| Leonardo da Vinci Artist/Renaissance Man One major work that Leonardo carried out in the 1490s was the Last Supper in S.M. delle Grazie, Milan, on whichhe was working in 1497. Owing to his slow methods and his desire forexperiment he worked on the plaster in oil instead of fresco, with the resultthat the painting was already a wreck in his own lifetime. Nevertheless, this isthe first work of the High Renaissance, with its stress on the psychology of the Disciples and the tension of the moment when Christ announces that one ofthem is about to betray Him, a subtlety of interpretation quite foreign to the 15thcentury. The stories of Leonardo's slowness in working on this wall-painting andhis search for psychological expressiveness justify the claims made by a latergeneration which regarded Leonardo as the originator of the idea of the artistas a contemplative and creative thinker, the equal of the philosopher, and nota mere artisan who was paid to cover so many square yards of wall a day.Certainly all the 16th-century ideas on the dignity of the artist can be tracedback to the example set by him. There is a copy of the Last Supper, 25 incheswide, which has been in the RA, London, since the 1820s. It is thought to be by Marco d'Oggiono and/or Cesare da Sesto, and is said to be the best survivingcopy of the original, made possibly for the Certosa of Pavia. It was cleaned andrestored in the 1980s, with the original fresco. Source: The Penguin Dictionary of Art and Artists (Penguin Reference Books) PARASTONE FIGURINE Affiliate/Advertising policy. >> Previous Fact | Next Fact << Book Must Read: |
