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Painting: The Last Supper, or Il Cenacolo
Artist: Leonardo da Vinci
Type: Fresco
Year: 1498
Size: 460 x 880 cm (15 x 29 ft)
Location: Convent of Santa Maria delle Grazie (Refectory), Milan, Italy

Leonardo da Vinci’s Renaissance masterpiece, The Last Supper, is housed in the refectory of the 15th century Church of Santa Maria delle Grazie, built by Duke Ludovico il Moro, who chose the Dominican church, founded in 1463, as the mausoleum for himself and his family. In total, da Vinci spent eighteen years at the court of il Moro and had such an impact on the history of Lombard art that the whole 16th century was affected.

Da Vinci started working on the fresco in 1496, after receiving a commission from il Moro, who had just enlarged the church of Santa Maria delle Grazie and decided to enlarge and decorate the Refectory, or Dining Hall, of the adjacent Dominican monastery. Da Vinci’s snail pace work on the fresco soon became legendary.

The Last Supper began to acquire its reverential reputation as soon as it was finished, even though the painting began to rapidly deteriorate. Da Vinci’s unconventional technique, which involved the use of tempera paint over a double layer of plaster, rather than a true fresco pigment that becomes part of the wall itself, was faulty and the fresco soon decayed to such an extent that by 1568, others were writing about a large stain in the work.

In 1943, bombs completely destroyed the Refectory but the Last Supper, together with the "Crucifixion" frescoed by Montorfano on the opposite wall, managed to survive the war. The last restoration took over 20 years and was completed in 1999. It succeeded in recuperating original parts of the painting, so that although on a whole the fresco is fragmentary, it is finally possible to grasp its true beauty

“I have offended God and mankind because my work didn't reach the quality it should have.”
Leonardo da Vinci

The Painting:
Leonardo chose to capture the moment immediately after Christ's announcement that “one of you will betray me”, depicting the apostles looking at one another in astonishment as Peter tells John, on Christ's left, to ask him to whom he refers. All the lines of the symmetrical composition converge on Christ in perfect perspective, including the gestures and glances of the apostles, each of whom is portrayed reacting differently to Christ’s words. The whole scene is bathed in a diffuse, gentle light coming from three windows at the far end of the room and from the light at the front, which seems to come from the actual window in the real room. Thanks to the sense of perspective the painting conveyed, the monks eating in the refectory almost had the impression they were part of the scene.

The Technique:
Da Vinci used an experimental technique to paint the Last Supper – tempera on a gesso base – which has led to the extreme deterioration of the painting and monumental efforts to ‘save’ it over the centuries. The condition did not improve until the last restoration, completed in 1999, which was the subject of much controversy and frequently referred to as ‘repainted’ rather than ‘restored’

The traditional technique was to divide the section of wall to be frescoed into small squares to be painted rapidly one at a time, while the plaster was still moist, so that the paint and the plaster would dry together, while da Vinci chose a technique similar to painting on canvas or wood, which allowed him to paint more than once over the same surface so that he could retouch details. Although he created a painting of extraordinary beauty, it was also extremely vulnerable because the color painted on dry plaster was not ‘sturdy’.

The Artist:
Although da Vinci was the illegitimate son of a local lawyer in the small town of Vinci in the Tuscany region, he was blessed with an embarrassment of riches: he was a polymath with exquisite beauty, a wonderful singing voice, superb physique, mathematical excellence, scientific curiosity; the list is endless. Perhaps this is why he treated his artistic ability lightly, rarely finishing a picture, and using inadequate techniques in his painting of the Last Supper.

” I have been impressed with the urgency of doing. Knowing is not enough; we must apply. Being willing is not enough; we must do. “
Leonardo da Vinci

Shooting details:
The shoots had to be done on a Monday when it’s closed to the public; we had a four-hour window to complete the shoot. We shot with the standard multiraw technique chosen for Arounder Milan project the outside of Santa Maria delle Grazie, and the refectory VRs. The refectory hosts the Last Supper by Leonardo da Vinci, and on the opposite wall, the Crucifixion. In order to achieve the plain high res images of both paintings we used PixOrb, kindly pre-programmed by Mark to shoot for each painting a grid of 6x3 RAW images, therefore 18 in total. Stitching was done with REALVIZ’s Stitcher 4.0. It’s interesting to know that the extreme care regulations for the conservation of the remains of the Last Supper obliged us to utilize lights producing almost no heat: High Pressure Sodium lamps . Only 15 people at a time can enter the room, and during summertime you might wait two weeks for a reservation before being able to access the room where the fresco is located. The high detail in the Last Supper pano is possible due to Zoomifyer for Flash, which streams only the requested portion of a pano to the viewer, allowing greater detail than would be otherwise possible.

Camera: Nikon D1x
Lens: zoom 80-200 mm f/2,8
used at 80 mm focal length, 32 shots.
Three exposures for each image: 1s/2s/4s
Color temperature normal
RAW file.

Visitor Feedback:
1)What kind of impact did perspective have in this painting and different forms of perspective techniques he used to accomplish this art?

2)Is the figure to the right of Jesus his wife, Mary Magdalene? It is supposed to be one of the diciples, but it isn't or is it? It is said, historical information, that Jesus was married to her. AND, that she was pregnant with Jesus' child when he was crusified. What do you think of this idea? Russ Davis, Spain