Why Was 'The Last Supper' the Masterpiece Leonardo da Vinci Didn't Want to Paint?

piece in fourteen ninety four. We spoke with art historian Ross King, the author of several books on Italian, French and Canadian art history. He said Leonardo did not want to paint the Last Supper. Instead, he wanted to do a gigantic bronze equestrian moment, a monumental work that would certainly have made him famous. But the outbreak of war in fourteen four meant he couldn't do his bronze horse, so as compensation, he was given the task of painting a wall in a room where a band of Friars

ate their dinner every day. He had never painted on such a large scale, having little experience in such a difficult task, it's not surprising that he complained bitterly about the commission, at which it was entirely possible that he would fail miserably. Happily, the story turned out otherwise. What resulted from da Vinci's hesitant participation is a mural that famously depicts the Last Supper of Jesus Christ with his

apostles on the day before his crucifixion. The scene is based on the description in the Gospel of John twenty one, and da Vinci intended to convey the reactions of jesus disciples the moment that they learned that one of them would betray him. King, says da Vinci's The Last Supper is particularly important for a variety of reasons, perhaps most of all for its elevation of the artist to celebrity status.

He said. It's completion marks the moment when Leonardo, then in his mid forties, finally created what he called a work of fame. It's amazing to think that before The Last Supper Leonardo had achieved very little. Petty died in say, four two, when he was forty. He would have been little more than a footnote in art history, known as someone who showed enormous promise but never delivered the goods,

but with the Last Supper he delivered spectacularly. Without having created the Last Supper, he probably would never have received his later commissions, including the Mona Lisa, So the work was absolutely crucial, not only to the history of art, but also to his own career. One special feature of The Last Supper is its sheer size, approximately fifteen by twenty nine feet that's four and a half meters by

about eight point eight meters. King said no one else in history had ever created such a large painting was such a great level of realistic detail, as well as with such believable emotions and dramatic expressions. No one who painted a Last Supper in the centuries afterward could do

so without an eye on Leonardo's masterpiece. Da Vinci opted to portray one pivotal moment in the scene, instant just before the creation of the Eucharist or Holy Communion, when, according to the Bible Versus Corinthians eleven to twenty X, Jesus reaches for the bread and wine and tells the apostles that they represent his body and blood to be consumed in remembrance of him. Da Vinci's notebooks are a key to who the key players are in the painting,

although experts still argue over some of the details. In one group, Bartholomew, James and Andrew sit together and look genuinely shocked at what Jesus has just revealed. In another group, there's Judas, Peter and John. Judas, the known betrayer, has a lot going on. He's fading into the background a bit. He's holding a bag of money, and he's knocking over a salt shaker, which experts say is meant to symbolize the expression tipping over the salt, which means betraying one's master.

Jesus sits in the middle of the group, and on his other side are Apostle, Thomas, James the Greater and Philip, then Matthew, Jude and Simon. The symmetry of the figures and i pleasing use of perspective are signature da Vinci, but there are tons of details that art scholars continue to debate and dissect. Take the fish on the table, for example, is it airing or eel? In Italian, the word eel is a ringa, which might be a sort

of pun on the word ringa with two rs, meaning indoctrination. However, the word herring in Northern Italian is ringa, also meaning one who denies religion. But the content and composition of the Last Supper aren't the only reasons why the painting remains legendary. King explained it has a very sad history. The paint began flaking from the wall because of a perfect storm of bad climatic conditions in the refectory, mainly

cold and damp. That might not have been such a problem had Leonardo worked in the true fresco technique, which makes for very durable paintings, but he devised a method of his own that involved painting in oil and tempera on a dry wall, something artists were discouraged from doing.

His technique, unsurprisingly, did not prove successful. Due to Da Vinci's ill advised choices and the poor custodianship in the centuries that followed the creation of the painting, the Last sup first started to look rough, and then things got worse. King said the work was insensitively restored by conservators who didn't know what they were doing and caused more harm

than good. In sixteen fifty two, in a kind of act of vandalism, the friars from the convent knocked a hole in the wall, amputating Christ's feet to create a doorway through the painting. The refectory flooded in the nineteenth century and Napoleon used the building as a stable, which meant it was filled with horses and manure. Then, during World War Two it barely survived a bomb that destroyed much of the refectory. The fact that we still have

it to enjoy is little short of miraculous. Today's episode was written by Michelle Konstantinovski and produced by Tyler Klang. For more on this and lots of other topics, visit has Stuff works dot com. Brain Stuff is production of I heart Radio. For more podcasts from my heart Radio, visit the i heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.