The Last Supper (Leonardo)

The Last Supper (Italian: Il Cenacolo [il tʃeˈnaːkolo] or L'Ultima Cena [ˈlultima ˈtʃeːna]) is a late 15th-
century mural painting by Italian artist Leonardo da Vinci housed by the refectory of the Convent
of Santa Maria delle Grazie in Milan, Italy. It is one of the Western world's most recognizable
paintings.[1]
The work is assumed 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. The painting represents the scene of the Last Supper of Jesus with his apostles, as it is told
in the Gospel of John, 13:21.[2] Leonardo has depicted the consternation that occurred among
the Twelve Apostles when Jesus announced that one of them would betray him.
Due to the methods used, a variety of environmental factors, and intentional damage, only little of
the original painting remains today despite numerous restoration attempts, the last being completed
in 1999.
The Last Supper measures 460 cm × 880 cm (180 in × 350 in) and covers an end wall of the dining
hall at the monastery of Santa Maria delle Grazie in Milan, Italy. The theme was a traditional one
for refectories, although the room was not a refectory at the time that Leonardo painted it. The main
church building had only recently been completed (in 1498), but was planned by Ludovico Sforza to
be remodeled as a family mausoleum.[3] The painting was commissioned by Sforza to be the
centerpiece of the mausoleum.[4] The lunettes above the main painting, formed by the triple arched
ceiling of the refectory, are painted with Sforza coats-of-arms. The opposite 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; these figures have deteriorated in much the same way as
has The Last Supper.[5]