The Last Supper (
Italian Il Cenacolo or
L'Ultima Cena) is a 15th century
mural painting in
Milan created by
Leonardo da Vinci for his patron
Duke Ludovico Sforza and his duchess
Beatrice d'Este. It represents the scene of
The Last Supper from the final days of
Jesus as narrated in the
Gospel of John 1321, when Jesus announces that one of his twelve
disciples would betray him.
The painting measures 460 × 880 centimeters (15&_160;feet × 29&_160;ft) and can be found in the back halls of the dining hall at Santa Maria delle Grazie in Milan, Italy. The theme was a traditional one for refectories, but Leonardo's interpretation gave it much greater realism and depth. 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 Donato 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.) Leonardo began work on The Last Supper in 1495 and completed it in 1498—however, he did not work on the piece continuously throughout this period. According to 'Leonardo Da Vinci' [Kenneth Clark, p.144, Penguin Books 1939,1993], this beginning date is not certain, as "the archives of the convent have been destroyed and our meagre documents date from 1497 when the painting was nearly finished."
The Last Supper specifically portrays the reaction given by each apostle when Jesus said one of them would betray him. All twelve apostles have different reactions to the news, with various degrees of anger and shock. From left to right
These names are all agreed upon by art historians. In the 19th century, a manuscript (The Notebooks Leonardo Da Vinci pg. 232) was found with their names; before this only Judas, Peter, John and Jesus were positively identified.
