The Last Supper by Leonardo da Vinci

The Last Supper by Leonardo da Vinci

One of you will betray me

Every earlier Last Supper had shown a calm meal. Leonardo chose the instant after the sentence is spoken, and painted the shock running down the table in four groups of three — Bartholomew half out of his seat, Peter lunging forward with a knife, John fainting back, Judas recoiling with the bag in his hand and his elbow knocking over the salt. Christ sits at the centre, alone in the vanishing point, hands open on the table.

The wall in Milan

It was painted for the Dominican refectory of Santa Maria delle Grazie between 1495 and 1498, and it began to decay almost at once: Leonardo had worked in tempera on dry plaster instead of true fresco, so that he could rework it, and the wall would not hold the paint. A door was cut through the bottom in 1652 — the arch is still there. The restoration finished in 1999 removed centuries of overpaint and left what survives of the original, which is about half.

About this print

Made from the public-domain reproduction of the restored wall, 5,381 pixels wide, in the fresco's very wide format; the panoramic sizes take a little from the top and bottom.

Sources: Santa Maria delle Grazie, Milan · Wikidata Q128910 · Wikimedia Commons