Last Supper
Da Vinci's "Last Supper" is a priceless piece of art with much hidden meaning. Under the study of Verrocchio as a painter and a sculptor, he was able to use his skills in creating a very detailed and a very naturalistic piece of work that would be remembered for hundreds of years. He was also able to create characters with amazing individuality. Not only was his portrayal of the characters magnificent, but also the symbolism he used which emphasized the story being told in the "Last Supper". Lodovico Sforza chose Da Vinci to create "The Last Supper" in the refectory of the Dominican Church of St. Maria delle Grazie in Milan. The Abate of the St. Maria delle Grazie saw Da Vinci work from morning until night on "The Last Supper" without eating or much sleep. Although there were times he would stop painting for days at a time, or would work on a specific character for just a few moments and then leave to continue working on it later; He ended up worked on it from 1495 thru 1498. Before Da Vinci began painting the actual portrait, he put down a substance, which was suppose to absorb the tempora and protect the tempora from the moisture on the wall. Unfortunately, the substance was proven unsuccessful, and by 1517 it began to deterio
Da Vinci believed that naturalization was "harmony between mental and physical motion." He accomplished the correspondence between physical movement and mental emotion by the pause between two great emotions which are the"momentarily stiffening" at an extreme point of excitement and at the horror of being "startled out of tranquility". The painting portrays both expression and emotion. This combination complements each other. The expressions allow the viewers to see the emotions the characters are feeling. Their frozen movement allows one to see they are human. We can see both their outward and inward reactions. It is as if Da Vinci had been there, and he had taken a picture of the marvelous meal. He definitely accomplished his goal in portraying his "Last Supper" as a realistic piece of art. The symbolism, the individualized personalities of the characters, and the skills such as the light perspective and spacial perspective blended together to form a photograph-like painting. obvious that Da Vinci chose the critical moment after the Lord had stated, "Verily I say unto you that one of you shall betray me," because of the emotions that evolve in this specific scene. Da Vinci has taken much time to express every detail of each Apostle and the Lord. Da Vinci had even written in one of his notebooks "A good painter has two chief objects to paint man and the intention of his soul." To paint man is easier than painting the intentions in his soul, because he has to represent this by the attitude and movement of the limbs. For example, the Lord is very relaxed with his arms resting on the table, which adds to the portrayal of His greatness. He also emphasized the Lord's greatness by giving Him a serious attitude and by presenting Him as untouchable with the space between Himself and the Apostles. The distance put between them is called the spacial perspective, which is one of the techniques Da Vinci feels is important in naturalistic art. Although, the Apostles are painted in a more restless fashion, They are all facing different ways and seem to be jumping out of their seats. Even the grouping of the apostles in three was done intentionally. He used four groups of three Apostles in each group in order to symbolize the Holy Trinity, which means three, and the four groups were used to symbolize the Gospels and the Cardinal Virtues. He was very cautious in every aspect of his painting from the placement of the figures to the movement they each possessed. Da Vinci had to create actions and various postures, which would be appropriate for each figure in order to keep them from looking as if they were brothers. For each of the twelve Apostles he had to not only resort to the historical information on their names and on their appearances but also by the portrayal of their specific qualities as they are known to us from the Gospels. For instance, Judas was put outside the circle of the innocent Apostles and only his shadowed profile can be found. He is the only one to be found sitting in the shadows and in solitude. This allows the viewer to see the guilt he had, for he knew he was the one who would betray the Lord Jesus. He
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Approximate Word count = 2115
Approximate Pages = 8 (250 words per page double spaced)
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