The Last Supper is the only surviving wall painting by the universal genius Leonardo da Vinci. It was completed around 1498 and shows the scene in which Jesus announces to his disciples that one of them will betray him. The painting is located in the former dining room of the monks of the monastery of Santa Maria delle Grazie in Milan.
When the hour had come, he sat down at table with the apostles. And he said to them: With great longing I have longed to eat this Passover meal with you before my suffering. For I say to you: I will not eat it again until it finds its fulfillment in the kingdom of God. And he took a cup, and said the prayer of thanksgiving, and said, Take this, and divide it among yourselves. For I say unto you, From henceforth I will drink no more of the fruit of the vine, until the kingdom of God come. And he took bread, and said the prayer of thanksgiving, and brake it, and gave it to them, saying, This is my body which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me! Likewise, after the meal, he took the cup and said, "This cup is the New Covenant in my blood, which is poured out for you. But behold, the hand of him who delivers me up is with me at the table. True, the Son of Man must go the way that is appointed for him. But woe to the man through whom he is delivered up! Then one asked another which of them it was that would do this.
The common explanations for the painting mostly focus on the group of people in the foreground. However, Leonardo emphasized the background of the figure groups through geometric symbolism, without which the work cannot be explained. In this context, it must be mentioned that Leonardo, unusually for his designs, depicts the figures within an architectural framework. Apart from the Mona Lisa, who is still visibly sitting in a loggia, Leonardo's figures are usually set against a black background or in a landscape. Among all of Leonardo's authentic and unquestionably genuine paintings, only in "The Last Supper" does he depict an architectural space in the background. With a width of approximately 9 meters, it is by far Leonardo's largest painting.
The analysis of the picture composition is not yet optimized for screens below 1200px in width. There may also be some errors in the Safari browser. We will correct these issues promptly.
Who is not a mathematician should not read my principles
The twelve disciples of Jesus are arranged in four groups of three people each. Jesus is at the center of the painting. His head and hands form an equilateral triangle. In this way, Leonardo alludes to mathematics and geometry: the number 12 results from 2 sides (left and right) × 2 groups × 3 people per group.
The equilateral triangle around Jesus is perceived as especially harmonious. Although the sides of the triangle are more or less precisely defined by Jesus’ head and arms, the position of the base of the triangle is unclear. It may run along the upper edge of the table, or it may be defined by the hands of Jesus (mouseover). In that case, the equilateral triangle would be the two-dimensional image of a three-dimensional triangle projecting into space, with its base at the hands of Jesus and its apex at the doorway in the back wall.
Plato describes how two-dimensional geometric figures outline a three-dimensional form in his “Allegory of the Cave.” In a famous contemporary fresco by Raphael, Leonardo himself was portrayed as Plato (“The School of Athens,” see below). It is located in the Vatican, in the former private apartments of the pope
The painting can be divided into twelve equal squares because it was composed in a 4:3 format. Of particular note is the striking marker at the lower right edge of the picture (lower light-blue dot). Its upper end marks the lower boundary of the grid of 3 × 4 squares — the painting’s aspect ratio. Within the surrounding quadrant, it is just as far from the edge as a visually very similar structure above and to the left of the doorway (blue lines, see “Detail Views”).
It is often overlooked that the three lunettes above the painting also belong to the work (yellow area). They display the coats of arms of the family of the Duke of Milan who commissioned the painting.
The corners of the interior walls of the refectory divide the work horizontally into three equal sections (mouseover). The resulting T-shaped pattern (yellow area) is known in Christianity as the Tau cross or Saint Anthony’s cross. It alludes to the equally sized Crucifixion painting on the opposite wall of the room, in which Jesus and the two thieves are nailed to just such a Saint Anthony’s cross (lower illustration)
The upper three lunettes are laid out in a 2:3 ratio (black and white lines at the top), creating seven equal units. The vanishing point of the perspective lines is located at Jesus’ right temple, not at his eye as is often claimed (yellow lines). At that spot there is still the trace of a nail that Leonardo used to stretch the strings.
The perspective lines of the windows are the only ones that are not axis-symmetric (orange lines). Their angles are 15° and 4° — Leonardo was born on April 15. Brunelleschi died on April 15 (1446), although it cannot be ruled out that the date was later aligned with Leonardo’s birthday to symbolically emphasize the continuity of Florentine creative power. The famous Florentine architect and engineer Filippo Brunelleschi influenced Leonardo in many ways. Among other things, he built the largest dome in the world for many centuries for Florence Cathedral. Leonardo was probably involved in the finishing work as a pupil of his teacher Verrocchio, who made the gilded bronze sphere on top of the dome.
The lower perspective lines divide the bottom edge of the painting into seven equal sections (black and white lines). When hovered over, the origins of the perspective lines are easier to see. The lower doorway was cut in 1652, partly destroying the painting. As a result, two of the six ornamental lines on the floor are no longer visible, but they are known from early copies
Shown is the reconstruction of the pictorial space. The room is twice as long as it is wide. The windows of the back wall are divided into two squares by the horizon line. The doorway is divided vertically by the horizon at the golden ratio. On the ceiling there are wooden beams forming 72 squares. This refers to the sending out of the 72 disciples by Jesus (Luke 10:1). They are arranged in twelve rows of six
Leonardo also paid attention to harmonious proportions in designing the side walls. The rows of windows on the left side are positioned higher than those on the right. The striking dark areas are wall hangings. Their upper edge is twice as far from the upper edge of the windows on the right side as it is on the left side (black and white tiles). The lower edges of the windows are hidden by the figures, but with respect to the windows of the back wall it can be assumed that they too are based on a square form (yellow frames). From the consistent pattern of quartering, the height of the wall hangings can also be inferred.
The tablecloth is likewise divided into four parts. It is horizontally divided by 16 folds (black and white tiles). The spacing of the folds corresponds quite closely to the height of the tablecloth. The width of the tablecloth equals four fold-spacings. In this way, the tablecloth can also be seen as 16 cubes arranged in four successive rows.
Overall, the impression arises that Leonardo wanted to emphasize the three-dimensional tablecloth, moving from the vertically four-sectioned window rows (1-D), through the two-dimensional wall surfaces, to the tablecloth in 3-D. If one adds the squares of the window rows (4 × 6), the four-part blue areas of the side walls (4 × 8), and the cubes of the tablecloth, the total again comes to 72
The schematic reconstruction of the pictorial space
That Leonardo places Jesus in front of the doorway alludes to a parable in the New Testament: “I am the door. Whoever enters through me will be saved; they will come in and go out and find pasture.” (John 10:9)
In addition, there are further geometric relationships. If the round arch above the door is drawn, its center lies at the vanishing point (yellow dot). This circle touches exactly the left and right windows as well as the lower edge of the doorway (yellow circle). It also divides the wall behind it vertically into three equal parts (white lines).
The outer frame of the doorway is laid out in a 3:4 ratio and is divided vertically at the golden ratio. The inner frame of the doorway is a golden rectangle, meaning its width and height are in the golden ratio. Furthermore, the horizon line divides the inner frame of the golden rectangle vertically into three equal parts (white vertical line). Even at this point, the geometric construction is extraordinarily artful.
Leonardo’s universal spirit is especially evident here. The upper edge of the doorway divides the wall behind it exactly at mid-height (middle white horizontal line). The tripartite height of the inner doorframe can be mirrored upward along the white horizontal line. The height of the back wall is then divided into six equal segments (black and white dots). Between the horizontal mirror axis and the upper end of the decorative arch, the segment can be divided exactly in the middle (blue dot) and once more between the lower end of the arch and the mirror axis (orange dot). In this way, nine points can be identified that, with reference to the arch around the door (yellow outer circle), can be understood as radii around the vanishing point (black circles).
This creates the impression of an astronomical sketch. That impression is reinforced by the outer circle, which is missing about 10% to the left and right before reaching the end of the wall (blue areas). Ten percent corresponds to the average difference between the farthest and closest distances of the planets in our solar system from the sun. The planetary orbits are therefore not circular but elliptical (mouseover). Leonardo draws six circles. Until 1781, only the first six inner planets visible to the naked eye had been known since antiquity; the currently known eight planets were discovered thanks to more powerful telescopes. Leonardo developed a reflecting telescope a hundred years before Galileo, with a diameter of several meters, begun no later than 1513 in Rome but never completed. It is unclear whether Leonardo possessed a smaller prototype at the time that might have allowed him novel observations of the heavens
The astronomical sketch from VII can be extended downward by lowering the floor to reveal the lower ends of the circles hidden in VII. Remarkably, this produces precise overlaps of the two planes in the floor area (blue and yellow line on the floor). If the space is divided in depth into four equal sections — each side wall has four distinctive wall hangings — it becomes apparent that the two partially hidden circles from VII rest exactly on the sections of the quartered floor (lower edge of the blue and yellow circles). However, two of these lines are unoccupied.
Two additional circles can reasonably be added. The first is directly in the foreground. Its lower edge is defined by the quartering of the floor. The upper edge of the circle borders exactly on the line at the center of the pictorial space (yellow line at the top). The lower edge of another circle is likewise defined by the quartering of the floor (lower orange dot). The radius of this circle is confirmed by a second point already known from I — a strange shape above the door on the left, which is also repeated in the lower right foreground of the painting.
That this point was chosen deliberately becomes clear when the points of the 5th, 6th, and 7th rings are connected (mouseover). This creates a triangle with interior angles of 108°, 54°, and 18°. The numbers are harmonious: 108° ÷ 2 = 54° and 54° ÷ 3 = 18°. At the same time, all three angles relate to the regular pentagon. In this way Leonardo has masterfully constructed eight circles. This is all the more remarkable as it connects different dimensions (1-D, 2-D, and 3-D)
If the floor has been lowered, the ceiling could likewise be raised. When it is raised by the height of the tablecloth, the half side walls and the back wall change their proportions to a harmonious 4:3 (blue and yellow areas). The side walls as a whole are now 3:8 high — Fibonacci numbers and thus close to the golden ratio (orange lines). All the walls of the room are now in harmonious proportions. The back wall also has the same aspect ratio as the painting itself.
Leonardo worked on exactly two wall paintings in total: The Last Supper and The Battle of Anghiari. The latter was also designed in a 4:3 format and was intended to be as monumental as The Last Supper. When the shape of the decoration of the side walls is taken into account, especially through the wall hangings, the impression of a gallery with open wall space emerges.
If Leonardo constructed the back wall to match The Last Supper, it is reasonable to think he might also have fit his other unquestionably authentic paintings into the same scheme. Arranged by date of creation, The Last Supper appears as the central work chronologically as well. A pattern in the sizes also becomes apparent: a large work was followed by two smaller ones. All paintings are shown in their original size ratios, taking The Last Supper as the largest work. Six paintings are displayed to the left and right of The Last Supper. Two unfinished works — Saint Jerome and The Adoration of the Magi — do not yet fit the scheme (mouseover). The Battle of Anghiari was probably walled over unfinished and has since been lost, though one study has survived
The grand finale – coming soon
The Last Supper is located in the Church of Santa Maria delle Grazie in Milan. The church is just a few hundred meters from Castello Sforzesco, the former stronghold of the Milanese ruling family, the Sforza. Ludovico Sforza's father, Francesco, commissioned the original construction of the church and adjacent monastery. His son Ludovico, only two years after its completion, ordered the demolition of significant portions of the church around the altar and commissioned Donato Bramante, the future architect of St. Peter's Basilica, to construct a monumental central building above the altar. Ludovico Sforza planned to use the church as a future burial place for the Sforza family.
In 1494, two years after the start of construction work on the new dome of the church, Leonardo began painting the Last Supper in the dining room of the directly adjacent monastery. Also in the dining room, on the opposite side of the Last Supper, there is a painting of the Crucifixion scene made at the same time.
Since the painting was painted directly on the church walls (and thus immovable), the history of the painting is closely connected with the history of Milan.
Leonardo's Last Supper painting is being restored throughout. It is estimated that today only 20 percent of the original color pigments remain from Leonardo's time. Since it is possible that the ongoing decay of the painting cannot be stopped, it was decided to digitize the current state of the painting and thus preserve it for posterity. The work was carried out by Haltadefinizione, a company specializing in high-resolution digitization, and allows a close look down to the millimeter level. The digitized copy, which was originally free to view, unfortunately now has watermarks, but these can be removed by paying a fee. The museum responsible hopes that this will reduce the number of visitors, as the stream of visitors disturbs the room climate on the one hand, and on the other, the air and dust particles introduced have a damaging effect on the work.
High-resolution version on the Haltadefinizione website
After its completion, the painting quickly gained world fame. When the French king saw it, he is said to have ordered plans to be drawn up for its removal to France. But the project failed due to the structural conditions, because it would probably have been destroyed in the process. The Last Supper is the first painting from Leonardo's workshop that was copied several times and sold at high prices due to the great demand by his students. Although the copies are not true to the original, especially with regard to the depiction of the architecture, they allow conclusions to be drawn about the original condition of the painting. For example, floral patterns can be seen on the large wall curtains, and the position of Jesus' feet is also known as a result, as well as the number of decorative lines on the floor.
The copies from Leonardo's workshop seem to follow a concept, for their changes from the original are not arbitrary.
It must be noted that such changes could not be made without consulting Leonardo himself, who, as the head of his artist's workshop, instructed his students to make a copy. In this way, it becomes clear once again that a division of the painting into two parts seems to have been intended. On the one hand, the painting shows a group of figures in the foreground, which most viewers recognize as the actual content of the picture. On the other hand, the copies authorized by Leonardo give rise to the assumption that he wanted to have attention drawn to the picture's background on a second level. The complex geometric relationships in the area confirm this assumption. In this respect, The Last Supper is Leonardo's most artistic painting.
When considering Leonardo's version of the Last Supper, the severe deterioration of the painting must be taken into account. Unlike his other paintings, which were many times smaller, Leonardo did not paint the painting on a wooden panel, but directly on the wall plaster of an interior in a church. Since Leonardo could only paint with oil paints in order to be able to depict the fine shading and color transitions, but these did not adhere well to the substrate and therefore fell off over time, the painting was soon very badly damaged. Thus, 20 years after its creation, contemporaries reported that the painting was already falling apart (de Beatis), and 50 years later the painting was already "stained" (Vasari).
It almost seems as if Leonardo, who did a lot of research on the durability of paintings, did not want to fulfill this claim to eternity, especially in his largest work by far in terms of area and in a depiction of Jesus, of all things. This almost heretical intention is reinforced after an analysis of the figural composition in his other two large-scale paintings, the Virgin of the rocks, painted earlier, and Virgin and Child with Saint Anne, painted afterwards. Both paintings seem to show the boy Jesus, but on closer inspection this attribution is no longer clear. At least the rock grotto Madonna was therefore considered by contemporaries to be so heretical that in the course of a court case lasting 25 years a second version had to be made, which made the identification of the two boys clearer for believing Christians.
It is striking that Leonardo executed only two massive wall paintings. In addition to the approximately 9-meter-wide "The Last Supper," Leonardo painted the approximately 7-meter-wide painting depicting the historical Battle of Anghiari. This painting was not completed, probably because it was not possible to get the plaster dry enough to paint due to structural dampness. The painting is only known from contemporary documents and some studies today.
It is remarkable that both of Leonardo's wall paintings have themes of religion and war—the themes of the church and the nobility—and that both paintings had to decay or could not be painted in the first place due to the painting technique used. If Leonardo had used a different technique, such as the widely spread fresco painting at the time, the paintings would be preserved much better today, similar to Michelangelo's "The Last Judgment" or Botticelli's "The Birth of Venus."
In this context, it is important to mention that Leonardo was a citizen of the Republic of Florence. This was a peculiarity at the time because medieval society was believed to consist of only three social estates: nobility, church, and peasants (the social pyramid). With the rise of the bourgeoisie, to which Leonardo belonged, a new self-confident class emerged towards the end of the Middle Ages, which, with the American Declaration of Independence (1776) and the French Revolution (1789) thirteen years later, heralded the end of the traditional dominance of the nobility and the church in Europe.
The identification of the figures is by no means as straightforward as popular science literature claims. In the Gospels, only a few of the 12 Apostles are mentioned in detail or associated with specific actions. Only two individuals from the group on the right of Jesus are clearly identifiable.
The remaining figures cannot be identified with certainty. They have no definite attributes, because the Bible provides too little (or no) further information about these apostles. Partly they are mentioned there only with names. In this respect, it is highly unserious to attempt to give names to the other figures in the painting. It must be emphasized, then, that any interpretation of the group of figures that implies a biblical meaning beyond the varied design must fail because of the poor source material in the Bible itself. Instead, Leonardo has varied the facial expressions and gestures of the figures in their reactions so that they depict the broadest possible spectrum of conceivable reactions to Jesus' words.
Worth mentioning is the rhythm of the hands, which run towards Jesus from the left as well as from the right side. At least on the left side they have a humorous function.
Leonardo introduced a new iconography to John the Baptist by associating him with an upward pointing index finger (to heaven, to God, or to Jesus) in his last painting, "John the Baptist".
John the Baptist is an ascetic prophet in the New Testament who foresaw the imminent appearance of Jesus Christ and later baptized him. He was partially revered by believers as the Messiah, but said of himself that he was not worthy to untie the bootstraps of the one who would come after him (Jesus). John the Baptist thus has a preparatory function. He is the patron saint of Florence, Leonardo's hometown.
Against the background of Leonardo's unique art of painting, it is often overlooked that in his time he was considered the best architect in the world. He was content with the intellectual design. This is because large buildings are often very lengthy projects that leave the executing architects less room for other pursuits. Moreover, architects are always dependent on potent financiers, on whom Leonardo could not (or would not) rely. Numerous sketches by Leonardo indicate that he was involved in the planning of the construction of St. Peter's Basilica. The design for the most beautiful of the famous Loire castles in France is also attributed to Leonardo, that for Chambord Castle.
Raphael's School of Athens is a mural located in the papal apartments in Rome (Raphael's Stanze). The architectural background depicts the partly idealized construction site of St. Peter's Basilica as it was at that time. The most distinctive architectural feature of St. Peter's Basilica is its dome. The dome of the ancient Pantheon in Rome was the largest in the world until 1436 when it was surpassed by the newly built Florence Cathedral. Leonardo, as a student of Verrocchio, was involved in the final stages of the construction. St. Peter's dome is about 1 meter smaller in diameter than the one in Florence. Dome structures were considered one of the most challenging architectural types due to the numerous difficulties associated with them, persisting into the 20th century. The dome in Florence held the title of the largest in the world for approximately 400 years until 1873.
St. Peter's Basilica was designed by Bramante, who can be seen in Raphael's School of Athens wearing red robes, leaning forward, in the right foreground. Two other contemporary artists, Michelangelo and Raphael himself, are also identifiable in the painting. All of them, except for the central figure of Plato (Leonardo), share the commonality of being architects involved in the construction of St. Peter's Basilica.
The pointing finger of Plato, the compositional significance of the background architecture, and Donato Bramante are the connecting elements between Leonardo's Last Supper and Raphael's School of Athens. In 1499, Bramante interrupted his work on the dome of Santa Maria delle Grazie, where the Last Supper is located, to go to Rome and start the construction of St. Peter's Basilica. Leonardo had completed the Last Supper in the Church of Santa Maria delle Grazie the year before, after about three years of work. The raised finger in both Leonardo's Last Supper and Raphael's School of Athens most likely alludes to Leonardo's involvement in the design of St. Peter's Basilica. It is widely accepted in architectural history that Leonardo's architectural theoretical considerations prepared or strongly influenced Bramante's designs.
Since Leonardo's Last Supper is the most famous depiction of Jesus today, and the mysteriousness of Leonardo's works is legendary, there are numerous hypotheses about a hidden message in the painting.
coming soon
coming soon
Website of the exhibiting museum: Santa Maria delle Grazie, Milan
Frank Zöllner, Leonardo, Taschen (2019)
Martin Kemp, Leonardo, C.H. Beck (2008)
Charles Niccholl, Leonardo da Vinci: Die Biographie, Fischer (2019)
Johannes Itten, Bildanalysen, Ravensburger (1988)
Die Bibel, Einheitsübersetzung, Altes und Neues Testament, Pattloch Verlag (1992)
Euklid, Die Elemente, Verlag Europa Lehrmittel (2015)
Luca Pacioli, Divina Proportione, Die Lehre vom goldenen Schnitt, Forgotten Books (2018)
Stephen Hawking, Das Universum in der Nussschale, Hoffmann und Campe (2001)
Highly recommended
Marianne Schneider, Das große Leonardo Buch – Sein Leben und Werk in Zeugnissen, Selbstzeugnissen und Dokumenten, Schirmer/ Mosel (2019)
Leonardo da Vinci, Schriften zur Malerei und sämtliche Gemälde, Schirmer/ Mosel (2011)
