The Last Supper
Throughout history, many different works of art are both created and destroyed, and it is only the true masterpieces that people remember and hold on to for years after their creation. Leonardo Da Vinci’s The Last Supper is one of these pieces. It is over five hundred years old, yet is still one of the most famous and recognizable paintings today.
The reason I chose Da Vinci’s The Last Supper is because it’s a piece of work I recognize. I’ve seen it before, and it’s very well known. You can ask anyone about it, and nearly everyone has heard of it and knows what it looks like. It’s very famous, and is an incredibly well know piece of art. In fact, it is considered one of the most famous portrait and religious paintings of all time, along with The Mona Lisa and Michelangelo's Creation of Adam. It is also a painting that is often seen parodiedand in pop culture, such as in Mel Brook’s History of the World, Part 1 and Jesus Christ Superstar. Despite having seen the painting many times and in many different way, I still didn’t know much about the history behind the painting. I didn’t know exactly when it was painted, where it was painted, what type of painting it is, and why Da Vinci decided to paint it. I thought it would be nice to write about this piece in order to learn more about it while writing my paper.
As already stated, The Last Supper was created by Leonardo Da Vinci, an Italian artist from the town of Vinci. Da Vinci was born in 1452, and began painting around 1466 as a studio boy to Andrea del Verrocchio. He became an independent master in 1478, at which time began to be commissioned for various works of art. Da Vinci began painting The Last Supper in 1495 for his patron Duke Ludovico Sforza, whom he began to work for in 1482. The Last Supper was painted on an inside wall of a monastery, and was meant as a sign of religious devotion. There are some who claim the painting took over ten years to complete, while many...