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A conversation about Leonardo's famous fresco in the monastery of Santa Maria della Grazie in Milan. We discuss the characteristics of the High Renaissance style, the terrible condition of the painting, how Leonardo's version of this subject is so unique, and what makes this such an important painting in European art history.
Speakers: Dr. Beth Harris, Dr. Steven Zucker
Leonardo da Vinci’s The Last Supper is one reason why he is seen as one of the greatest painters of all time. It depicts Jesus and the 12 disciples eating their last meal together. It is in a monastery in Santa Maria della Grazie in Milan. The Last Supper is an amazing painting in both meaning and history. By “meaning,” I mean what the painting is depicting or what the author wants to convey to the audience. By “history,” I mean what the painting has gone through since it was painted.
To begin, this painting’s history includes its deterioration and conservation. Not long after da Vinci finished, the painting began to deteriorate. This was caused by the process of painting and the wall it was on. The lady in the video referred to the painting as a mixed media “mess.” This is because da Vinci experimented with oil paint, fresco and tempra, which did not work well. He also did not paint on wet plaster, so the paint did not stick to the wall. Furthermore, the wall it was painted on is thin and so water from the outside was easily able to get to the painting. Because of this damage to such a wonderful artwork, lots of paint was applied to it in hopes that the painting would last. This just made it worse. The painting just finished a 20 year conservation, in which the paint of others was removed leaving only Leonardo’s work. A question I had that they did not answer is, “How did they know what was painted by Leonardo and what was painted by other people?”
Secondly, this painting is filled with numerous emotions. Even though I have heard about these emotions before, there are some things I heard in this video that I had not heard. For example, there are four different “emotion” groups (excluding Jesus). The three members of each of these groups are displaying similar emotions. Also, I’ve always wondered how people were able to tell the disciples apart. According to this video, the different/ extreme emotions and body language help differentiate the disciples from one another. For example, Peter is the one lunging forward towards Jesus with the knife in his back hand (I never noticed the knife). The man and woman in this video explained that people say this is Peter because he was like Jesus’ bodyguard and his body language seems to be on the defense, ready to harm whoever plans to betray Jesus.
All in all, I really liked this video. It presented a lot of information in an interesting manor. I also learned many new things I did not know about Leonardo da Vinci’s The Last Supper.
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