figure, while his head represents the vanishing point for all perspective lines – an event which makes The Last Supper the epitome of Renaissance single point linear perspective. Meantime, his expansive gesture – indicating the holy sacrament of bread and wine – is not meant for his apostles, but for the monks and nuns of the Santa Maria delle Grazie monastery.
*: In most versions of The Last Supper, Judas is the only disciple not to have a halo, or else is seated separately from the other apostles. Leonardo, however, seats everyone on the same side of the table, so that all are facing the viewer. Even so, Judas remains a marked man.

*: Leonardo arranges the figures into a pyramid of form, with the figures establishing a solid geometric shape in space which has the Virgin;s head at the apex.
*: As a result, the composition is stable and balanced, but the gestures lead the eye back and forth to suggest the relationships among the figures. The selective light, quiet mood, and tender gestures create a remote, dreamlike quality, and make the picture seem a poetic vision rather than an image of reality
*: the relationship between poetry and painting
Maria della Grazie
*: Leonardo also simultaneously depicts Christ blessing the bread and saying to the apostles “Take, eat; this is my body” and blessing the wine and saying “Drink from it all of you; for this is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for the forgiveness of sins” (Matthew 26). These words are the founding moment of the sacrament of the Eucharist (the miraculous transformation of the bread and wine into the body and blood of Christ).
*: Leonardo’s Last Supper is dense with symbolic references. Attributes identify each apostle. For example, Judas Iscariot is recognized both as he reaches to toward a plate beside Christ (Matthew 26) and because he clutches a purse containing his reward for identifying Christ to the authorities the following day. Peter, who sits beside Judas, holds a knife in his right hand, foreshadowing that Peter will sever the ear of a soldier as he attempts to protect Christ from arrest.
*: The balanced composition is anchored by an equilateral triangle formed by Christ’s body. He sits below an arching pediment that if completed, traces a circle. These ideal geometric forms refer to the renaissance interest in Neo-Platonism (an element of the humanist revival that reconciles aspects of Greek philosophy with Christian theology). In his allegory, “The Cave,” the Ancient Greek philosopher Plato emphasized the imperfection of the earthly realm. Geometry, used by the Greeks to express heavenly perfection, has been used by Leonardo to celebrate Christ as the embodiment of heaven on earth.
*: Leonardo rendered a verdant landscape beyond the windows. Often interpreted as paradise, it has been suggested that this heavenly sanctuary can only be reached through Christ.
*: The twelve apostles are arranged as four groups of three and there are also three windows. The number three is often a reference to the Holy Trinity in Catholic art.

Lisa (also known as La Gioconda or La Joconde)
is a sixteenth-century portrait painted in oil on a poplar panel
in Florence, Italy by Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci during the Renaissance.
is currently owned by the Government of France and is on display at the
Musée du Louvre museum in Paris under the title Portrait of Lisa
Gherardini, wife of Francesco del Giocondo. Arguably, it is the most
famous and iconic painting in the world.
painting is a half-length portrait and depicts a standing woman
whose facial expression is frequently described as enigmatic.
Others believe that the slight smile is an indication that the
subject is hiding a secret. The ambiguity of the subject's expression,
the monumentality of the composition, and the subtle modeling
of forms and atmospheric illusionism were novel qualities that
have contributed to the continuing fascination and study of the
Da Vinci began painting the Mona Lisa in 1503. According to Da Vinci's
contemporary, Giorgio Vasari, "...after he had lingered over it
four years, left it unfinished...." He is thought to have continued
to work on it for three years after he moved to France and to have
finished it shortly before he died in 1519. Leonardo took the painting
from Italy to France in 1516 when King François I invited the
painter to work at the Clos Lucé near the king's castle in Amboise.
Most likely through the heirs of Leonardo's assistant Salai, the
king bought the painting for 4,000 écus and kept it at Château
Fontainebleau, where it remained until given to Louis XIV. Louis XIV
moved the painting to the Palace of Versailles. After the French Revolution,
it was moved to the Louvre. Napoleon I had it moved to his bedroom
in the Tuileries Palace; later it was returned to the Louvre. During
the Franco-Prussian War (1870–1871) it was moved from the Louvre
to a hiding place elsewhere in France.
Lisa was not well known until the mid-nineteenth century when
artists of the emerging Symbolist movement began to appreciate
it, and associated it with their ideas about feminine mystique.

Today only a small number of Leonardo da Vinci's paintings still exist. While some of his work is not accepted academics and scholars, other works now exist only as copies.
The view is that there are about fifteen works of art that are associated with Leonardo da Vinci either completely or in collaboration with another artist.
Most of his works are oil on wooden panel. There is, however, a mural, a large drawing on paper as well as two that were in the early stages and not finished.
That said, to most people his most famous works are likely to be The Mona Lisa and The Last Supper. During his lifetime, Leonardo da Vinci created several works of art that are easily recognisable. He was more of a specialist in painting than Michelangelo, who preferred sculpture.
Early Works – Early in his career while in Florence, Leonardo da Vinci completed two well-known works of art. They were the Annunciation sometime between 1472 and 1475 and Ginevra de' Benci sometime in the mid-1470’s. Both are oil on wood pieces.
1490s - During this period he produced one of the world’s most well-known work of art, The Last Supper. The picture is a mural commissioned by a convent in Milan. It shows the last meal shared by Jesus with his disciples. Its recognition as a masterpiece has meant that it remains as one of the most reproduced artworks today.
1500s – In the Louvre museum in Paris hangs another of Leonardo’s most known works of art, The Mona Lisa. Some believe its fame to rest on the enigmatic smile that is on the face of the woman thought to be that of Lisa Gherardini. While he produced several works during this era, it is the Mona Lisa that is probably his best-known piece.
Many consider his last known work of art to be that of St John the Baptist. Painted in oil on a wooden panel, the picture dates from somewhere between 1513 and 1516. The piece is thought to depict St John the Baptist in isolation. It hangs in the Louvre in Paris.
Of the pictures assumed to have been by Leonardo da Vinci, the validity of several have been the subject of debate. One reason for this is down to the fact that he never signed his works.
Apart from scientific tests, confirmation that paintings were by da Vinci has come from the opinion of academics and documentary evidence from the time of the picture.

Leonardo never parted with the painting. Today, the "Mona Lisa" hangs in the Louvre Museum in Paris, France, secured behind bulletproof glass and regarded as a priceless national treasure seen by millions of visitors each year. Final Years Leonardo returned to Milan in 1506 to work for the very French rulers who had overtaken the city seven years earlier and forced him to flee. Among the students who joined his studio was young Milanese aristocrat Francesco Melzi, who would become da Vinci’s closest companion for the rest of his life. He did little painting during his second stint in Milan, however, and most of his time was instead dedicated to scientific studies. Ironically, Gian Giacomo Trivulzio, who had led the French forces who conquered Ludovico in 1499, followed in his foe’s footsteps and commissioned da Vinci to sculpt a grand equestrian statue, one that could be mounted on his tomb. After years of work and numerous sketches by da Vinci, Trivulzio decided to scale back the size of the statue, which was ultimately never finished. Amid political strife and the temporary expulsion of the French from Milan, da Vinci left the city and moved to Rome in 1513 along with Salai, Melzi and two studio assistants. Giuliano de’ Medici, brother of newly installed Pope Leo X and son of his former patron, gave da Vinci a monthly stipend along with a suite of rooms at his residence inside the Vatican. His new patron, however, also gave da Vinci little work. Lacking large commissions, he devoted most of his time in Rome to mathematical studies and scientific exploration. After being present at a 1515 meeting between France’s King Francis I and Pope Leo X in Bologna, the new French monarch offered da Vinci the title “Premier Painter and Engineer and Architect to the King.” Along with Melzi, the Tuscan native departed for France, never to return. He lived in the Chateau de Cloux (now Clos Luce) near the king’s summer palace along the Loire River in Amboise. As in Rome, da Vinci did little painting during his time in France. One of his last commissioned works was a mechanical lion that could walk and open its chest to reveal a bouquet of lilies.

He continued work on his scientific studies until his death at the age of 67 on May 2, 1519. Da Vinci's assistant, Melzi, became the principal heir and executor of his estate. The “Mona Lisa” was bequeathed to Salai. Although da Vinci is known for his artistic abilities, fewer than two-dozen paintings attributed to him exist. One reason is that his interests were so varied that he wasn’t a prolific painter. For centuries afterward, however, thousands of pages from his private journals with notes, drawings, observations and scientific theories have surfaced and provided a fuller measure of a true “Renaissance man.”
Born on April 15, 1452 at Vinci near Florence, Leonardo was trained, according to Vasari, in "all matters pertaining to design" by Andrea del Verrocchio, the leading sculptor of the time. Confirmation of Vasari's claim comes from a note in Leonardo's manuscript G, referring to his master's method of fabricating the copper ball set atop the cupola of Florence Cathedral in 1471. Two legal documents of 1476 further indicate that he was still in Verrocchio's workshop even after joining the painters' Confraternity of Saint Luke in 1472. Having learned many of the skills that would later serve him as painter, sculptor, architect, and engineer, around 1482 Leonardo departed Florence for Milan. There he remained until late in 1499, performing a variety of tasks for Duke Lodovico Sforza and his court. When Leonardo returned to Florence in 1500, he was, as the creator of the Last Supper in Santa Maria delle Grazie, Milan, the most celebrated painter of the day. In Florence he completed those masterpieces that are commonly acknowledged to have changed the course of Western art: the Mona Lisa, the Virgin and Child with Saint Anne (both now in the Musée du Louvre) and the (lost) Battle of Anghiari. After working for the French conquerors of the Sforza in Milan (1506/1508-1513) and for Giuliano de' Medici in Rome (1513-1516), Leonardo left Italy to serve as chief painter and engineer to the French King Francis I. He died in France on May 2, 1519.

When he was working in Milan - where he painted his famous Last Supper on the wall of the refectory of the convent of Santa Maria delle Grazie - Leonardo became friends with the mathematician Luca Pacioli (c.1445 - 1517) whom he had first met in Venice in 1494. Leonardo made a series of perspective drawings of polyhedra to illustrate the printed version of Paciolis treatise on divine proportion.(4) It is sometimes asserted that Pacioli stimulated Leonardos interest in mathematics, but Paciolis own mathematical interests seem to have been largely in arithmetic and algebra, subjects to which Leonardo does not seem to heave been attracted (indeed when employing arithmetic he seems rather accident-prone), and it is perfectly possible that the effect of the friendship was rather that Leonardo quickened Paciolis interest in geometry.
In 1500, Leonardo returned to Florence, where he was engaged as a painter, one project (never completed) being a huge painting, showing the Battle of Anghiari, on a wall of the largest room in the Town Hall (the Palazzo Vecchio). However, in 1502 and 1503 he worked as a military engineer for Cesare Borgia (1475/6 - 1507). From 1506 to 1513 Leonardo was again living in Milan, and in 1513 he moved to Rome. In 1516, at the invitation of François Iier, he went to live in France, where he died in the little château of Le Clos Lucé, a dependency of the large Royal château of Amboise.
1. Codex Atlanticus 391ra/1082r, in: Leonardo
da Vinci, Il Codice Atlantico, Tom. III, Vol. XII, Florence: Guinti,
2000, pp. 1937-1938; Jean Paul Richter, The Notebooks of Leonardo
da Vinci, Vol. II, New York: Dover, §1340, pp. 395-398. A
text version of these notebooks is at http://leonardo-da-vinci.org.
2. G. H .

How, exactly, does a Leonardo da Vinci mural believed to be three times the width of The Last Supper get lost? This is a mystery that Maurizio Seracini has been trying to solve since 1975.
After graduating with a degree in engineering from the University of California San Diego, Seracini was approached about a project in his hometown of Florence. The mission: to search for da Vinci’s unfinished fresco, The Battle of Anghiari. While several artists of da Vinci’s time refer to the work — and a letter from 1549 places it atop a grand staircase in the Palazzo Vecchio — the piece has been lost to modern audiences. It is believed that when Giorgio Vasari renovated the Palazzo Vecchio’s Hall of 500 in 1560, he might have covered da Vinci’s fresco with his own, The Battle of Marciano. While Vasari is known to have preserved the works underneath his own by leaving a gap in the wall, it is nearly impossible to prove without damaging Vasari’s fresco, now more than four centuries old itself.
In this fascinating talk from TEDGlobal, Seracini explains how he and his teams have approached finding da Vinci’s lost mural over the years — by constructing 3D models of the hall before its renovation, and using lasers and radar to chart the gaps in the walls. But beyond that, Seracini shares how the search for the mural opened up a new application of his engineering skills — using tools like multispectral imaging, sonogram and x-ray to study and restore art.
As Seracini shares in this talk, many famous pieces of art have secrets laying just below their visible layers — unseen sketches, details changed over time, proof that artists other than those credited were actually the ones who put paint to canvas.
“Technology has helped to write news pages of art history — or at least update them,” says Seracini, who hopes museumgoers will someday get to see these hidden layers through an augmented reality app. “This is what we’re trying to do — we’re trying to give a future to our past.”
To hear more about Seracini’s quest for The Battle of Anghiari, and about the other art mysteries he’s unraveled along the way, listen to his incredible talk. Below, check out some details you’d never know were behind these classic paintings.

Location: Ground Floor Denon Wing, Staircase
4) The Virgin of the Rocks and the 13th-18th Century Italian Paintings
Another one of da Vinci’s emblematic paintings, The Virgin of the Rocks is a portrayal of the Virgin Mary, Christ and Saint John the Baptist on a rocky landscape. Created between 1483 and 1486, this painting is displayed along with the works of Botticelli, Titians and Tintorettos, Raphael, Caravaggio, and many other Italian masters.
Location: 1st Floor Denon Wing, Italian Painting Department

It was most unfortunate that his masterpiece, ” The Last Supper,” was painted on moist walls of a hall afterward used by Napoleon’s soldiers as a stable. And thus the picture became impaired almost past restoration. The hands of the disciples and the pose of heads in this great painting wonderfully express their character and, it is said, even their daily occupations. The drawing for the Saviour’s head (p. 44) is perhaps the most exquisite face in the world, matchless, perfect, and poignant.
After leaving Milan, on account of political disturbances, Leonardo became a wanderer for nineteen years, until he found a home in France under the patron-age of the King, Francis I. The French have ardently appreciated Leonardo, and several of his great works are in the Louvre, including perhaps the best-known picture in the world, the ” Mona Lisa,” the ” Sainte Anne,” and others. He has profoundly influenced the French schools, and might thus be called the Father of French Painting.
Berenson says of Leonardo that he was constantly striving for that subtler and subtler intensification of modeling by means of light and shade which he finally attained in his ” Mona Lisa.”
Very close to Leonardo may be placed Bernardino Luini (1475?-1533?), whose beautiful “Madonna and Child” (p. 142) is one of the most highly valued paintings in the National Gallery at Washington. Ruskin, indeed, placed Luini before Leonardo, his master, but such a view is extravagant. However, Luini was Leonardo’s most distinguished pupil. Born at Luino, on Lake Maggiore, the painter perhaps imbibed some of that poetic atmosphere of the Italian lakes, for it is said that he possessed a serene, happy, and contented mind, naturally expressing itself in forms of grace and beauty. His painting has been characterized as appealing to the emotions rather than the intellect and groping after the beauty of perfected Italian art. The ” loving self-withdrawn expression ” of his works has been noted, ” a peculiarly religious grace devoutness of the heart.” In Luini’s faces there is always a fleeting almost wistful smile. This is true of our charming example (p. 142), a rare “Ma-donna and Child ” in that it depicts the Infant taking the first steps.

Leonardo da Vinci is one of the most well-known names in the world because of the many contributions he made to modern society.
Leonardo da Vinci is most famous for his paintings titled Mona Lisa and The Last Supper, however, he is also famous for being a polymath. A polymath is a person with a wide-ranging knowledge of different subjects. In da Vinci’s case, these subjects were painting, drawing, sculpting, science, engineering, architecture, and anatomy. He contributed much more than art to the modern world.
Read more below about Leonardo da Vinci’s famous pieces of art, his contribution to science, and his inventions.
Leonardo da Vinci’s Art
The reason Leonardo da Vinci is so famous is that he painted what is arguably the most famous painting in the world. The Mona Lisa, which sits on display at The Louvre Museum, is probably the most recognizable painting in existence.
It has been referenced in an almost countless number of pop culture pieces, including the film Mona Lisa Smile and The Da Vinci Code book and film. Leonardo Da Vinci even appeared as a minor character in the 1998 film Ever After where the Prince chases down some bandits who stole the Mona Lisa from da Vinci.
The Mona Lisa is also in theory the most valuable painting in the world. When it was assessed for insurance purposes in 1962, it was valued at around $100 million, which is equivalent to $850 million today factoring in inflation.
However, Mona Lisa is only one of the many famous and highly valuable paintings that Leonardo da Vinci created in his lifetime. In fact, in 2017, the sale of his painting Salvator Mundi became the highest price ever paid for a painting when it sold for $450.3 million.
He has some other very famous paintings as well. One of those would be The Last Supper.
From 1495 to 1498, da Vinci worked to paint this massive piece of artwork that was commissioned to be displayed in the dining hall at the monastery Santa Maria Delle Grazie in Milan, Italy. When it was complete it measured 230 inches by 350 inches.
The Last Supper depicts Jesus with his twelve disciples at the dinner table for his last meal before his crucifixion. The scene is meant to represent the story of the Last Supper of Jesus as it is told in the Gospel of John in the Bible.

The history of this famous work by Leonardo da Vinci, and why so little of it survives. History of the Last Supper's conservation efforts. Support Little Art Talks: https://www.patreon.com/LittleArtTalks www.LittleArtTalks.com Twitter: @LittleArtTalks http://goo.gl/UuSvyp Tumblr: http://goo.gl/fsNDEO Facebook: http://goo.gl/YScjms Pinterest: http://goo.gl/Cazd5J Instagram @LittleArtTalks http://instagram.com/littlearttalks Google+: http://goo.gl/iwDlJf Images: Wikipedia Commons, Public Domain, Fair Use Royalty-Free Music: Pangea by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Welcome to Little Art Talks! I'm so glad you found this video. I make free educational videos about art history because there's so many amazing things to see! Let's talk about it! If you liked this video, please like, comment, share & subscribe. :) See you soon!

Hope you had all a very, very nice Christmas Day, that all your wishes were fulfillled and that your Christmas Eve and Lunch was the opportunity of a wonderful family gathering !
For Santa it was, as you can see here !
Certainly, but let us keep in mind that a scene like this to celebrate a Birth is an introduction in one other Apocalypse in its strict sense, another "Revelation" in other words, than we can date from now in 33 years...
Isn't it ?
Santa Vinci's Last Supper means here that if we want to become better artists, we should confront in the best, ever ?
So long Leonardo ! :-D
*On the north wall of the refectory of the Convent of Santa Maria delle Grazie is "The Last Supper", the unrivalled masterpiece painted between 1495 and 1497 by Leonardo da Vinci, whose work was to herald a new era in the history of art.
This work is registered on the world heritage of the humanity since 1980.
Just fiew years before mine, there :-D
Thank so much for your comments, faves and rates.
See you soon.
P.S. : Of course, bigger is better...as always !
Production CreditsTrifid - TF Blanche
Trifid - TF_Ariane
Mihrelle - MRL Ariana
Dec 26, 2012 5:17:24 pmby jdstrider Homepage »
Great posing work and I just love all the little details you throw in.
It took me 15 minutes to go through the entire image picking up all the little bits along the way. A true master piece in some ones mind, I am sure. LOL
Little Leonardo, the snow bear, seems quite proud of himself, as he should be!
Great stuff, thanks so much for your humor and wonderful art work.
Dec 26, 2012 7:24:45 pmby Trifid Online Now! Homepage »
Hi my friend!
Hope you had a wonderful Christmas!
This is stunning. I am very much with jtsdrider...so much too see. That must have taken a while to compose, chapeau!!!!!! Excellent pose and compo work, wow.
Keep 'm going! :)
All the best to you, my friend!

But a 500-year-old mystery was apparently solved today after a painting attributed to Leonardo da Vinci was discovered in a Swiss bank vault.
The painting, which depicts Isabella d’Este, a Renaissance noblewoman, was found in a private collection of 400 works kept in a Swiss bank by an Italian family who asked not to be identified.
It appears to be a completed, painted version of a pencil sketch drawn by Leonardo da Vinci in Mantua in the Lombardy region of northern Italy in 1499.
The sketch, the apparent inspiration for the newly found work, hangs in the Louvre Museum in Paris.
For centuries it had been debated whether Leonardo had actually had the time or inclination to develop the sketch into a painted portrait.
After seeing the drawing he produced, the marquesa wrote to the artist, imploring him to produce a full-blown painting.
But shortly afterwards he embarked on one of his largest works, The Battle of Anghiari on the walls of Florence’s town hall, and then, in 1503, started working on the Mona Lisa.
Art historians had long believed he simply ran out of time — or lost interest — in completing the commission for Isabella d’Este.
Now it appears that he did in fact manage to finish the project — perhaps when he encountered the aristocrat, one of the most influential female figures of her day, in Rome in 1514.
Scientific tests suggest that the oil portrait is indeed the work of da Vinci, according to Carlo Pedretti, a professor emeritus of art history and an expert in Leonardo studies at the University of California, Los Angeles.
“There are no doubts that the portrait is the work of Leonardo,” Prof Pedretti, a recognised expert in authenticating disputed works by da Vinci, told Corriere della Sera newspaper.
“I can immediately recognise da Vinci’s handiwork, particularly in the woman’s face.”
Tests have shown that the type of pigment in the portrait was the same as that used by Leonardo and that the primer used to treat the canvas on which it was painted corresponds to that employed by the Renaissance genius.
Carbon dating, conducted by a mass spectrometry laboratory at the University of Arizona, has shown that there is a 95 per cent probability that the portrait was painted between 1460 and 1650.

If The Last Supper is in danger of another flood, a simple press of a button engages two winches, and the entire painting is miraculously hoisted toward the ceiling out of harm’s way!
Learn more: The Getty Foundation’s Panel Paintings Initiative project for the conservation of Giorgio Vasari’s The Last Supper (1526) was featured in the PBS NewsHour’s Culture at Risk series in October 2015. The episode focused on the work of the OPD, which the NewsHour host Jeff Brown described as “part museum, part workshop, part hospital for threatened treasures.” Watch the episode online.

They might even need to be reminded that the Last Supper was an event which involved Jewish people and occurred in Palestine. Judas sits beside Christ and rests his hand on the table as referenced in the Gospel that the one who betrays me rests his hand on the table. Through a carefully delineated under drawing and one point perspective where the vanishing point meets at Christ’s head, Leonardo da Vinci achieved serenity in this scene. This painting marks the calm before the storm of the Reformation, before Martin Luther nailed the 95 Theses on the Wittenburg church door in 1517 (below).
In newly-Lutheran parts of Germany, Protestant iconoclasts, sometimes in mobs, physically stripped and defaced countless works of church art. By 1522 Martin Luther recognized art as a valuable educative tool and artists once again created art to instruct viewers.
The German Reformation painter, Luis Cranach the Elder painted this Last Supper in 1547, (above) replacing Leonardo’s long bench with a round table. Jesus is not even placed at the center, but appears on the far left, consistent with the Lutheran practice of distributing the bread and the wine from the side of the altar. Cranach depicts Martin Luther at the Last Supper. Luther symbolized everyman and is taking part in the meal as he receives the cup of wine from a servant.
As the Counter Reformation warred throughout Catholic Europe, Veronese a celebrated Venetian painter was called before the Inquisition to defend his choices for this rendering of the Last Supper in 1573 (above). Venice long a trade crossroads attracted people of diverse cultures, so unlike earlier paintings, in addition to Last Supper participants, Veronese decorated the foreground with “foreign” people, a young dwarf holding a parrot, a man with a bloody nose and a dog. When questioned Veronese explained that he liked to adorn with figures of his own imagination to fill any left-over space in the picture. After being asked to remove the dog depicted in the center foreground, Veronese decided instead to rename the image Feast in the House of Levi which ended the controversy. This Inquisitorial hearing inspired a hilarious Monty Python sketch:
The Pope commissioned works of art as part of the Counter Reformation and Poussin found the Pope and a circle of patrons in Rome interested in stoic philosophy commissioned canvases like this one (above).

Painted onto the walls of monastic dining rooms in the 14th-16th centuries, Florence’s Last Supper frescoes were designed to inspire contemplation on the Christian faith’s greatest mysteries. Still well preserved and quickly toured on any visit to the city, they hold much of their original magic. They are yours to uncover.
What’s in this guidebook
- A tour that goes deeper. Following our tradition of being the most valuable resource for culture-focused travelers, we provide a detailed tour of nine of Florence’s most important Last Supper frescoes executed over a 250-year period by artists Gaddi, Orcagna, Ghirlandaio, Castagno, Perugino, Franciabigio, Sarto and Allori. The tour walks you through the highlights, aided by high-resolution images and a discussion that ties it all together.
- The influence of Leonardo’s Last Supper. We also profile Leonardo da Vinci’s iconic Last Supper fresco in Milan (1496-1498), pointing out how its innovations went on to shape later Florentine representations. Since Leonardo’s work occurs roughly at the midpoint of our timeline of reference, we can assess frescoes before and after its completion, clearly discerning its impact.
- Advice for getting the best cultural experience. To help you plan your visit, this guidebook offers logistical advice and provides links to online resources. Plus, we provide our personal tips for getting the most from your experience while on location.
- Information the way you like it. As with all of our guides, this book is optimized for intuitive, quick navigation; information is organized into bullet points to make absorption easy; and images are marked up with text that explains important features.

Last Da Vinci becomes most expensive artwork ever sold
Leonardo Da Vinci’s Salvator Mundi sold for a record $400 million – plus $50 million of fees – making it the most expensive artwork ever auctioned. We don’t know who bought it: the lucky buyer bid by telephone and chose to keep their identity private.
Salvator Mundi, Da Vinci’s long-lost painting of Christ, goes on auction in New York on Wednesday night – giving collectors a once-in-a-lifetime chance to buy one of the Renaissance genius’ works, all others of which are already owned by museums.
The 500-year-old painting is set to smash all auction records for an Old Master, with bids expected to top $100 million.
That almost certainly puts it out of reach for either the Italian state or any of Italy’s art museums, none of which have announced plans to bid for the work.
Salvator Mundi is currently owned by a Russian billionaire, Dmitry Rybolovlev, who bought it from a Swiss art dealer for $127.5 million in 2013.
The painting re-entered the art market in 2005, when some art experts acquired it for relative peanuts at a local auction in the United States. Heavily painted over and gnawed by worms, the work was unrecognizable until restoration revealed traces of Da Vinci’s trademark techniques.
Christ’s delicately placed hand, the intricate curls of his hair and the haunting quality of his expression have led to comparisons with Da Vinci’s most famous portrait, the Mona Lisa.
Like that work, now a prized possession of the Louvre in Paris, Salvator Mundi seems destined to remain outside Italy.
It has never been exhibited in Da Vinci’s home country, having been commissioned by Louis XII of France and later sold to Charles I of England. It remained in the hands of English aristocrats until it made its way to the US in the 20th century.
Since its rediscovery, the work has been displayed at the National Gallery in London, as well as Christie’s auction houses in Hong Kong and the US.
Art lovers can nonetheless find numerous Da Vinci originals in Italy, including The Last Supper on the walls of the Santa Maria delle Grazie church in Milan, the Annunciation at the Uffizi Gallery in Florence and the Vitruvian Man in Venice’s Gallerie dell’Accademia – not to mention the farmhouse where the painter was born in the Tuscan town of Vinci.

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Painting: Oil, Acrylic, Spray Paint on Canvas.
Title "The last supper contemporary"
Mixed media with spray paint
Painted on canvas
Floater wood open back frame (I will frame the work)
Ready to hang
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Artist featured by Saatchi Art in a collection
Featured in Saatchi Art's printed catalog, sent to thousands of art collectors

The figure of Mary stands with her feet together (stance), but slightly turned out so that she can easily support Jesus’ body with her hands and arms under his armpits and across his chest; she also has one arm draped over his legs at the knee, while her other hand holds his thigh close to her body as she bends forward over him. The position of Christ’s torso shows him as dead from wounds caused by crucifixion; he is naked except for a loincloth covering his genitals, which are indicated only by subtle indentations on either side near where they would be located on a living man (see “crucifixion” below). The vertical vein popping out on Mary’s forehead indicates stress due to grief or fatigue; it was common practice among sculptors working in marble during this period not only because such veins were considered attractive features but also because they provided additional support for figures carved from hard stone like marble
Leonardo Da Vinci’s Last Supper
The Last Supper is a fresco by Leonardo da Vinci that was painted on the wall of the refectory in Santa Maria delle Grazie, Milan. It is one of the most famous paintings in the world and considered to be one of Leonardo’s masterpieces.
The painting depicts Jesus Christ at the moment he announces that one of his Apostles will betray him (the Apostle John). It shows Christ seated at a table with his Apostles who are sitting opposite him across from each other, as if they were sharing a meal together.
The Venus de Milo
The Venus de Milo is a 2nd century BCE work of ancient Greek sculpture. It was found on the island of Melos in 1820, and it has been in the Louvre Museum in Paris, France since 1821.
The statue depicts Aphrodite (the Greek goddess of love) removing her sandal while holding an apple: she is believed to be adjusting her sandal strap or perhaps even picking up her discarded shoe.

First, he is grasping a small bag, no doubt symbolizing the 30 pieces of silver he has been paid to betray Jesus; he has also knocked over the salt pot – another symbol of betrayal. His head is also positioned in a lower position than anyone in the picture, and is the only person left in shadow.
*: Leonardo employed new techniques to communicate his ideas to the viewer. Instead of relying exclusively on artistic conventions, he would use ordinary ‘models’ whom he encountered on the street, as well as gestures derived from the sign language used by deaf-mutes, and oratorical gestures employed by public speakers. Interestingly, following Leonardo’s depiction of Thomas quizzically holding up his index finger, Raphael (1483-1520) portrayed Leonardo himself in the The School of Athens (1510-11) making an identical gesture.
*: Laid out on the table, one can clearly make out the lacework of the tablecloth, transparent wine glasses, pewter dishes, pitchers of water, along with the main dish, duck in orange sauce. All these items, portrayed in immaculate detail, anticipate the still life genre perfected by Dutch Realist painters of the 17th century.
*: Leonardo’s meticulous crafting of The Last Supper, along with his skills as a painter, draughtsman, scientist and inventor, as well as his focus on the dignity of man, has added to his reputation as the personification of intellectual artist and creative thinker, rather than merely a decorative painter paid to paint so many square yards a day. This idea of the dignity of the artist, and the importance of disegno rather than colorito, was further developed by Michelangelo and others, culminating in the establishment of the Academy of Art in Florence and the Academy of Art in Rome.

However, many early Church Fathers have attested to the belief that at the Last Supper, Christ made the promise to be present in the Sacrament of the Eucharist, with attestations dating back to the first century AD. The teaching was also affirmed by many councils throughout the Church's history.
The Last Supper has been a popular subject in Christian art. Such depictions date back to early Christianity and can be seen in the Catacombs of Rome. Byzantine artists frequently focused on the Apostles receiving Communion, rather than the reclining figures having a meal. By the Renaissance, the Last Supper was a favorite topic in Italian art.
There are three major themes in the depictions of the Last Supper: the first is the dramatic and dynamic depiction of Jesus' announcement of his betrayal. The second is the moment of the institution of the tradition of the Eucharist. The depictions here are generally solemn and mystical. The third major theme is the farewell of Jesus to his disciples, in which Judas Iscariot is no longer present, having left the supper. The depictions here are generally melancholy, as Jesus prepares his disciples for his departure. There are also other, less frequently depicted scenes, such as the washing of the feet of the disciples.
Well known examples include Leonardo da Vinci's depiction, which is considered the first work of High Renaissance art due to its high level of harmony, Tintoretto's depiction which is unusual in that it includes secondary characters carrying or taking the dishes from the table and Salvadore Dali's depiction combines the typical Christian themes with modern approaches of Surrealism.

Lavishly shot in many of the actual locations where da Vinci lived, worked, and dreamed, this Italian masterpiece is a complete immersion into da Vinci's world. Based on eyewitness accounts and historical evidence, this definitive film movingly portrays Da Vinci's genius, including the creation of The Last Supper and the Mona Lisa. Includes a collectible 8-page booklet. 4 ½ hrs, 2 DVDs.
Special Extra Features:
• The Rise of Renaissance Italy — In the richest era of artistic and intellectual achievements ever known, an amazing confluence of brilliant minds shaped our world. Marvel at the Renaissance Men and the impact they had on art and thought for eternity.
• Leonardo's Masterpieces — Centuries after his death, da Vinci's paintings still touch, haunt, and intrigue us. The Mona Lisa, the Adoration of the Magi, The Last Supper and other masterworks remind us of his remarkable and timeless style.
• Da Vinci's Inventions — Trying to discover how technology worked, Leonardo sketched out the tank, parachute, scuba, and more.
• The Maestro vs. Michelangelo — Did the aging maestro finally meet his match in Michelangelo, and aggressive young upstart? This feature looks at the work and contrasting styles in this bitter rivalry of the brilliant.
• The Works of Two Great Masters: A Timeline — A walk through the lives of Leonardo and Michelangelo juxtaposes the works of two greats.
Includes a collectible 8-page booklet — The Most Brilliant Mind in History.
Run Time: 4 ½ hours
Format: Full Screen
Number of discs: 2
Foreign Language Subtitles: No
Color or B&W: Color
Region Code: 1
Aspect Ratio: 4:3
Audio Format: Dolby Digital

Seven conservators from England, Hungary, Italy, and the United States—including the J. Paul Getty Museum’s Sue Ann Chui—completed training at all phases of the painting’s complex structural treatment.
Take a moment to imagine what it is like to handle a painting of such an enormous size—8 by 21 feet total; composed of five panels with a total of 12 thick poplar planks. How many people does it take to maneuver these large components around? During structural conservation, how can you assure that an intervention at the back gives the desired effect at the front? Asking these questions may help you begin to grasp the complexity of this conservation project.
There are many details to consider and problems to be solved, but to give you an idea of just one, consider this quote from Parri:
The treatment steps became more complicated from a technical point of view as we encountered a significant gap between the panels and the impossibility of bringing them closer due to the paint layer bridging them. After some brainstorming, we decided to apply wedge-shaped inserts along the previously prepared channels with the point facing down, as wide as the gap, to recreate the foundation on which to later set down and re-adhere the paint layers.
In 2013, the stabilization of the wood substrate was complete, and The Last Supper‘s five panels were reconnected for the first time in 47 years. It was a momentous occasion. The team’s solution was based on the support system originally devised by Vasari himself, which has stabilized the painting while also allowing the wooden panels to move naturally with standard temperature and humidity fluctuations.
Work on the final conservation of the painted surface was completed with the generous support of the Prada Foundation. A conservation team led by OPD conservator Roberto Bellucci was able to recover an unanticipated amount of the original painted surface, revealing the artist’s hand in surprising detail. The most talented conservators in the field skillfully saved a significant painting that was deemed beyond repair. Allora, many congratulations to the OPD on this remarkable achievement; now it’s time to celebrate!
With the Arno still flowing nearby, there is always the looming threat of another major flood, despite the water management dams that have been constructed upstream. As an extra safety precaution, a high-tech yet simple device was installed.

A long sought-after artwork attributed to Leonardo da Vinci has been discovered among a private collection of 400 paintings locked in a Swiss Bank Vault.
The painting closely resembles a 1499 pencil sketch of Isabella d'Este, an Italian noblewoman, drawn by da Vinci in Mantua in Italy's Lombardy region, which is currently hanging in the Louvre Museum in Paris.
But as the great artist once said himself: "Art is never finished, only abandoned," and so it is only fitting that he should have returned to the sketch and reproduce it as a rich color portrait, as the Marquise had requested of him on numerous occasions.
Experts are claiming that the painting is a bona fide da Vinci. If proven, its discovery could herald an end to long scholarly speculation that the artist simply lost interest or ran out of time before finishing the project.
"There are no doubts that the portrait is the work of Leonardo," Carlos Pedretti, a professor emeritus of art history professor and expert in Leonardo studies at the University of California Los Angeles, told Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera.
"I can immediately recognise Da Vinci's handiwork, particularly in the woman's face," he told the newspaper.
Scientific tests seem to back up Pedretti's claims.
Carbon dating conducted in a laboratory at the University of Arizona confirmed with 95 percent accuracy that the artwork was painted sometime between 1460 and 1650, placing the artwork firmly within the time frame in which the artist is believed to have first met and sketched the aristocrat, who was one of the most influential women of her time.
Further testing indicated the paint pigments and primer used in the portrait also match the ones used by da Vinci throughout his career.
But Pedretti said that even after three and a half years of study following the painting's first revelation, more time was needed to determine which parts of the work, if any, may have been painted by da Vinci's students.
Not all experts are convinced that the 24-by-18-inch artwork discovered in the possession of an unnamed Italian family is an original work by the master painter.
One notable criticism is that the artwork was painted on canvas, as opposed to wooden panels, which were favored by da Vinci.
"Canvas was not used by Leonardo or anyone in his production line," Martin Kemp, professor emeritus of the history of art at Oxford University, told The Daily Telegraph. "Although with Leonardo, the one thing I have learnt is never to be surprised."

A giant rendition of Leonardo Da Vinci's Mona Lisa has been installed on Clapham Common in London as the search for the UK's next Portrait Artist of the Year begins.
The 5x7m canvas, 85 times bigger than the original which hangs in the Louvre in Paris, is perched on a massive easel which itself stands at a staggering 14m tall - double the height of an average two-storey house.
The enormous easel - which along with the portrait is the largest ever displayed in Europe - weighs in at a whopping three tonnes and took over two months to construct.
The artwork was created from 83 individual self-portraits submitted by the shortlisted entrants to the competition and it took Brighton-based artist Quentin Devine a week to incorporate them all into the famous visage.
The Portrait of the Year competition will begin on Sky Arts this week with contestants put through their painting paces in a series of challenges in the hope of being crowned overall champion.
The winner will be commissioned by the British Library to paint writer Hilary Mantel for their permanent collection, while all four finalists will have their work displayed in the National Portrait Gallery.

The paintings here are on four sides of the dome and represent different continents.
We visited the Duomo on a couple of occasions, including our tour day when we were able to go inside for a short while.
You can see the changeable weather that we had from the skies in these pictures.
This castle was originally a Visconti fortress, then the stronghold of the Sforza family during the renaissance, it now houses 10 museums including an armoury and music instrument museum. As we visited the grounds of the castle during our afternoon tour there was no time for the museums.
This arch - Arco della Pace - in Parco Sempione marks the start of the road to Paris. It is a straight line to from the Arco della Pace to the Arc de Triomphe (well according to our tour guide. Although a bit of google time doesn't seem to corroborate this)
Il Cenacolo - The Last Supper
The convent of Santa Maria della Grazie where the refectory housing The Last Supper is.
Visits to the The Last Supper are in small groups and in 15 minute time slots. As our tickets fell in the second half of our tour groups allocation we were able to sit and soak up a little sunshine whilst we waited.
And here it is. Well not really as photography is banned inside the refectory to prevent further damage to the painting. One thing I did find very interesting was the fact that this wasn't the only painting in the room. As well as general decorations to the sides and roof of the room (some of which still remains) there is another fresco here by Giovanni Donato da Montorfano. It is on the wall at the opposite end of the room to The Last Supper and depicts the Crucifixion. This fresco was painted in the usual fashion and so the colours remain bright. Leonardo added some figures to the Crucifixion fresco depicting members of the Sforza family who had commissioned the work within the convent. As these figures were painted in the same way as The Last Supper they have also degraded badly.
On Sunday Janine and I went off to look for some props that had been broken the day before. We walked from the hotel
through the park - Giardini Pubblici -
past the Gallery of Modern Art
and caught the Metro to Porta Genova.

The Last Supper
The Last Supper is commemorated by Christians especially on Maundy Thursday.
The Last Supper is the final meal that, in the Gospel accounts, Jesus shared with his Apostles in Jerusalem before his crucifixion. The Last Supper is commemorated by Christians especially on Maundy Thursday.
Moreover, the Last Supper provides the scriptural basis for the Eucharist also known as “Holy Communion” or “The Lord’s Supper”.
The creator of the synthesis, Nectarios Nestos, by faithfully following the technique of icon painting and artificial aging as it was taught to him on Mount Athos, created the handmade details of this multicolored lithograph.
|Dimensions||20 × 27 cm|

San Giovanni (or San Giusto) della Calza
Franciabigio Last Supper
Located just outside the Porta Romana, this church started out in the 14th century as a convent hospital with a mouthful of a name, San Giovanni della Porta di San Pier Gattolino, run by the Dames of Malta, When they were forced to move out during the 1529 Siege of Florence, they were replaced by Jesuits, who changed the dedication. The calza referred to the white hoods. In 2000, after a thorough restoration, the complex became a hotel and congress centre.
The interior of the church has zebra stripes, its original matroneum or women's gallery, and an altarpice by Jacopo da Empoli. Although most of its other paintings have since departed for the Uffizi, there's a pretty cloister with a glass pyramid in the centre, and the refectory with one of the seven Cenacoli or Last Suppers in Florence, this one by Franciabigio painted in 1514 for the Dames of Malta shortly before they left, reminiscent of Leonardo's version in Milan, where every figure is in movement, reacting to Christ's announcement that one among them would betray him.
Piazza della Calza 7
Hours By appointment, +39 055 222287

An oil painting recently authenticated as the work of Leonardo da Vinci will be on display at the National Gallery in the fall as part of a larger exhibition on the Renaissance artist, the London museum said Monday.
“Salvator Mundi,” which dates to around 1500, depicts a half-length figure of Christ with one hand raised in blessing and the other holding an orb.
The National Gallery said in a statement Monday that the work was shown to its director, curator and other art scholars after undergoing conservation that was completed in 2010.
“We felt that it would be of great interest to include it in the exhibition as a new discovery,” the museum said, adding that its curator Luke Syson “is cataloging the picture as by Leonardo da Vinci and this is how the picture will be presented in the exhibition.”
The painting will be included in an exhibition titled: “Leonardo da Vinci: Painter of the Court of Milan,” from Nov. 9 to Feb. 5, 2012. “This will obviously be the moment to test this important new attribution by direct comparison with works universally accepted as Leonardo’s,” the museum said.
“Once you walked into the room it had that uncanny presence that Leonardo’s have,” said Martin Kemp, professor emeritus of art history at Oxford. A researcher of paintings, he was among the experts consulted on the painting.
Detailed examination of the work as well as scientific testing convinced him that he was looking at the real thing. For example, some of the brushwork in the best preserved sections made it clear that the master had been holding the brush.
“None of the students painted like that, none of the followers,” Kemp said.
Kemp said he was glad the painting was going on display at the National Gallery. “It’s a new Leonardo painting, it’s sensational,” he said. “I’m glad London is seeing it publicly first.”
The work is currently owned by R.W. Chandler, a consortium represented by Robert Simon, an art historian and private art dealer in Tuxedo Park, N.Y., according to Sara Latham, a spokeswoman for Simon.
“Salvator Mundi,” which means Savior of the World, was believed to have been lost. It was first recorded in the art collection of King Charles I of England in 1649. In 1763, it was auctioned by the son of the Duke of Buckingham.

This project is clearly a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, and our museum is happy to collaborate with Leighton House to organise exhibitions in London and in Ponce that will surely heighten Leighton’s standing and international reputation.”
Giorgio Vasari, Last Supper, 1546, Florence, Santa Croce (Image: ZEPstudio/Opera di Santa Croce)
Meanwhile, in Italy, on the same evening, the Italian president Sergio Mattarella graced the unveiling of Giorgio Vasari’s newly restored Last Supper (1543), the five-panel, 8ft by 12ft painting. Stored in the Museo dell’Opera di Santa Croce, the historic work of art had been submerged in polluted water for 12 hours when the Arno River had been flooded on 4 November 1966. And the unveiling of the restored masterpiece at the refectory of the Basilica di Santa Croce was timed to coincide with the 50th anniversary of the flood wherein thousands of the city’s erstwhile art treasures had been lost.
The restoration work was undertaken by Florence’s renowned Opificio delle Pietre Dure e Laboratori di Restauro (OPD). Marco Ciatti, head of the OPD’s panel paintings department and now the organisation’s soprintendente, in an interview in 2010 had described the extent of damage to the Last Supper as “terrible”, calling it “one of the worst cases in conservation history”. And at the restoration unveiling, he praised and thanked all those involved in the “restoration and conservation project”, which was supported by the Italian fashion house Prada, Italy’s National Civil Protection unit and the Getty Foundation.
Conservators working on The Last Supper Copyright Opificio delle Pietre Dure
According to other reports, restorers were reluctant to even touch The Last Supper for decades owing to the extensive damage in which, the gesso, a type of glue that held the paint to the wood panels, had sagged during the flood, while the panels cracked and curved after they dried. And thus, it had been kept in storage, laid horizontally because of its fragility.
Marco stated, “The painting was also covered with a thin crust of dried paper. Volunteer conservators who rushed to save works of art after the 1966 flood had attached conservation paper to keep the paint from sagging off the wet wood.

If you’ve ever wanted to own a Leonardo da Vinci masterpiece and you have around $100 million to spare—not counting security, storage, and insurance costs—you may have just one chance. Christie’s announced in New York Tuesday morning that it plans to auction off a newly rediscovered Da Vinci canvas, Salvator Mundi, at its postwar and contemporary art sale on November 15. The work, a portrait of Christ, is one of fewer than 20 known paintings by the quintessential Renaissance man who, between his many other pursuits, hardly had the time to devote to what he is most known for. It’s also the only one in private hands.
Alan Wintermute, Christie’s senior specialist of Old Master paintings, calls it the “Holy Grail of art rediscoveries.” Created around 1500, Salvator Mundi (“Savior of the World”) depicts Christ holding a crystal sphere that represents the globe, and gives him an even subtler smile than the Mona Lisa, which Leonardo painted around the same time. The painting was most likely commissioned for the court of French King Louis XII, though its first confirmed owner was Britain’s Charles I. It was passed around the British aristocracy for a century and a half before reemerging on the market in 1900, when it was acquired by a merchant and art collector named Sir Francis Cook. But by then, no one recognized it as a Leonardo work. It had been mangled by time and by shoddy restorers, who slathered the lord and savior with a layer of paint that Wintermute likens to “kabuki makeup.”
Cook sold the painting at Sotheby’s in 1958 for a cool £45, and then it disappeared again. After it resurfaced at a regional American auction house in 2005, it took six years to properly restore it and authenticate its authorship beyond a doubt. Salvator Mundi was formally reintroduced to the public at a Leonardo exhibition at London’s National Gallery in 2011. It is now being sold by a private European collection.
“Whoever buys this painting will put his name, his museum, his town on the cultural map,” said Loic Gouzer, Christie’s chairman of postwar and contemporary art.

Image/object size (inches):
35.43 (height) 39.37 (width) 0.79 (depth)
The above image is an estimate of the size of the image/object compared to an average person. Box will only show a max 70 inches height x 70 inches width.
Original painting, oil on canvas, 100 x 90 cm, 1997

What does The Da Vinci Code have to do with Leonardo’s painting “The Last Supper”?
Several outlandish claims are being made in reference to this famous painting by Dan Brown in his novel, The Da Vinci Code. – here are some examples:
- Dan Brown uses the painting to promote the idea that Da Vinci painted Mary Magdalene into “the last supper”, at the right hand of Jesus: P.243: The person to the right of Jesus is recognized by Sophie in the book as a woman:
“The individual had flowing red hair, delicate folded hands, and the hint of a bosom. It was, without a doubt … female”. “That’s a woman!”, exclaimed Sophie.
Brown is fond of saying that we see only what we want to see. Take care to note that Leonardo portrayed other masculine biblical characters with a feminine appearance – in his work Saint John the Baptist (c. 1413-1416)4, St. John the Baptist – a very ruddy character according to biblical records – is depicted as a feminine character with long flowing hair and delicate hands. Is it any surprise that John the Apostle might be depicted in a similar fashion? And if one inspects “The Last Supper” carefully, there is in fact is no hint of a bosom – unless one wants to see that in the painting.
- He further promotes the notion that the “holy grail” is missing from the painting because Leonardo was trying to communicate a secret message – ie., that “the Holy Grail” was not a physical drinking cup, but rather the womb of Mary Magdalene! But why do we expect to see a large chalice emblazoned with the letters “The Holy Grail”? Only if we fall for legend and popular lore. Look closely at the painting, and you will see that Jesus, as well as His followers, all have drinking cups. Jesus’ cup (“the holy grail”) is next to his left hand, while His right hand is extended over a piece of bread.1
First Things First
First, lets get some basic facts straight.
- Leonardo was not at “the last supper”, which occurred some 1,500 years before he was born. He was painting his interpretation, in accordance with his painting style, of what took place at “the last supper”.

leonardo da vinci
• He was born in the town Vinci, Italy
Da Vinci's life
• His education training was mostly under Andreadel Verrorchio.
• He moved to france in 1516.
• He always wanted to learn more from a young age.
• He died may, 2 1519.
Leonardo Da Vinci's Art
• Man in Red Chalk 1512
• Vitruvian Man in 1490
Leonardo Da Vinci's Patrons
-King Francis 1 of france
-Marcantonio Della Torre
• Is currently located in the Louvre (1797)
• If looking closely there is great attention to detail in the painting, showing the background clearly and her surroundings. Also Leonardo Da Vinci did not sell the painting with he was originally supposed to do. He keep the painting and brought it to france with him.
"Mona Lisa." - Leonardo Da Vinci. N.p., n.d. Web. 18 Nov. 2013.
"The Vitruvian Man: “The Ideal Man” Secures Eternal life." Scripts of Stig Dragholm. N.p., n.d. Web. 18 Nov. 2013.
"Self-portrait of Leonardo Da Vinci – Facts & History of the Painting." Totally History Selfportrait of Leonardo Da Vinci Comments. N.p., n.d. Web. 18 Nov. 2013.
“Leonardo’s ”Mona Lisa” ”Mona Lisa .N.p.,n.d.Web.14 Nov. 2013.

Take the 55,000 square foot Park Avenue Armory. Add Dutch artist and filmmaker Peter Greenaway. Stir gently. Serve in low lighting.
Presenting “Leonardo’s Last Supper: A Vision by Peter Greenaway,” an amalgamation of 8,000 years of art and 112 years of cinema, or so the artist said on the Upper East Side Wednesday morning. The installation uses 33 screens and over 2,000 lights, offering the audience an audio visual tour and cinematic lightshow highlighting two classic paintings -– Leonardo’s “The Last Supper” and Paolo Veronese’s “The Wedding at Cana.” The show runs from tomorrow until January 6.
Take a slideshow tour of the exhibit.

The big money comes into the room nowadays when Pollocks and Twomblys are on the block, and promptly leaves when the Reynolds and Winterhalters arrive.
Dr Tim Hunter, who is an expert in Old Master and 19th Century art, told the BBC the painting is “the most important discovery in the 21st Century”.
“It completely smashes the record for the last Old Masters painting to sell – Van Gogh’s Sunflowers in 1988. Records get broken from time to time but not in this way.
“Da Vinci painted less than 20 oil paintings and many are unfinished so it’s incredibly rare and we love that in art.”
Before the auction it was owned by Russian billionaire collector Dmitry E Rybolovlev, who is reported to have bought it in a private sale in May 2013 for $127.5m (£98m).
Is it authentic?
The painting has had major cosmetic surgery – its walnut panel base has been described as “worm-tunnelled” and at some point it seems to have been split in half – and efforts to restore it resulted in abrasions.
BBC arts correspondent Vincent Dowd said that even now attribution to Leonardo is not universally accepted.
One critic has described the surface of the painting to be “inert, varnished, lurid, scrubbed over and repainted so many times that it looks simultaneously new and old”.
“Any private collector who gets suckered into buying this picture and places it in their apartment or storage, it serves them right,” Jerry Saltz wrote on Vulture.com.
Speculation over buyer
But Christie’s has insisted the painting is authentic and billed it as “the greatest artistic rediscovery of the 20th Century”.
Georgina Adam, who is an Art Market specialist, told the BBC the price of the piece is “fuelled by the sheer amount of money that billionaires have.”
“This is the last Leonardo painting you can buy. This isn’t as a store of value, it’s the ultimate trophy – only one person in the world can own this.
“If you think of the wealth of some billionaires, Bill Gates is worth 87 billion, and I’m not saying it’s him, but near to half a billion would not be a colossal chunk out of his income for example.”
The auction house has not revealed who purchased the picture, but Hunter speculates it could be a buyer from Asia or even be on the way to the new Louvre in Abu Dhabi.

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Musart is grateful to showcase the talents and skill of Leonardo da Vinci, for who else has accomplished so much in their lifetime? In addition to his artistic achievements, of which the Mona Lisa and The Last Supper are considerable, immortal accomplishments, he also was a polymath who dabbled extensively in inventing, engineering, astronomy, botany, writing, history, cartography and much more. He is exemplified as the “Universal Genius” or “Renaissance Man,” and his influence resounds within our society to this day. The influence of da Vinci cannot be overstated, and we will be studying his immortal techniques for ages to come.
Leonardo da Vinci was born on April 15, 1452, in the Tuscan village of Vinci and was considered an illegitimate son, because his father, Ser Pierro da Vinci, and mother, a peasant girl named Caterina, were not married. While most of the details of da Vinci’s early life are shrouded in mystery, we know his father’s family raised him, and that, after several marriages, da Vinci’s father sired many children, leaving Leonardo with twelve half-siblings.
Da Vinci’s genius manifested at an early age, with him becoming a natural student with many subjects, including mathematics and music. Eventually, he apprenticed under a painter named Andrea del Verrocchio, who taught him many skills. The two even collaborated on a painting, titled, The Baptism of Christ which apparently birthed the tale of Leonardo painting the young angel in the piece so well that Andrea, “put down his brush and never painted again.” By the age of twenty, da Vinci qualified as a Master in the Guild of Saint Luke.
Leonardo Da Vinci continued as a kind of ‘freelance artist’ for some decades after, taking on commissions to paint an altar piece for the Chapel of St. Bernard in the Palazzo Vecchio and to paint The Adoration of the Magi for monks of San Donato a Scopeto (although neither were completed). Leonardo da Vinci worked in Milan from 1482 until 1499 where he was commissioned to paint Virgin of the Rocks and The Last Supper.

Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci was born 15th april 1542. We all know who this great man was but let me give an insight incase you want to learn more.
Leonardo, was an Italian Renaissance .. brace yourself , Polymath ( this is a person who has a vast amount of knowledge and knows many things). A few of these being painting, sculpting, architecture even engineering.
He was revered as this Genius, kind of like a superhuman!
Leo (can I call him that?) was born out-of-wedlock to the wealthy Messer Piero Fruosino di Antonio da Vinci – blimming hell that’s a mouthful, & Caterina, a peasant. Theres not much known of Leo’s childhood except that he did receive informal education of maths, latin & geometry. Now, Apparently Leonardo had 17 siblings bless the soul. His father married four times and his mother married another aswell. However, his father did lookout for him making certain he was placed under the tutelage of artist Andrea Verrocchio in Florence.
So lets see some of his extraordinary works:
Mona Lisa – Leonardo painted a portrait of Francesco del Giocondo, wife Mona Lisa. Now Mona is derived from the word Madonna – which basically means Madam. Leo painted this portrait on wood, so if you believed it to be canvas you were fooled!
Heres some fun facts:
Leonardo Da Vinci used more than thirty layers of paint on the Mona Lisa, some of which were thinner than a human hair.
When painting the Mona Lisa, to keep his subject relaxed and entertained, Da Vinci had six musicians to play for her and installed a musical fountain invented by himself. Different, beautiful works were read out loud and a white Persian cat and a greyhound dog were there for her to play with.
Leonardo spent twelve years painting the Mona Lisa’s lips (blimey).
its worth around US$790 million !!
Apparently he wrote from left to right – its called mirror writing or something and no one really knew why.
The Last Supper – is a late 15th-century mural painting. The painting represents the scene of The Last Supper of Jesus (Pbuh with his apostles, as it is told in the Gospel of John, 13:21. Leonardo has depicted the consternation that occurred among the Twelve Disciples when Jesus announced that one of them would betray him.

On view is a self-propelled cart that has been compared to an automobile. 3-D videos created by the Florentine Galileo Museum dramatically illustrate Leonardo's theories (see video). And for three months ending, alas, in January the Leicester Codex had been on loan from Bill Gates. That Codex is one of Leonardo's personal sketchbooks dating from 1504-1508, acquired by Gates in 1994 from Armand Hammer.
In his youth, Leonardo worked for Ludovico il Moro in Milan, where he painted the now much restored "The Last Supper" on a monastery wall. Not surprisingly, Milan offers eight Leonardo exhibitions. Through coming months the Ambrosiana, to name only one, offers a selection of 46 drawings by Leonardo drawn from the 1,750 in his famous Codex Atlanticus, normally seen by only a few scholars. The nearby National Museum of Science and Technology, among Europe's largest devoted to science and technology, opens a three-month exhibition on July 19 called "Leonardo Da Vinci Parade."
On view at the Ambrosiana will be 130 rarely visible models of Da Vinci projects - navigation, artillery, underwater engineering - built in the 1950s on the basis of Leonardo's drawings, along with fresco paintings by 16th Century Lombard artists. The models are unique in the world and include one of a flying machine made by Alberto Mario Soldatini and Vittorio Somenzi in 1953 on the basis of a Codex Atlanticus drawing. On two walls are paintings and frescoes, only rarely on view, on loan from the Pinacoteca di Brera. The works by the artists in Leonardo's circle in Milan include some by Bernardino Luini, and others recovered from now destroyed churches, monasteries, and buildings in Milan.
In Rome, through September the Primoli Foundation has organized an exhibition at the National Academy of the Lincei devoted to "Leonardo in Rome: Influence and Heritage." Also in Rome: at the Palazzo della Cancelleria near Campo de' Fiori is a permanent exhibition devoted to Leonardo, with large-scale models of his projects.
Close to Rome, at Civitella del Lago, on Lake Corbara in the province of Terni, was an exhibition entitled "On the Traces of Genius: Maps and Cosmography in the Time of Leonardo,".

At this smart restaurant in the heart of the Old Town, Da Vinci reproductions, including an original-size rendition of The Last Supper, adorn the walls. Leather upholstery, an elegant bar, and soft lighting round out the ambience. Celebrity chef Thomas Jaumann, who came aboard in 2013, presents a seasonally changing local menu with a European slant, with classic dishes like sirloin steak, rack of lamb, and loup de mer (European sea bass). The wine list includes
more than 200 bottles, with a focus on German, Italian, and French wines.

Works on display will include "Portrait of a Young Man," "Lady with an Ermine," "La Belle Ferronière," "Madonna Litta and Saint Jerome," and the two versions of the "Virgin of the Rocks." The final part of the exhibition is to feature a near-contemporary, full-scale copy of the "Last Supper."
But those who cannot make it to the London exhibition will be able to admire the painting in CNN's new series, "Leonardo – The Lost Painting." The five-episode documentary focuses on the discovery of "Salvator Mundi," how it was purchased by a serendipitous coincident after centuries in obscurity, and how experts from Europe and the Unites States spent months affirming its originality.
The TV series starts on Nov. 11 and runs through Nov. 15 on CNN. You can view a trailer video HERE.

The experience in some ways exceeds what eight million visitors per year get from seeing the real work behind glass at the Louvre, Peterson says.
"We don't suggest for one moment that it replaces the original," he says, "but people will get a far greater appreciation and understanding of the most popular piece of art in the world."
Life of Leonardo
Leonardo da Vinci was born in 1452 near Vinci in Tuscany, the illegitimate son of a notary and a peasant woman. He had no surname in the modern sense; da Vinci means "from Vinci." Because he was illegitimate, he lacked access to formal education and was largely self-taught. "He developed an insatiable thirst for knowledge," says exhibition spokesman Bruce Peterson.
Leonardo stood six-foot-six, was left-handed and reputed to be a vegetarian and homosexual. He died in 1519 at age 67.
As an artist, he was a perfectionist, "unable to accept second-best," Peterson says. "He would take forever to finish a commission, and of course this annoyed the patrons, and he stopped getting commissions. He became a military strategist and engineer, so his artwork took a back seat."
He was never wealthy, Peterson adds. "Michelangelo earned for one of his sculptures as much as Leonardo earned for his entire life."
About 6,000 pages of Leonardo's codices (notebooks) survive, out of some 24,000 pages he is believed to have written and sketched. He used backwards "mirror writing" and apparently planted mistakes in his notes to foil people who might try to steal his ideas. Few of his inventions were built during his lifetime.
Da Vinci -- The Genius
MTS Centre Exhibition Hall
Friday to Oct. 23
Mon.-Sat. 10 a.m. to 8 p.m.; Sun. 12 p.m. to 6 p.m.
Tickets: $19.95 at Ticketmaster

The painting was later bought by Henry F. Pulitzer, who claimed that it was Leonardo’s only real portrait of Lisa del Giocondo. He made this painting in such Bruegel the Elder, Flemish Renaissance Painting. He left for Milan that year, left the painting unfinished. It is no surprise to see the Mona Lisa at the top of this list. It portrays the lion introspection over a sleeping woman on a full moon night. Salon jury of 1863 so Manet took the opportunity to showcase this and two other skill, Manet took the ready-made Venus of Urbino of Titian to reproduce the The last supper is Leonardo’s visual interpretation of an event. During this time, Picasso was more sympathetic than anything. Artist used different colors to his painting on a wooden board, it is a common and unique technique to paint on a hard surface. The precise color and the seven years and it remained unfinished at the time of his death in 1906. If you had any doubts about the wild popularity of "Mona Lisa," the crowds at the Louvre will convince... 2. The Fall of the Rebel Angels c.1562 Pieter Bruegel the Elder Northern Renaissance Flemish Landscape with Charon Crossing the Styx c.1519 It is mandatory to procure user consent prior to running these cookies on your website. Home / Famous Paintings and Artworks / 16 of the Most Famous Andy Warhol Paintings 16 of the Most Famous Andy Warhol Paintings Andy Warhol, the eminent American artist, occupies the most significant position among the practitioners of the 1960’s Visual Art Movement “Pop Art”, dealing with subject matters very much existent in the viewer’s immediate environment. In this list of the 20 most famous pieces of western art see how many you recognize. The Adoration of the Magi is a painting by Leonardo da Vinci. Your email address will not be published. shows the idealized representation of female beauty. The ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, the large papal chapel made within the Vatican in between 1477-1480 by Pope Sixtus IV. I try to let it come through.” – Jackson Pollock, Hi Nice Blog. Visitors take photos of "The Last Supper" ("Il Cenacolo or L'Ultima Cena") at the Convent of Santa... 3.

|Kim and Joan with Ross King|
My correspondence with Ross King began back in 2009 while he wrote his phenomenal book Defiant Spirits: The Modernist Revolution of the Group of Seven. His research uncovered mention of a landscape painter named Carl Ahrens who, in 1916, verbally attacked certain members of the Group. Intrigued, King found my website on Ahrens and contacted me, hoping I could shed light on what might have provoked his remarks.
I replied with a small treatise on the subject and over the years we’ve periodically traded e-mails. He has graciously assisted me with sections of my manuscript that involve the Group of Seven and the WWI Toronto art community. Needless-to-say, when I heard he was coming to Dallas to give a lecture on Leonardo da Vinci at the Highland Park United Methodist Church, I dropped everything to attend. Joan, a fan of art and all things Italian, did the same. To read an account of the evening, click here.
I mention this background now because I believe I have an ethical duty to do so. Let me also say, though, that everything written below is my honest opinion and not said out of any sense of obligation to a friend. My copy of Leonardo and the Last Supper was not given to me—I purchased it. King did not ask for, nor does he expect, a review. The first he’ll hear of it is when I send him the link.
That said, here we go!
Synopsis of Leonardo and the Last Supper (from the book jacket):
In Leonardo and the Last Supper, Ross King chronicles how—amid war and the political and religious turmoil around him, and beset by his own insecurities and frustrations—Leonardo created the masterpiece that would forever define him. King unveils dozens of stories that are embedded in the painting. Examining who served as models for the Apostles, he makes a unique claim: Leonardo modeled two of them on himself. Reviewing Leonardo’s religious beliefs, King paints a much more complex picture than the received wisdom that the artist was a heretic. The food that Leonardo, a famous vegetarian, placed in the table reveals as much as the numerous hand gestures of those at Christ’s banquet. And King makes clear, from a variety of Biblical sources, that the figure to the right of Christ is, indeed, John and not Mary Magdalene, as some have posited.

Hidden away at the beginning, designated by God but basically kept below wraps till finally the Messiah comes forth. And as you stated, it is the afikomen broken off at the beginning of the meal, hidden, and then brought back at the quite finish of the meal. The final issue you are supposed to eat on the evening of Passover, of Pesach, is the piece of matzah which represents the afikomen. The end of the meal is when you consume that final ceremonial pieces of matzah.
The laid out supper is a feast of metaphors which tells the story of Christianity through the renewed lens of Renaissance. According to Urciuoli, “Bitter herbs and charoset is eaten during festivities although olives with hyssop was also consumed on day-to-day basis”. The charoset symbolizes the optimism of the Passover seder as it balances the bitterness of the maror. Of meat and wine – The metaphor of meals in Da Vinci’s The Final Supper. The “last supper” was a modification of the Old Testament observance of the Passover.
There are some research that suggest left-handed people today are much more creative and, if correct, that is absolutely the case with Leonardo. The Renaissance man is a single of the most famous artists that is confirmed to have had a dominant left hand. Recent web site historians think that Leonardo might have even been ambidextrous. In addition to getting a wonderful engineering feat, the canal project had financial and military purposes. Da Vinci envisioned irrigating the Arno valley and selling water to farmers to make cash for the government.
The pair of sculptures, L’Esclave Mourant and the L’Esclave Rebelle , stands in the Galerie Michel-Ange , a spacious gallery with massive windows that allow organic light to brighten the space. Displayed in the Louvre’s beautiful Salon Carré , the Coronation of the Virgin is a single of the Louvre’s masterpieces of medieval painting. Guido di Pietro, identified as Fra Angelico, designed this function from 1430 to 1432 and it was originally utilised as an altarpiece for the convent of San Domenico in Fiesole outdoors Florence. The motif of lace was usually employed in 17th-century Dutch paintings to symbolize standard female virtues.

In 1466, when he was only fourteen years old, he was introduced to the best artist at the time; Andrea di Cione, also known as Verrocchio (Legacy.mos.org). His workshop guaranteed young Leonardo an education in the humanities. His talents were so great that it is rumored that when he helped Verrocchio paint the Baptism of Christ, Verrocchio never painted again as a result of the amusement of the young boy’s talent.
Leonardo’s paintings have revolutionized the way art is perceived and his love for perfection has increased the inspiration for quality (Leonardodavinci.net). Art has continued to be a great form of communication and expression. For instance, Leonardo paved the way for other great painters like Picasso whose works have continued to marvel. Western civilization takes pride in art since it traverses cultural, racial and religious discrimination (Da-vinci-inventions.com). Art is also a source of history because it depicts the times of the artist and the social, religious or political atmosphere. Leonardo’s paintings have also influenced the western world in the sense that they have become the object of parody for many years as well as replication. Leonardo Da VInci’s work has been a source of entertainment for many years because painters have tried to make fun of the paintings (Italian-Renaissance-art.com). Their replication has brought forth a competitive nature in the art world that strives to push the limits of painting.
Leonard’s work on perspective painting is the product of Brunelleschi’s invention, which he perfected (Engineering.com). Such perfected works include the Adoration that remained unfinished, but highlighted a strict Albertian grid that lay on the pavement of the painting. Another illustration of perfection in perspective painting is The Last Supper that is placed in the Convent of Santa Maria Delle Grazie, Milan. Here, the vanishing point of the painting is placed on the right eye of Jesus Christ. Painting was, therefore, portrayed as a medium of expression and a rich source of recording events. An event such as the last supper is very significant among the Christians and such a painting helps to understand better an event as important as this.
Creativity was heightened at the time of Leonardo Da Vinci because of the intent for perfection and the need to paint more (DCS).

Leonardo da Vinci: Painter at the Court of Milan
National Gallery London, 2011
320 pp., 65.00
The show has been sold out, every ticket, for every day of its four-month run, since before it even opened its doors. That is a phenomenon more commonly associated with U2 concert tours or limited-run Broadway musicals, not stately, informative expositions of old pictures. But London's National Gallery has a show on now that lives up to the hype, one which is well worth trying to sneak in to see. Next thing you know, there will be ticket-touts in three-piece suits outside the gallery doors, scalping tickets for ten times the asking price to desperate fans. And I wouldn't blame them, because this is one heck of a show.
"Leonardo: Painter at the Court of Milan" (November 9-February 5) is the largest exhibition of the work of Leonardo da Vinci ever displayed. Before this exhibit, Leonardo had only eighteen universally agreed upon portable paintings attributed to him. A newly discovered Leonardo, once part of King Charles I's art collection but then lost, also appears in this show, bringing the total to nineteen worldwide. Nine of them feature here.
Most art museum shows come in one of three varieties. There is the survey, in which works are gathered together so that they may be admired and studied in one place. These surveys might cover a style (Mannerism in Ferrara), an artist (El Greco), a period and place (1920s Paris), or a chapter in an artist's career (Picasso's Blue Period). Another category is the star-turn, a first chance to display a famous work in a new location. The best-known instance was the tour of Leonardo's Mona Lisa (understandably not included in this London exhibit, otherwise there would have been stampedes and riots to get in), which was displayed in Italy after it was recovered from the thief Vincenzo Peruggia, and visited Japan and the United States in the 1960s and '70s. Finally there are exhibits that are primarily informative rather than crowd-pleasing, the sort that expect you to read all of the wall copy, and perhaps the catalogue, shows that you slowly imbibe rather than rush through.

The name “Codex Atlanticus” was given to the collection by the sculptor Pompeo Leoni in the seventeenth century. He put it together and named it after the large format pages resembling a large album.
The reconstructed manuscript was in storage in the Louvre in the 18th century and then moved to the Pinacoteca Ambrosiana in Milan. The Federican Hall is the place where parts of the relic are on display, replaced every 3 months.
Among the masterpieces of painting that are a must-see are:
The controversy surrounding Leonardo da Vinci’s Portrait of a Musician continues unabated. Many luminaries of science believe that the genius managed to capture only the musician’s head, and that someone else drew the hands and musical signs.
Next to Da Vinci’s work is a “Portrait of a Woman” dedicated to one of Italy’s most beautiful princesses, Beatrice D’Este, whose wedding ceremony to the Duke of Milan, Lodovico Sforza, was organized by Leonardo himself.
In the gallery is an elaborate copy of Da Vinci’s The Last Supper, which belongs to the brush of the painter Vespino.
There are also many busts and statues of famous artists. The gallery is usually not busy with tourists, which allows you to leisurely contemplate the masterpieces of art and have a nice time.
There are streetcars No12, No14, No16, No27, No2 to the destination. Get off at the Orefici Cantu stop.
Piazza Pia XI, 2, 20123, Ambrosiana, Milan; It is open every day from 10.00 to 17.30, except Mondays; Every year the gallery is closed on December 25, January 1, Easter Day and May 1.
IMPORTANT: One hour before closing time, visitors are not allowed into the museum.
Tickets can be easily purchased on site and are €15. A discount is available for students.
Additional information you may need:
- Photography and videotaping of the interior of the Pinakothek is prohibited, but the ban does not apply to the courtyards and the gallery building itself;
- There is no checkroom in the gallery;
- There is no audio guide in Russian;
Excursions to the Pinacoteca Ambrosiana, which last approximately two to three hours, must be booked in advance. Russian-speaking individual guides will thoroughly explain the history of the art gallery and its masterpieces.

The Mona Lisa is a half-length portrait of a woman by the Italian artist Leonardo
da Vinci, which has been acclaimed as "the best known, the most visited, the ...
Sep 7, 2012 ... Current home: The Louvre museum, in Paris, where the Mona Lisa is hung ... The
work is owned by the French government and hangs in the Louvre .... those of our
users and do not necessarily reflect the views of MailOnline.
1452, Leonardo is born in Vinci, a small village in Italy. 1466, Leonardo moves to
Florence and enters the shop of Andrea Verrocchio. 1472, Leonardo joins the ...
Aug 8, 2011 ... Leonardo da Vinci's Mona Lisa, also known as La Gioconda, is the most ...
Napoleon took it away to hang in his bedroom, but it was returned to ...
Does the 'Mona Lisa' found on the dark side of the moon actually exist? ... 2)
Since the original Mona Lisa cannot be adequately insured, (as an insurance
policy requires a monetary value to the ... It's hanging in the Louvre museum in
Jan 28, 2012 ... I do not believe that the Louvre displays any copies. ... by Veronese that hangs
on the wall facing her -- I'm guessing less than a quarter of ... we generally do a
whistle-stop tour of the Big Three -- La Joconde (as Mona Lisa is ...
Dec 8, 2015 ... An earlier portrait of the Mona Lisa has been found under the existing ... Instead
of the famous, direct gaze of the painting which hangs in the ... "I do not think
there are these discrete stages which represent different portraits.
Feb 1, 2012 ... The original painting hangs behind glass with enormous security at ... You can
imagine that this is what the Mona Lisa looked like back in the 16th century. ...
has eyebrows and the Mona Lisa in the real masterpiece does not.
Why did they do it? ... But on the wall where the Mona Lisa used to hang, in
between Correggio's Mystical Marriage and Titian's Allegory of Alfonso d'Avalos,
Apr 6, 2005 ... Da Vinci's Mona Lisa, displayed in far-off corner of Louvre for past four years ...
the painting hangs alone on a freestanding wall that divides the gallery.

What is the greatest treasure in Kraków?
The Louvre museum is one of the most popular museums worldwide. Almost 10 million tourists visit Paris to see the famous Gioconda by Leonardo da Vinci. Mona Lisa is undeniably a masterpiece, but did you know that in Krakow you may find a painting by Leonardo da Vinci, too!
In 1482, Leonardo da Vinci was sent as an ambassador by Lorenzo de’ Medici to Ludovico Sforza, who ruled Milan between 1499 and 1579.
In Milan Leonardo created one of the most beautiful and amazing portraits – Lady with an Ermine
Why is Lady with an Ermine is so special?
Unfortunately only 25 paintings made by Leonardo da Vinci survive today and only 4 of them are between 1489–1491.
The painting is not large, it is only 53,4 x 39,3 cm (21 x 15 in). It was painted with oil paint on walnut panels. The material selected to create this portrait is special. In Italy, at the time, oil paints were relatively new and not commonly used by artists, same with the walnut panels. The painting shows the upper half of a woman turned toward her right at a three-quarter angle, but with her face turned toward her left, like she is looking at somebody out of frame. This composition was unique in Lombardy in the second half of the XV century. Most portraits were painted from the profile view. The lighting illusion focuses viewers on the face of the lady and white animal which she holds in her arms.
Who is this beautiful lady?
The lady has been identified as Cecilia Gallerani. Her father worked at the Duke’s court, where she would accompany him to the Duke's palace. Her poetry and beauty seduced Ludovico Sforza. Cecilia and the Duke of Milan became lovers. Ludovico was infatuated with her and asked Leonardo to make a portrait of them, but it was not an easy job. Leonardo knew that he must avoid a scandal. Cecilia was a member of a large family that was neither wealthy nor noble, while Ludovico was the duke. Even if this kind of affair was commonplace in noble courts, there was another reason why they could not be painted together. During their romance, Sforza was already engaged with a different woman – Beatrice d’Este.

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From EUR 75
From the exceptional Last Supper to the Codex Atlanticus.
Enjoy 3-hours guided tour with a small group tour understanding Leonardo's masterpieces conserved in Milan.
Enjoy the exceptional Last Supper and the Codex Atlanticus, an extraordinary collection of drawings and manuscripts which represents the genius of Leonardo Da Vinci, one of the great creative minds of the Italian Renaissance. The thousands of surviving pages of his notebooks reveal the most eclectic and brilliant of minds.
Take this 3-hour guided tour with a qualified tour guide and discover the signs Leonardo left during his period in Milan while working for the ruling Sforza family.
The visit starts from the Church of Santa Maria delle Grazie, where in the refectory located nearby, you will admire the magnificent fresco painting of the Last Supper. Then, the tour will continue in Pinacoteca Ambrosiana where the Codex Atlanticus, the largest collection of manuscripts made by Leonardo, are preserved in the Sala Federiciana.
Your professional tour guide will show you more than just the great legacy of Leonardo that everyone knows. You are guaranteed a professional, monolingual and, of course, an enjoyable experience.

About it he said: “Andrea del Sarto, the flawless painter, is the author of the Last Supper kept in the Great Refectory of the San Salvi convent. [The fresco has] endless majesty with its absolute grace of all the painted figures.”
Here are some details of the glorious painting:
I simply adore this casual slice of everyday Florentine life captured by Andrea del Sarto in the top of the lunette over the last supper. One man appears to just be hanging out on a balcony over the people eating, while the other, possibly a server for the dinner, seems to be walking away.
Not pictured here, but to the right and left of the room, along the walls in glass topped cases, are many sketches for the fresco by Andrea del Sarto. It is a rare opportunity to see sketches by an artist from this period. And, to see them in conjunction with the final work is an extraordinary opportunity.
Notice in the picture above, Andrea del Sarto’s treatment of the Trinity. A 3-faced head shot of sorts.
Who knows!? You might be as lucky as I was and have the place all to your self on the middle of a Saturday in July. This is almost unheard of in Firenze!
Just outside the refectory is a fountain where the convent members could wash their hands before entering the refectory to dine.
Utilitarian yet artistic.
Here is some info about the venue: http://www.polomusealetoscana.beniculturali.it/index.php?it/177/firenze-cenacolo-di-andrea-del-sarto

La Gioconda appears again in Madrid’s Prado Museum. This is a great find because it was painted by one of the favorite disciples of Leonardo da Vinci, while da Vinci worked on the original. With this spectacular restoration, the work of Leonardo is born again. It will be exposed at The Louvre soon. Why da Vinci, let a disciple paint this at the same time as him still remains a mystery.