Last evening year. Last Supper - What is this event

Leonardo da Vinci. Last evening. 1495-1498 Monastery of Santa Maria delle Grazi, Milan.

Last evening. Without exaggeration, the most famous wall painting. Although it is difficult to see it.

She is not in the museum. And in the most meadow monastery in Milan, where the great Leonardo was created. You will be allowed only on tickets. Which need to be bought in 2 months.

I myself have not yet seen the fresco. But standing in front of her, I would have a question in my head.

Why did Leonardo need to create the illusion of volumetric space? How did he manage to create such a variety of characters? Next to Christ - John or still Maria Magdalene? And if Maria Magdalene is depicted, then who among the apostles is John?

1. Illusion of presence

Leonardo da Vinci. Last evening. 1495-1498 Monastery of Santa Maria delle Grazi, Milan, Italy. WGA.hu.

He thought to harmoniously enter his work into the surrounding environment. He built an ideal perspective. The real space smoothly goes into the space depicted.

Shadows from plates and bread point to the fact that the mystery of the evening is illuminated on the left. In the room just window on the left. The dishes and tablecloths were also written the same as in the most meal.

Another interesting point. To strengthen the illusion, Leonardo demanded to climb the door. On the wall on which the fresco should appear.

The refectory was very popular in the city among citizens. Through this door wearing food from the kitchen. Therefore, the abbot of the monastery insisted her to leave.

Leonardo was angry. Having threatened that if he won't go to the meeting, he would write him Juda ... the door was inspired.

Food began to wear from the kitchen along the long gallery. She cooled. The refectory ceased to bring the same income. So Leonardo created the fresco. But closed a profitable restaurant.

But the result struck everyone. The first spectators were stunned. An illusion was created that you are sitting in the refectory. And next to you, behind the next table - a mystery of the evening. Something suggests me that it kept the trapping from the curmony.

After some time the door returned. In 1566, the refectory again connected with the kitchen. The legs of Christ were "cut" with the new opening door. Illusion was not as important as hot food.

2. Grand work

When the work is genius, it seems that its creator did not make any difficulty to create it. After all, he and genius! To master the masterpieces one by one.

In fact, genius in simplicity. Which is created by heavy mental labor. Leonardo standing for a long time before work in reflections. Trying to find the best solution.

Already mentioned abbot of the monastery annoyed. He complained to the customer of the frescoes. Louis Sforza. But he was on the side of the master. He understood that the masterpieces could not create the same thing that the vegetable garden was so.

Long reflections were not compatible with the fresco technique (painting on wet plaster). After all, she assumes a quick job. While the stucco dried. After that, make changes no longer.

Therefore, Leonardo decided to risk. Apply oil paints on a dry wall. So he had the opportunity to work as much as he had. And make changes to already written.

Leonardo da Vinci. Last evening. Fragment. 1495-1498 Monastery Santa Maria delle Grazi. WGA.hu.

But the experiment was unsuccessful. After a couple of decades, the paint began to fall off. All 500 years, the masterpiece was on the edge of complete death. And so far there is little chance that our descendants will see it.

3. Psychological reaction

Such a variety of characters reactions was not easy for the master. Leonardo understood that people with different characters react very differently to the same words.

He gathered at the same table in the taverns, he told funny stories or unusual facts. And watched they react. To then put them with gestures of their heroes.

And here we see how 12 apostles responded. At the unexpected words of Christ "One of you will betray me."

Leonardo da Vinci. Last evening. Fragment. 1495-1498 Monastery Santa Maria delle Grazi, Milan, Italy

Bartholomew rose from the bench and leaned on the table. In this impulse, its willingness is visible to act. As soon as he hesitate, who is a traitor.

Andrei has a completely different reaction. He in a light fright drove his hands to his chest with palms to the viewer. Like, it's certainly not to me, I am clean.

But another group of apostles. Already on the left hand of Christ.

Leonardo da Vinci. Last evening. Fragment. 1495-1498 Monastery Santa Maria delle Grazi, Milan, Italy

Jacob Zeesev was dumbfounded most of all. He sat down, trying to realize the heard. Outflow, he holds back the foma and phyptip. Like, wait, let the teacher continue.

Thomas indicates the sky. God will not allow this. Philipped also rushed to assure the teacher that he could believe him. After all, he is not capable of this.

Reactions are very different. Before Leonardo, no one has ever depicted this.

Even the contemporaries of Leonardo, you will not see this. As, for example, Gironadayo. Apostles react, talk. But somehow too calm. Monotonous.

Domenico Girlandiao. Last evening. 1486 Fresco in Basilica Di San Marco, Florence, Italy. Wikimedia.commons.org.

4. The main mystery of the frescoes. John or Maria Magdalene?

According to the official version of the right hand of Christ, the Apostle John is depicted. But he is depicted so feminine that it is easy to believe in the legend about Maria Magdalin.

Leonardo da Vinci. Last evening. Fragment. 1495-1498 Monastery Santa Maria delle Grazi, Milan, Italy

And the oval faces purely female with a pointed chin. And the abnormal arcs are too smooth. Also long thin hair.

And even his reaction is purely female. From heard him / her was not in itself. He calmly / she pulled (a) to the apostle Peter.

And his hands / she are limply folded. But John, before the calling, was a fisherman. That is, those who have grown a multi-color network of water.

5. And where is John?

John can be identified by three features. He was younger than Christ. As we know, he was a fisherman before the call. And he also has a brother, also the apostle. So we are looking for a young, strong and similar to another character. Here are two applicants.

Although everything can be much more prose. Two characters are similar to each other, because the artist posed one person.

And John looks like a woman, because Leonardo was inclined to portray androgy people. Recall at least the Miloid Angel from the painting "Madonna in the rocks" or the feasible "John the Baptist".

"Last Supper" Leonardo da VinciPerhaps it is included in the top 3 of the most mysterious and conflicting works of the famous Italian. The fresco is not essentially so. An experiment in three years long. The gracious field for speculation on the meaning of symbols and genuine personalities depicted. Unbearable challenge for restorers. All this is about one of the most famous works of art in the world.

Likha trouble Start: Who ordered Leonardo "The Last Supper"

In 1494, the duke of Milan became odious and ambitious Ludovico Sforza. Despite all ambitions and weaknesses, in one extent inherent in the extent, it must be said, almost every outstanding statesman, Lodoviko served a lot for his faith and achieved significant diplomatic success, having achieved peaceful relations with Florence, Venice and Rome.

He paid a lot of attention to the development of agriculture, industry, science and culture. From the painters he especially fagged Leonardo da Vinci. His brushes belongs to the portrait of Lovovico's mistress and mother of his son Cezchilia (Cecilia) Galelan, better known as the "Lady with Mornosta". Presumably, the painter perpetuated and the legitimate spouse of the Duke Beatrice D'EShe, as well as the second favorite and the mother of another illegitimate son Lucreta Krvelli.

The house of the Church of Lodovico was a chapel at the Dominican monastery of Santa Maria delle Grazie, and his abbot was a close friend of the duke. Milan's ruler became a sponsor of the large-scale reconstruction of the church, which was seen by the future Mausoleum and the monument of the Sforza dynasty. The vain plans were aggravated by the sudden death of Beatrice's wife and daughter Bianchi in 1497, two years after Leonardo began working on a "secret evening".

In 1495, when the painter received an order to select one of the walls of the meadow chapels with a nine-meter fresco with a popular Gospel plot, telling about the last meeting of Christ with the apostles, where he first revealed the sacrament of the Eucharist, no one could even suspect which long and difficult fate of her Wait.

Experimental art Leonardo da Vinci

Until that moment, Vinci did not have to work with frescoes. But could it be an obstacle for a person who chose an empirical one of all the methods of knowledge, and did not believe anyone for the word, preferring everything to check on his own experience? He acted according to the principle of "we are not looking for light paths," and in this case it remained faithful to him to the end.

Instead of using the old good technique of applying Tempers on fresh plaster (actually, and the gave the name of the fresco that occurred from the Italian Fresco - "Fresh"), Leonardo began experimenting. The subject of his experiments consistently became literally all the factors and stages involved in the creation of frescoes, ranging from the construction of scaffolding, for which he tried to invent his own mechanisms, and ending with plaster and paints.

Firstly, he categorically did not fit the method of work on the wet plaster, which grabbed pretty quickly and did not allow thoughtfully to work on each fragment and endlessly refining it, bringing to perfection, as usual writing his paintings by Leonardo da Vinci. Secondly, the traditional egg temperature did not give it the degree of brightness of the paint, since it somewhat tuck and changed the color when drying. And mixing pigments with oil made it possible to obtain more expressive and shiny paints. In addition, it was possible to reach different density of shades: from very thick and opaque to thin, luminous. This is how it is impossible to better fit the love of Da Vinci to the creation of filigree black and white effects and branded reception of SFUMATO.

But that's not all. In order to make an oil emulsion more adapted to the requirements of the wall painting, the painter decides to add an egg yolk into it, thus obtaining the unprecedented composition "Oil temperature". As time will show, in the long run, a bold experiment did not justify itself.

Case - time: a long history of creating a "secret evening"

According to the testimony of contemporaries, Da Vinci approached all aspects of writing a "secret evening" with such a thoroughness that it was delayed to infinity, and this is immensely annoyed the abbot of the monastery. Firstly, who will like the state of "chronic repairs" at the place of adoption of food with all the nuances arising from here (some sources mention a very unpleasant smell of the copyright of the plaster from Leonardo).

Secondly, a long process meant and the corresponding increase in the financial costs of painting, even more so that it worked on it a whole brigade. The volume of only preparatory work on the application of plaster, primer and swine-led coatings implies the involvement of all members of Leonardo studio.

The patience of the abbot gradually approached the end, and he complained to the duke to slowness and laziness of the artist. According to the legend, the vazari in his "lifeshops", yes Vinci in his justification responded to Lodovico, that he could not find a suitable flashing for the role of the Judah model. And that if the person of the required degree of disgusting never deemed, he "Can always take advantage of the head of this abbot, so annoying and indispensable".

There is another legend of the attendant, posing when writing Judah. So beautiful that if the situation is far from reality, it would be worth it. The artist as if he was looking for his Judas among the most garbage of society, and eventually stopped his selection on a last resurrection propoine from the waste ditch. The "model" barely kept on his feet and did little, but when the image of Judas was ready, the drunkard looked into the painting and said that he had already had to pose for her earlier.

It turned out that three years before these events, when he was a young and chaste singing in church choir, a certain painter noticed him and offered him the role of a simulator for the image of Christ. It turns out the same person in different periods of his life was a chance to visit both the embodiment of absolute purity and love and the prototype of the greatest fall and betrayal. Beautiful parable about the fragile borders between good and evil and how it is hard to climb up and easy to roll down.

Escaling Beauty: How many Leonardo remains in the "Last Evening"?

Despite all the efforts and experiments with the composition of paint, and Vinci still failed to produce a revolution in writing frescoes. It was usually implied that they were made in order to delight the eyes of many centuries, and the destruction of the colorful layer of the "Last Supper" began during the life of the painter. And in the middle of the XVI century Vazari mentioned that "Not visible nothing but the confusion of spots".

Numerous restorations and attempts to save the painting of the authorship of the legendary Italian only aggravated the loss. British art historian Kenneth Clark in the 30s of the last century explored the preparatory sketches and early copies of the "Secret Supper", made by artists who took the participation of its creation. He compared them with what remained from the frescoes, and his conclusions were disappointing: "Exaggerated griming persons, as if killed from the" terrible court "Michelangelo, belonged to the brushes of the mighty manarist of the XVI century".

The latter and largest restoration was completed in 1999. She took about two decades and demanded an investment of more than 20 billion lire. And no wonder: the restorers had the work of thinner jewelry: it was necessary to remove all layers of early restorations, while not damaged those crumbs that remained from the initial painting. The head of the restoration work recalled that the fresco was done so "As if she was a real disabled".

Despite the voices of critics about the fact that as a result of the "The Last Supper" lost the "spirit of the original", today she is still closer to what they saw the monastery of the Santa Maria delle Grazie monastery during the meadow. The main paradox lies in the fact that one of the most famous and recognizable works of art in the world contains only no more than 20 percent of the original.

In fact, now this is the embodiment of the collective interpretation of the plan of Leonardo da Vinci, obtained by painstaking research and analysis of all available information. But, as it often happens in the artistic world, the hard fate of the exhibit only adds to him glasses and values \u200b\u200b(remember the story with the abduction and acquisition of Davinciyevskaya Djokondov, which brought it into the absolute top of the mass.

The picture of Leonardo da Vinci "The Last Supper" anticipates a new stage in the development of Italian art - high revival.

The illusory space visually continues the real space of refectory. Going deep into the plane of the side walls and the ceiling protrude as the illusory continuation of the walls and the ceiling of refectory, but not to the end coincide with them due to its several forced spatial angle. In addition, the table with the figures sitting behind it is located slightly above the floor level of the meadow, and the figures are shown not in a natural value, but slightly larger. Thus, the impression of the complete optical unity of real and illusory spaces is eliminated, their relationship becomes more complicated, depriving unambiguity. Sacred action is not mixed more with the work of everyday and everyday and appears more important, meaningful.

Even more striking the impression of the limit tension of the plot collision, which leaves the fresco of Leonardo. It is achieved thanks to a carefully thoughtful composition of the pictorial story about the evangelical event. The moment is shown when Jesus has just uttered his words: "... One of you, poisoning with me, betray me," and therefore all composite trajectories are tightened to his figure - not only the optical, but also the semantic center of the work. Lonely and separate from the rest, additionally highlighted by the image of the window behind the back of Christ, falling into the focus of the convergence of promising lines, its figure acts as a sign of unshakable calm and unshakable confidence in the correctness of the chosen path. Spatial "pauses" on the sides of it visually read as the image of the silence immediately for his words, replaced by a different silence of inlentions and unison "not I am?".

Each of the figures of the Apostles is a specific type of expression, with the help of the language of the facial expressions and gestures of personification perplexity, anger, fright. To bring together all this variety of spiritual movements, Leonardo subordinates the image of a rigid composite discipline. It can be noted that the apostles are combined into groups, according to three each, why in opposition to each other their figures receive additional expressiveness. With this principle of the composite group, the internal rhythm of action is detected with the striking visibility, moreover - it gets the possibility of development in time. In fact, each of the groups presents a certain stage of understanding heard from the teacher of words. The explosion of emotions, the epicenter of which is located in the center of the table, where Jesus sits, in the form of a weakening echo, it is sits up to the ends of the table, from where, through the gestures of the apostles sitting on his ends, returns to its original point - figure of Christ.

In a recent stream of books and articles, there were increasingly assumptions that Leonardo da Vinci was the leader of the underground society and that he hid the secret codes and messages in his artistic work. Is it true? In addition to his role in history as a famous artist, a scientist and inventor, whether he was also a keeper of some huge secrecy, which is transmitted for centuries?

Ciphers and encryption. Encryption method Leonardo da Vinci.

Leonardo was, of course, not get used to the use of codes and encryption. All his notes are written back in advance, mirror. Why Leonardo did it - it remains unclear. It was suggested that he may have felt that some of his military inventions would be too destructive and powerful if they had fallen in other people's hands. Therefore, he defended his papers using the reverse record method. Other scientists indicate that this type of encryption is too simple, because for its decryption you only need to bring paper to the mirror. If Leonardo used it for security, it was probably concerned about hiding the contents only from the random observer.

Other researchers believe that he used the return letter, simply because he was so easier for him. Leonardo was left-handed, and writing in the opposite direction was less difficult for him than for right-handed.

Kriptex.

Recently, many people attribute Leonardo invention of the mechanism called Cryptex. Cryptex is a tube that consists of a series of rings with alphabet letters engraved on them. When the rings are rotated in such a way that some letters are built into the line, forming a password to open the crypthecus - one of the end caps becomes possible to remove, and the contents (usually it is a piece of papyrus, wrapped around a glass container with vinegar) can be extracted. If someone tries to get the content by breaking the device - the glass container inside splits and vinegar solvents written on the papyrus.

In his popular book (artistic) "Da Vinci Code", Den Brown attributes the invention of Kriptec Leonardo da Vinci. But the real evidence that Daver Vinci came up with and / or constructed this device - no.

Secrets of the paintings of Mona Lisa Leonardo da Vinci. The mystery of the smile of Joconda.

One popular idea is that Leonardo wrote secret symbols or messages in their works. After analyzing his most famous painting, "Mona Lisa", many are confident that Leonardo, when creating a picture, used some tricks. Many people consider the smile of Joconds especially intrusive. They say that it seems to be changed, even if there are no changes in the properties of paint on the surface of the picture.

Professor Margaret Livingston from Harvard University assumes that Leonardo drew the edges of a smile in the portrait, so that they seem like a little bit of focus. Because of this, they are easier to see peripheral vision than if you look directly on them. This can explain why some people report that the portrait seems to smile more when they look directly on a smile.

Another theory proposed by Christopher Tyler and Leonid Kontsevich from the research institute Smith-Kettlevel's research institute says that a smile seems to change due to variable levels of random noise in the human visual system. If you close your eyes in a dark room, you will notice that everything is not perfect black. Cells of our eyes create a low "background noise" (we see it as tiny light and dark dots). Our brain is usually filtered, but Tyler and Kontsevich suggested that when considering Lisa Mona, these small points could change the shape of her smile. As evidence of their theory, they left several random sets of points to the picture "Mona Lisa" and showed it to people. Some of the respondents said that the Jocond smile looks more joyful than usual, the other seemed to be the opposite that the points were overshadowed. Tyler and Contesevich claim that the noise that is inherent in the human visual system gives the same effect. When someone considers the picture, his visual system adds noise to the image and changes it, it seems that the smile has changed.

Why is Mona Lisa smiles? Over the years, people have advanced such versions: some believed that perhaps she was pregnant, others - find this smile sad and suggest that she was unhappy in marriage.

Dr. Lilian Schwartz from the research center of Label Bella invented a version that seems unlikely, but intriguing. She thinks Jocona is smiling, because the artist swirl over the audience. She claims that the picture does not smile a young woman that in fact it is a self-portrait of the artist himself. Schwartz noticed that when she used the computer to identify the features on the portrait of Mona Lisa and a self portrait da Vinci - they completely coincided. However, other experts note that this may be the result of the fact that both portraits are drawn by the same paints and brushes, the same artist, and using the same methods of writing.

The mystery of the picture is the Loyary Supper Leonardo da Vinci.

Dan Brown in his popular thriller Da Vinci code suggests that Leonardo's picture The Layry Supper has a number of hidden meanings and symbols. In the fictional story there is a conspiracy of the early church to suppress the importance of Mary Magdalene, the sequence of Jesus Christ (history testifies - to the chagrin of many believers - that she was his wife). Allegedly Leonardo was the head of the secret order of people who knew the truth about Magdalene and tried to save her. One of the methods of Leonardo to do this is to leave the keys to a randering in your famous work - in a secret evening.

The picture shows the last dinner of Jesus together with his students before his death. Leonardo tries to catch the moment when Jesus announces that he will be devoted, and that one of the men at the table will be his traitor. The most significant key left Leonardo, according to Brown, is that a student who is identified in the picture as John is actually Maria Magdalene. Indeed, if you quit a quick look at the picture, it seems that this is true. The man depicted on the right of Jesus has long hair and smooth skin, which could be considered as women's features, compared to the rest of the apostles that look a little more rude and seem older. Brown also indicates that Jesus and the figure on the right hand of it, together form the letter "M". Is it a marriage symbolizing or maybe a wife (Matrimony translated from English marriage, marriage)? Is it keys to secret knowledge left by Leonardo?

"Last Supper" Leonardo da Vinci

Despite the first impression that this figure in the picture looks more feminine, remains a question, whether this figure looked also laughed for the audience that era in which Leonardo wrote this picture. Probably not. After all, John was considered the youngest of the disciples, and he was often portrayed in the form of a bell-free young man with a soft feature of the face and long hair. Today it is possible to regard this personality as a female being, but if you return to Florence, in the fifteenth century, to take into account the difference of cultures and expectations, try to delve into the presentation of those days about the female and male principle - you can already be sure that it is actually a woman . Leonardo was not the only artist who depicted John in a similar way. Domenico Girlandiano and Andrea Del Kastano in his paintings wrote John similar:

"Last Supper" Andrea Del Kastano

"Last Supper" Domenico Girlandiao

In the "Treatise on Painting," Leonardo explains that the characters in the picture must be depicted on the basis of their types. These types may be: "sage" or "old woman". Each type has its own characteristics, for example: beard, wrinkles, short or long hair. John, as in the photo, on the "Last Supper" is a student type: the goldenman who has not yet matured. Artists of that era, including Leonardo, would depict this type, "student", as a very young man with a soft feature of the face. That is what we see in the picture.

As for the contour of "M" in the picture, this is the result of how the artist composed the picture. Jesus, at the moment when he announces his betrayal, sits one in the center of the picture, his body in shape resembles a pyramid, students are located groups on both sides of him. Leonardo often used the shape of the pyramid in the compositions of its works.

Priora Zion.

There are assumptions that Leonardo was the head of the secret group called Zion Priora. According to Da Da Vinci, the mission of the priority was to preserve the mystery of Mary Magdalene about her marriage with Jesus. But after all, the book Da Vinci Code is a fiction, based on theories from the controversial "non-Fikshn" of the book called Holy Blood and Holy Grail of the authors of Richard Lee, Michael Bagenta and Henry Lincoln, written in the early 1980s.

In the Book of Holy Blood and Holy Grail, as evidence of Leonardo's membership in the priority of Zion, a number of documents are provided that are stored in the France National Library, in Paris. While there are some evidence that the Order of the monks with this title existed in 1116. er, and this medieval group has nothing to do with the priority of Zion 20 century, and the years of life da Vinci: 1452 - 1519.

Documents confirming the existence of a priogency actually is, but it is likely that they are part of the hoax, conceived by the person named Pierre Planter in the 1950s. Platar and the group of his like-minded people of the right sense with anti-Semitic inclinations founded in 1956 by Priorat. Making fake documents, including fake genealogical tables, apparently, Slavear hoped to prove that he was a descendant of merindoving and the heir to the French throne. The document allegedly testifies that Leonardo, along with such cylindowns, like Botticelli, Isaac Newton and Hugo consisted of organizing the prioge of Zion - with great probability, can also be fake.

It was unclear whether Pierre Planar was also perpetuating the history of Mary Magdalene. It is known that he argued that the priorata possesses a treasure. Not a set of invaluable documents, as in the "code of Da Vinci", and the list of sacred items written on a copper scroll, one of the deaths of the Dead Sea found in the 50s. Plantar told the interviewers that the priorat would return this treasure to Israel when "comes time." Expert opinions on this occasion were divided: some believe that there is no scroll, some - that he is fake, and some that he is real, but does not belong to the right priorea.

The fact that Leonardo da Vinci was not a member of the secret society, as shown in the code da Vinci, is not a reason to stop admire by his talent. The inclusion of this historical personality in modern fiction intrigues, but it does not overshadow it to achieve it. His artworks were and there is a source of inspiration for millions over the centuries and contain subtleties that even the best experts are still trying to solve. In addition, its experiments and inventions characterize it as an advanced thinker whose findings go far beyond its contemporaries. The main secret of Leonardo da Vinci is that he was a genius, but in those days they could not understand this.

Creation date: 1495-1497.
Type: temperature.
Dimensions: 460 * 880 cm.

Mystery evening

One of the most famous Masters of the Renaissance received an order for a large-scale fresco, depicting a secret evening in the Santa Maria Grazie's refectory church in Milan. Obviously, Lodovico Sforza was the initiator of this order, as he wished to make a generous gift to the Brotherhood of Dominicans. The coat of arms of the Sforza family can be seen in the arc, located above the room where the secret bulk is happening.

Philip, Matthew, Juda Faddey.

At the first sketches of the composition, Vinci thought to portray the moment of transmission of a piece of bread Judas, denoted by the fact that Christ would be devoted to this apostle. However, in the version of reached us, the concept is changed. The master does not depict a fragment of the passionate week of Christ. Due to the fact that scientists know about the preparatory stage of creating frescoes, it was clear that Leonardo, in the final version of the work, preferred to portray the moment of Idud's identification as a traitor.

Bartholomew, Jacob younger, Andrei.

The picture depicts Christ behind the Easter meal with the apostles. In the room behind the back of Christ and Apostles - three windows, which overlook the surrounding landscape. Leonardo Reaches the distant trees and hills: this landscape resembles Milan landscapes. The artist managed to achieve the effect of a three-dimensional image, making a table part of the wall of the meadow. As written in the Gospel (Matt. 26: 17-29), the table for this evening was tired of Easter dishes, fruits and wine. On the fresco of Leonardo - dishes with eels and oranges - the beloved food of the artist. All apostles are sitting along the table, with the opposite side of the viewer, which makes it possible to observe even their shoes under the table. It is realistic to be written and the dishes standing on it, on the right and to the left of the table of the edge of the tablecloth hanging completely equally.

Simon Peter (behind), Judas, John.

Leonardo divides 12 figures on 4 subgroups, three people, creating a canvas, where each of the heroes has individual features: they scream, talk, turn, their faces express distrust and confusion. A variety of angles, poses and gestures resemble an illustration for physical laws of optics and dynamics. As if the drop, which fell into a fixed capacity with water, the words about the betrayal of one of the apostles violate the state of equilibrium. This analogy, in a coupe with research of Leonardo optics, is forced to consider the fresco as a set of achievements of science and visual art.

Thomas, Jacob Senior, Philip.

Christ

The figure of Christ is located in the center of the painting, as always in the paintings on the gospel plot. Leonardo depicts his young man. The calm expression of the face is surprising and distrust of the apostles to the fact that one of the gathered at this table will betray him. Leonardo transmits precisely this moment of meals, opposing the peacefulness of Jesus to the initiation of his students who surround each other, gesturing, a bewiered, who can decide on that. They are and dealing to Christ with the question: "Is I not, Lord? .." - and with a header's shudder await a response. Leonardo places the figure of Christ to the center of the table. All composite patterns of the picture converge at one point - to the head of Christ, creating a centripetal perspective.

Arch

In the central arch, the coat of arms of Ludovico Sforza and his wife, the inscription reads: Lu (Dovicus) MA (RIA) Be (ATRIX) EST (ENSIS) SF (Ortia) An (Glus) DUX (Mediolani). In the left of the left - the coat of arms of the son of Lovovico Massimiliano with the text. The text on the right arc is adjacent to the coat of arms of the Duke Bari, belonging to the second son of Lodovico, Francesco.

Fresco in our time

Fatal errors In the early attempts of the restoration of the canvas, adversely affected both the initial colors of the frescoes and on the expression of individuals, the outlines of the figures. But the last stage marked a new milestone in the restoration methodology, and also shed light on some details hidden under the layers of paint applied after Leonardo postponed the brush. In addition, it became known about the most complex experiments with lighting, about conceptual ideas about the prospects.

Of course, the work of such a scale, such workout and importance for both art and for science, asks more questions than gives any answers, and also deserves more detailed familiarization with them. Historians and art historians dedicate life to the study of the masterpiece, gradually revealing some fresco secrets, but all the riddles and the messages of the Great Leonardo are unlikely to be deciphered.

Fresco "Last Supper" Updated: September 12, 2017 by the author: Gleb