We all know Leonardo Da Vinci for many things, ranging from paintings, to inventions, and even studies he performed while living in Milan working for the Duke. Leonardo was born in Vinci, Italy, his illegitimate standing from being born as a wedlock, kept him from receiving good education and he was therefore excluded from very lucrative occupations in these times. However, these limitations only fueled Leonardo’s desire to achieve his dreams and succeed as an inventor and artist with his amazing ambition and knowledge. At the age of 15, Leonardo was still very young and had much to learn in his life, he decided to learn under someone who would mentor him well and groom him to be great. He came across the painter Andrea del Verrocchio in Florence, there he developed beautiful skills and flourished so well he even intimidated his mentor. After excelling and learning to master his craft, Da Vinci looked for a broader scope of work, he followed his dreams to the city of Milan, which at the time he was leaving Florence was widely considered the cultural capital of Italy. Milan was a very political and militaristic city, but that did not bother Leonardo, in which he sold himself to Duke Sforza as a military engineer to start his career there. This is where Da Vinci started to become a mastermind in war inventions and became widely famous for his incredible designs and weapons. Da Vinci spent almost 17 years in Milan continuing his loyal business for the Duke, he even brought back his sculpting and painting to practice in Milan so he could always stay productive. These 17 years are considered to be Leonardo’s most productive years, but all great things must come to an end in all stories. In 1499, The French invaded Milan and sent the Duke fleeing for his life, Leonardo was spared and spent his remaining years traveling the world to inspire and create in beautiful countries and cities such as Venice and Rome. With these new adventures and projects taking over his life, Da Vinci decided to spend his greatest efforts and time on art and was determined to concentrate on his soon to be most famous pieces. After hundreds of breakthroughs in vast arrays of fields ranging from astronomy to architecture, Da Vinci died in 1519 at the age of 67.
Leonardo was widely and most famously known for his art pieces. When you hear his name we usually think of “Mona Lisa” and “The Last Supper” which are both legendary in the cultural art world. Da Vinci undertook the original project for the Last Supper when his employed the Duke of Milan requested that he do so. Duke Sforza decided he wanted a particular religious scene of Jesus and the Apostles at the Last Supper painted by Da Vinci, who was not stupid and took the financial chance as soon as he saw it. “The Last Supper” is actually a very large original painting, and is always almost overseen and remade in different dimensions for the sole purpose of it being able to fit in houses and museums. It measured 15×29 feet, and can cover an entire large wall easily. Leonardo began painting the picture on the wall of the dining hall in Santa Maria delle Grazie in Milan, Italy, and fully completed it in 1498. Some say Da Vinci’s method for this painting was quite unprecedented and was predicted to be a major catastrophe. “The Last Supper” was not a fresco, known as the basic and most common form of painting back in these times involving freshly laid or wet lime plaster, Water is then used as the vehicle for the pigments to then merge with the plaster and continues to set in and become an integral part of the wall. Leonardo did not find this method of fresco effective or needed for what he wanted to do with his mural. Instead he devised his own technique for murals, a type of tempera on stone. He would first coat the wall with a strong base of a certain material, which would not just absorb the tempera emulsion but also defend it from moisture and other harmful ailments. His base was a compound of many things which ended up not mixing very well together and resulted in early and progressive decay as early as 1517. It included gesso, pitch and mastic, which proved to not be very durable in the long run but still made for an absolutely stunning material for the picture. Leonardo felt compelled and determined to give this painting meaning and a sense of holy power to make his viewers and the Duke recognize his pure talent. He chose to capture the exact moment in that Jesus announced to the Apostles that he knows one of them will end up betraying him. The painting is supposed to be a capture of the moment right after they find this out and are in a complete sense of astonishment and horror from his announcement. The painting is very extraordinary in the sense that every human is displaying very identifiable emotions and actions, which was a first in these times and for Leonardo it was something he strived for and wanted his art to reflect. This is also arguably one of the best paintings of all time for the fact that it was one of the first and best compositions to use the one point perspective. In basic terms, is having every subject or character facing their attention to the center midpoint piece, Christ’s head.
This painting is so powerful and relevant in today's history still, and somehow Leonardo knew and created his works in such a way that he knew they would be legendary and famous for ever. “The Last Supper” is a painting that is so good at building on the early Renaissance traditions in painting as well as his composition and perspective. Yet the painting is still quite innovative in its own sense of emotional reactions and psychological states throughout the entire piece and was all captured in a naturalistic way which was unknown in these times to Italian painters from this century. Coming back to Leonardo’s perspective skills, which is quite significant to our art history and the Renaissance was the fact that every single element of the painting is directed to the attention of Christ’s head. Da Vinci achieved this by first driving a nail into the actual temple of Christ on his head, to located the exact focal point of the painting before continuing with the other subjects. This helped Leonardo greatly when he was figuring out the rooms perspective and used string to radiate in various directions to make his painting symmetrical and soothing. Leonardo also was inspired and inspired others with the choice of a long straight table over a circular one that would not have provided adequate opportunity for sharing and exploiting everyone’s drama and shock from the news. Leonardo did not just have art and beauty in mind when creating his pieces as well. As an engineer and inventor, he was well known for including and using math in all of his works to help with symmetry and the underlying beauty behind all his works. Leonardo was a very intelligent mathematician beside his artistry, and even supplied all the illustrations for the “Divine Proportion” written by Luca Paciolo. Here in this book Da Vinci introduced the golden ratio, which went on to be used in most of his works which is a mathematical way to decipher artistic proportion to exact lengths and meaning. The Golden Ratio is a special number that equals to about 1.618, that happens to appear many of times in geometry, architecture, and surprise! Art. The Golden Ratio is regularly found when a line is divided into two parts, in a way that the whole length of the line divided by the long part of the line is also equal to the long part divided by the short part.
Not only did this painting say so much about the actual Last Supper, but it also led the way for the start of the Renaissance era and played a large role in inspiring other artists to try and recreate the “Last Supper” as well as using his same styles of focus and perspective. So yes, Leonardo and his painting of “The Last Supper” greatly influenced the early Renaissance painting traditions. Virtuosity was at its highest peak, new and original ways of depicting figures and scenes and even the entire course of European art began to change as well when Leonardo introduced this work to begin the High Renaissance. Leonardo wanted to make this work resonate with his people and the Duke he was making it for in the first place. Since this was such an important moment in history back then, Leonardo had to make sure this piece was done to perfection and captured every emotion and action that he wanted in amazing styles and strokes. Not only did “The Last Supper” inspire people to live by faith in Jesus Christ, it also helped the people of these times to serve others instead of following the strange influences of expecting to be served. Leonardo made sure he spent lots of time employing his new techniques to communicate and do something new and extraordinary for his viewers. He was seen as such a creative thinker and was so beautiful at using personification and intellect in order to stand out as a revolutionary artist with dignity and faith. Looking at “The Last Supper” you can only sit down and ponder this painting and think about what life was like and what made Leonardo so intrigued to make this painting the way it was and be such a secretive person.
Now this particular art piece does not say much about the actual time period it was made in, since it is a picture painted of an event from hundreds of years ago that nobody was there for and we know the info from solely the bible. We know that this painting was done in the time of the Renaissance and the time of revival and upcoming, so we can assume that people’s lives were in a sort of amazement and awe. When Leonardo was traveling the world and sharing these beautiful pieces and inventing amazing gadgets, people’s priorities could have also changed as well, maybe even their beliefs, after seeing someone so talented and intelligent changing art culture and making inventions that were unheard of for these times. When an unknown artist comes to Milan and Florence and begins to change art norms and is using new forms and methods to change art in his own way, it really shows you how relevant his work can still be, and that is exactly why we still love and cherish all of Leonardo’s beautiful works. He was a rebel of some sorts, and people even called him dumb and a failure after finding out he was doing this piece of the supper on a wall for a Duke. He was using new materials and new ways of showing perspective, all while everyone doubted him and believed him to be unskilled until they saw the final product. Leonardo is still very relevant in this century, and will continue to be until we are not using art or painting anymore. Anyone who is still remembered for such legendary pieces as well as the “Mona Lisa” he will always be relevant for challenging art norms and culture in order to preserve his ideas and share his talent and new content.