Regardless of the reasons for painting it, The Last Supper by Leonardo Da Vinci was a common theme among Renaissance painters. It was considered something of a challenge to the master artist to put together a properly crafted representation of the last meal of Christ. Much has been made of that final meal, not only in art, but in the basic Sacraments of most dominations of Christianity.

When did Jesus celebrate the last supper with his apostles?

The history of the Last Supper itself relates the final meal of Jesus with his twelve disciples, as described in the New Testament of the Christian Bible and though the exact day of the Last Supper is debated, most agree it was the day before Passover began. The location of the Last Supper of Jesus was in the Upper Room on Mount Zion, located near the Old City of Jerusalem’s walls. During the course of the last Supper, Jesus spoke to his disciples while taking the bread and the wine, “Do this in remembrance of Me”. For that reason, the Eucharist was born, a tradition designed to remember that final meal of Christ. The room itself is known traditionally as the Upper Room.

The location of the Upper Room has been derived from the gospels stating that Jesus had a pair of disciples go to the city and meet a man who would lead them to a house where the teacher had a room. The room in question is described as the upper room and they are to prepare the Passover while there.

Because of the Last Supper’s time period, the actual city it takes place in is not known and could be anywhere just outside of Jerusalem. The Last Supper was the source for many of the symbolic actions taken by Christians in churches around the world. Jesus takes and divides the bread among his disciples, saying a prayer over it. He then hands the bread to his disciples and says this is my body. Then he takes his cup of wine and after offering another prayer, passes the cup around and says this is my blood of the everlasting ‘covenant’, which is poured for many. He then makes the instruction to do this in the memory of me.

It was also during this meal that Jesus offered the revelation that one of his apostles would betray him. It was truly the last supper that the disciples would have with Jesus. They each in turn refuse this claim, reasserting their loyalty, but Jesus insists that one of the men present will betray him. In both the gospels of Mark and Luke, the betrayer is not singled out. However Matthew and John specifically single out Judas Iscariot as the betrayer.
After confirming that Peter would deny Christ three times, Jesus finishes the meal with his disciples and begins a sermon, traditionally known as the Farewell Discourse. This final speech to his disciples in considered one of the most important descriptions of Christianity by Christ in the gospels.

The importance of the event lives on today in the form of the Eucharist of the Roman Catholic Church and the “Inauguration of the New Covenant” by most Christians. As a prophecy related by Jeremiah, this covenant refers to the line in which Christ told his disciples to eat of his body and drink of his blood. Other groups see the Last Supper as a symbol of change to the Passover ceremony, replacing the traditional Jewish practice with the body and blood of Jesus Christ. Generally, each of the major branches of Christianity has its own slightly different interpretation of the Last Supper. However, in the end, this final act by Jesus with his disciples is considered one of the most important and inspirational scenes in the Bible and subsequently in all of Renaissance Art.

Leonardo Da Vinci’s The Last Supper painting was originally painted starting in 1495 and was completed in 1498. The painting was commissioned by Duke Ludovico Sforza and his wife Beatrice d’Este to be painted as a mural in Milan. The painting itself is a recreation of The Last Supper as described in the Gospel of John regarding the final days of Jesus Christ. The scene Leonardo chooses is the moment at which Jesus reveals that one of his disciples will betray him.

Measuring 15 x 29 Feet, the mural is found in the back of the dining hall of Santa Maria delle Grazie in Milan, Italy. During the time in which Leonardo painted it, depictions of the Last Supper were very common. It was a challenge to all good Renaissance painters to recreate the Last Supper. However, Leondardo’s depiction garnered so much fame and admiration because it was so much different than the others. Using the sense of realism he infused in many of his paintings, the Last Supper was a wonderful example of his talents. However, some criticism has been leveled due to the consequences of the painting technique Leonardo Da Vinci used in the Last Supper and its rapid deterioration.

The painting itself is rife with important references to his patron, including the Sforzas coats-of-arms, located along the top of the painting beneath the arches of the ceiling. There were also originally figures of the Sforza family added in tempera to the piece, though like the main painting itself, they have rapidly deteriorated over time.

By the time Leonardo’s biographer, Giorgio Vasari, was writing his histories, the painting was already largely ruined by decomposition. It’s believed that such flaking began to occur as early as 1517 and continued for centuries. In 1652 a large doorway was cut through the middle of the painting, which at this point was largely unrecognizable. It was bricked up in time, but an irregular shape in the painting can still be seen today. Numerous copies were made early in the life of the painting which depict different versions, though it is impossible to know what the mural really looked like any longer.

In 1768, a curtain was hung to protect the painting from further deterioration. Unfortunately, the curtain only served cause the build up of moisture. When the curtain was moved, it would flake even more paint free of the wall. Da Vinci’s Last Supper was first restored in 1726 by Michelangelo Bellotti. He filled in the missing sections with oils and varnished it over. Unfortunately this restoration barely lasted and in 1770 another painter tried again. Giuseppe Mazza removed all of Bellotti’s restoration work and almost completely repainted the mural. The public was unhappy with the repainting though and he was eventually halted.

Only 26 years later, in 1796 French Troops utilized the room for an armory all the while throwing rocks at it and purposely gouging out the eyes of the Apostles. Later, the room was used as a prison and further damage still could have been inflicted. Later, in 1821, Stefano Barezzi was hired to move what everyone thought was a fresco as such work was his specialty. However, because the painting was not a fresco, he damaged the painting severely. He attempted to reattach those sections he had destroyed with glue. Later, in 1901, Luigi Cavenaghi did a full study of the painting and the structure behind it before starting on a full cleaning. Later, in 1924 Oreste Silvestri continued the job of cleaning the painting and restoring the broken bits and pieces.

However, the painting was still not quite safe. On August 15, 1943, the room was hit with a bomb. Though the wall was sandbagged, the vibrations from the bombing may have damaged it even further. After the war, Mauro Pelliccioli attempted another cleaning of the painting.

By the time the 1970s arrived, the painting was largely unrecognizable. So, from 1978 to 1999 Pinin Brambilla Barcilon undertook a massive restoration process, the goal of which was to stabilize the painting for good and remove the damage inflicted over the years. The entire room was turned into a museum, sealed off from the outside world, as the painting could not be moved. The portions of the painting that could not be restored accurately were repainted using careful watercolors while the rest was studied and researched using old drawings and sketches from throughout the world. Upon finishing, Barcilon was able to recreate the first full picture of the Last Supper in hundreds of years. Today, the Last Supper painting sits in its current exhibit in Milan. To view the painting you must sign up for a long waiting list and are only given 15 minutes when you enter the exhibit.

The importance of the Last Supper to pop culture has also seen a recent spike as more and more people find interesting bits and pieces in the painting to discuss. The release of Dan Brown’s Da Vinci Code in 2003 only helped that popularity to spike, while movies and television have been using the famous image for years now to depict the themes of Da Vinci’s painting. For those still interested in learning more, you can find incredibly detailed information on Da Vinci’s Last Supper on Last Supper wikis, as well as excellent Last Supper reprints in most art shops around the world.

To cap the Mona Lisa off, here’s a light hearted video showing someone with amazing talent. This is drawn using MS Paint, that’s the free software that you get with Windows. Anyone who’s used it knows that it’s impossible to draw anything with. Well aparently not;