Leonardo Da Vinci’s Last Supper (1495-1498) was painted on the north wall of the refractory of Santa Monica delle Frazie in Milan. The commission was to a Dominican monastery for their dining hall, and appropriately the Last Supper focuses on the announcement of the betrayal in the passion of Christ. Multiple other scenes were incorporated such as signs of the sacrament where Christ, for instance appears to point at the bread and wine on the table before him . Leonardo used both the power of art as well as the facts of nature to carefully record human behavior appropriate to the dramatic story. Leonardo’s piece had extraordinary attention to detail; even the table cloth and cups modeled similar to what the monks would have used for a sense
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Most Scholars would agree the Leonardo’s version with its refined sfumato modeling and profound awareness of human behavior belongs among the highest achievements of High Renaissance art . The Last Supper was an iconic piece of the high renaissance because of its high replication rate. People appreciated the difference in the arrangement of the apostles, in most earlier paintings Christ and the Apostles are lined up along the table and appear relatively inert and inexpressive. Their gestures restrained and their faces impassive; there is little sign of communication between them . While Leonardo’s piece brought the apostles to life, and arranged them in such a way where there are twelve men on one side of the table, divided into four groups of …show more content…
But of the original surface- of its color and atmosphere, its breath of sfumato, its precision of nuance in still life and faces- almost nothing is left.” . Hope also argues that “Since the original surface of Leonardo’s masterpiece is gone, while only patches of the lower layers have been preserved, to all intents and purposes the Last Supper no longer exists and has not existed for centuries” . The historians agree that restoration was needed, with many layers of dirt accumulating only after a few decades after the last cleaning, but many argue that restoration takes away from the original piece. Once restoration has happened the emphasis of the work is put on art as an aesthetic object, rather than keeping the piece as an artifact in
Most Scholars would agree the Leonardo’s version with its refined sfumato modeling and profound awareness of human behavior belongs among the highest achievements of High Renaissance art . The Last Supper was an iconic piece of the high renaissance because of its high replication rate. People appreciated the difference in the arrangement of the apostles, in most earlier paintings Christ and the Apostles are lined up along the table and appear relatively inert and inexpressive. Their gestures restrained and their faces impassive; there is little sign of communication between them . While Leonardo’s piece brought the apostles to life, and arranged them in such a way where there are twelve men on one side of the table, divided into four groups of …show more content…
But of the original surface- of its color and atmosphere, its breath of sfumato, its precision of nuance in still life and faces- almost nothing is left.” . Hope also argues that “Since the original surface of Leonardo’s masterpiece is gone, while only patches of the lower layers have been preserved, to all intents and purposes the Last Supper no longer exists and has not existed for centuries” . The historians agree that restoration was needed, with many layers of dirt accumulating only after a few decades after the last cleaning, but many argue that restoration takes away from the original piece. Once restoration has happened the emphasis of the work is put on art as an aesthetic object, rather than keeping the piece as an artifact in