Title: Journal Entry #3 The Last Supper
Watch the Lecture: Italy in the Sixteenth Century first before starting. The focus of this Journal Entry is The Last Supper by Leonardo da Vinci.
Heres the link: https://youtu.be/KnADZfT2q6o
Choose TWO of the topics (there are four to choose from). Then answer the questions underneath the topic. Each set of questions should be about half a page, so the completed project would be about one complete page.
Title: The Last Supper
Artist: Leonardo Da Vinci
Time Period: 1495-98
Medium: Oil and tempera on plaster
Dimensions: 13’9” x 29’ 10”
Location: Refectory, Santa Maria delle Grazie, Milan
Topic 1: Line in the Last Supper
1. Try to consider
the use of line in da Vinci’s the Last Supper from a critical perspective.
For example, how
does it influence the painting, its mood, subject, impact, and meaning?
2. Is there anything
you find remarkable about the use of line in this artwork?
3. Can you
draw (and explain) an informal diagram of the use of line in this artwork?
Definition: A line is a moving point
that has length.
About Line:
A line’s direction
describes spatial relationships.
Horizontal lines
imply inactivity.
Vertical lines imply
aspiration, the potential of action.
Diagonal lines
suggest movement, like falling trees.
Curving lines
suggest flowing movement.
Line can be actual
or implied.
It can create a
sense of rhythm and action.
Line and Emotion
Line quality can
express a range of emotions, fragility, roughness, anger, whimsy, vigor… In his Last Supper,
da Vinci has used a combination of vertical, horizontal and diagonal lines to arrange the
scene. Jesus and his disciples, designed with mostly rounded lines, are seated at the
table in a room with windows, all composed from straight and diagonal lines.
One of the things
Leonardo uses his lines here to do, particularly the diagonal ones, is direct where we
look. The lines all point to the center of the picture where the oval face of Jesus is framed
by a window. The lines work to make sure we know who is the most important character
in this story. Leonardo’s lines also balance the painting, so that the setting on the
right-hand side of
Jesus is echoed on
the left, even though the figures and faces are different. The painting, we say, is
symmetrical, and the boundaries you can see or imagine that equally divide balanced or
reflecting forms are known as lines of symmetry.
Topic 2: Color in the Last Supper
1. Try to consider
the use of color in da Vinci’s the Last Supper from a critical
perspective. For example, how
does it influence the painting, its mood, subject, impact, and meaning?
2. Is there anything
you find remarkable about the use of color in this artwork?
3. Can you
draw (and explain) an informal diagram of the use of color in this artwork?
Properties of color:
Hue – the pure color
Value – the
lightness/darkness of a color
Saturation – a
color’s intensity
Primary colors –
red, yellow, blue
Complimentary –
opposite colors (very powerful when paired)
The Color Blue
Almost all of the
disciples, as well as Jesus, are wearing Blue. Particularly at the time of the Renaissance,
this acknowledged than extraordinary figures, although in reality the opposite was true.
Bright Color
Surrounding Christ
Jesus is the only
one in the room wearing a particularly bright shades of reddish/orange.
While some think
this may have been in order to distinguish Christ from the rest, many also believe that it
may have been foreshadowing for the tragic events that would befall him.
The Use of White
Cloth
The table they are
eating on is also draped with white cloth, which may reference the purity and emotional
cleanliness of Christ. Tablecloths certainly would not have been used by Jesus and
the Disciples.
Topic 7: The Content (Subject Matter)
and Iconography
(symbolism) of the
Last Supper
1. Try to consider
the use of content in da Vinci’s the Last Supper from a critical perspective.
For example, how
does it influence the painting, its mood, subject, impact, and meaning?
2. Is there anything
you find remarkable about the content in this artwork?
3. Can you
draw (and explain) an informal diagram of the content in this artwork?
Content – an
artwork’s subject matter and meaning
Iconology – an
artwork’s symbolism
Da Vinci portrays
Christ’s final meal with his apostles before Judas identifies Christ to the authorities who
arrest him. The Last Supper (a Passover Seder), is remembered for two events:
Christ says to his
apostles “One of you will betray me,” and the apostles react, each according to his own personality.
Referring to the Gospels, Leonardo depicts Philip asking “Lord, is it I?” Christ replies,
“He that dippeth his hand with me in the dish, the same shall betray me” (Matthew 26). We see
Christ and Judas simultaneously
reaching toward a plate that lies between them, even as Judas
defensively backs away. Leonardo also simultaneously depicts Christ blessing the bread
and saying to the apostles “Take, eat; this is my body” and blessing the wine and saying “Drink
from it all of you; for this is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out
for the forgiveness of
sins” (Matthew 26). These words are the founding moment of the sacrament of the Eucharist (the
miraculous transformation of the bread and wine into the body and blood of Christ).
The Apostles
Identified: Leonardo’s Last
Supper is dense with symbolic references. Attributes identify each apostle. For example, Judas
Iscariot is recognized both as he reaches to toward a plate beside Christ
(Matthew 26) and because he
clutches a purse containing his reward for identifying Christ to the
authorities the following day.
Peter, who sits beside Judas, holds a knife in his right hand, foreshadowing that Peter will
sever the ear of a soldier as he attempts to protect Christ from arrest.
The Heavenly Realm: Christ is shown as
the gateway to the heavenly landscape behind him that is associated with paradise. It has
been suggested that this heavenly sanctuary can only be reached through Christ.
Giorgio Vasari (Renaissance
Artist and Art Historian) on The Last Supper
“Leonardo
imagined, and has succeeded in expressing, the desire that has entered the
minds of the apostles to know who
is betraying their Master. So in the face of each one may be seen love, fear, indignation, or
grief at not being able to understand the meaning of Christ; and this excites
no less astonishment than
the obstinate hatred and treachery to be seen in Judas.” (Giorgio Vasari,
Lives of the Artists,
1568; translated by George Bull)
Topic 8: The Context of the Last
Supper
1. Consider the
context and reception of da Vinci’s the Last Supper from a critical perspective. For
example, how do you think it influenced the painting, its mood, subject, impact, and meaning?
2. Is there anything
you find significant about the context?
Context- the social,
political, and economic (environmental) factors that influence artists and their
creations
Under which
Conditions did da Vinci begin the Last Supper?
In 1482, Leonardo
arrived in Milan bearing a gift for Ludovico Sforza from the Florentine ruler, Lorenzo the
Magnificent. Ludovico sought to transform Milan into a center of humanist
learning to rival Florence.
The French king, Francis I, invited him to his court and about 1516, Leonardo settled in a manor. Da Vinci started the
Last Supper at a most inopportune time. Just a year or so before he
began the project, King Louis XII of France invaded Italy. This was a terrible tragedy
for Italy, the beginning of many decades of invasion and warfare. On a personal level,
Louis’s invasion meant that Leonardo lost a commission on which he hadworked for eight or
ten years, an enormous bronze equestrian monument. In wartime, bronze would be
collected and melted into gun metal. Da Vinci didn’t just lose money because of the war.
The statue would have brought him the acclaim and artistic prestige he craved. He
received the task of painting the Last Supper as compensation, but it must have seemed a poor
substitute.”
What was position
was the artist in when he began this painting?
We think of
Leonardo, quite rightly, as an all-conquering genius, but in fact he had his share of
disappointments and failures. In 1494, da Vinci was 42 years old. At that
point, the Renaissance man
had been judged by some contemporaries to have wasted his potential. He had
failed to finish a number of commissions, and many people found him unreliable as a
result. One poet mocked him, saying that he had barely managed to finish a single picture in
ten years. Leonardo was desperate to create what he called a ‘work of fame’ — something
that would make him famous for posterity. He finally gained it with the Last Supper.
The Reception and
Reputation of the Last Supper during da Vinci’s Lifetime
While today da Vinci
is remembered for the breadth of his artwork, writings, and inventions, the Last
Supper was the painting that truly cemented his reputation during his own time. The image
quickly gained famous across Europe. It was one of the most copied the painting
of the next century — not only in paint, but also in marble, wax and terracotta. Many
wanted a version of it. Leonardo had finally created the work of fame about which he
dreamed.