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Ruthie Bowen

Mr. Price

AP Language, Period 1

29 January 2018

Analysis of: The Last Supper

In The Last Supper, Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519), one of the most prominent figures in

the Italian Resinessa era, depicts Jesus and his twelve disciples at The Last Supper, the meal

before Jesus’ betrayal and arrest. The Canonical Gospels, Matthew 26:17-30, Mark 14:12, Luke

22:7-30 and John 13:1-17:26, describe the last meal Jesus had in great detail. In three years

(1495-1498), Vinci created this symbolic biblical story, with an oil/tempera mix on a dry wall in

the refectory of the Convent of Santa Maria delle Grazie in Milan, Italy. With the use of

naturalism, aerial perspective, and one-point perspective, Leonardo captured the true emotions

and feelings each disciple felt about Jesus during a time of uncertainty and fear.

Leonardo was the first of the century to create a painting that characterized the aspect of

naturalism. Naturalism is inspired by the lifelike accuracy of classical sculpture, a quality that

disappeared from artistic representation during the Dark and Middle Ages. This technique

focuses on likelike forms, such as, eye contact, expressions, gestures, and postures. With the use

of naturalism, he composed an organized space where overlapping figures, the disciples,

suggested the illusion of depth and constructed a narrative, or the story of Jesus’ last meal.

There is a significant amount of naturalism portrayed in the creation of each disciple shown

through each individual expression and gesture. In addition to using naturalism to capture the full

biblical story, he used composition as well. Composition, is the placement or arrangement of

visual elements in artwork and distinct from the subject. In the painting, Jesus is the center
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figure, surrounded by the disciples. His figure shape is triangle-like and doesn’t have any

disciple overlapping him. The layout and composition of the disciples illustrates a significant

amount of symbolism. Depicted in the piece of work, there are four distinguished groups of three

different disciples in each group. These numbers symbolize a biblical reference, four portrays the

number of gospels in the bible and three represents the Trinity. The Trinity is the Father, Son,

and Holy Spirit. In addition to Leonardo using naturalism and composition to compose his piece

of work, he used aerial perspective as well.

Leonardo used a common artistic technique called aerial perspective, which was

commonly used by renaissance artists. This technique creates an illusion of depth in pieces of art

that are landscape. In the Last Supper, the room ends at the three windows on the end of the wall

and through the window, one can see that there is a detailed landscape background setting. The

landscape portrays an overcast, misty, and grayish horizon. This could symbolize the disparity

and uncertainty that the disciples felt. Jesus explained that one of the twelve disciples would

soon betray him. Evidently, that isn’t a good feeling and creates a mood of darkness. They are all

unsure of who would betray Jesus and one by one the disciples denied that it would be them,

including Judas who betrayed him. Jesus responded that the person who betrays him will have a

terrible fate. The Last Supper wasn’t a rejoyceful time and Leonardo captured that mood through

the use of aerial perspective. Another element that Leonardo used was perspective. There are

many other paintings of this biblical scene, but Leonardo captured it in a unique style with his in

depth perspective about the story. He illustrated and focused on the psychological reactions of

the disciples after they found out someone had betrayed Jesus. There is an array of emotions

shown by each disciple, differing from group to group. The first group of disciples, on the left,

consists of Bartholomew, James the Less, and Andrew who are all portraying a surprised feeling.
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The second group characterizes Judas Iscariot, who is taken aback and holding onto a bag of

silver coins; next to him, Peter holds a knife and appears to be stormy, while John, the youngest

disciple, appears to be fainting. The third group consists of Thomas, who seems to be very upset

and James who signifies a surprised expression. Philip’s expression appears to be confused and

seeking for an explanation. The last group, Jude Thaddeus and Matthew are turned to Simon, the

Zealot, for answers because of the uncertainty and confusion that has taken place. Another

technique that Leonardo used to create this painting is one-point linear perspective.

Leonardo used one-point linear perspective to keep up with innovative artist techniques

during the early Quattrocento, the period of art and architecture in Italy from 1400 to 1499. This

perspective is used when intersecting lines are drawn vertically and extend from one point. The

vanishing point is at Jesus’ head and the different orthogonals are illustrated along the tops of the

wall tapestries then intersect at Jesus. This technique helped create a sharp center or focus point

of the painting. Jesus was the center of attention because he announced to the disciples shocking

news that one of them was going to betray him. After the announcement, he broke the bread and

shared the wine. The significance of this scene has established a tradition of communion in

Churches. Additionally, Jesus’ hands have a symbolic meaning. Usually in church services when

the pastor breaks the bread and prays, people have their palms facing upward and extended,

which is the same way Jesus has them depicted in the painting. One-point linear perspective was

just one of the many techniques that Leonardo used to create The Last Supper painting.

Leonardo da Vinci’s, The Last Supper, uses techniques such as naturalism, aerial

perspective, and one-point perspective, to capture the true emotions and feelings each disciple

felt about Jesus during a time of uncertainty and fear. There are many symbols and significant

parts to this piece of work that create a unique depiction of this special biblical scene. Since the
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painting took three years to create, Leonardo clearly had a high level analysis of each Canonical

Gospel and an in depth understanding of the passover. The scene of Jesus’ last meal is arguably

one of the most important described throughout the bible because of the significance it portrays

and its relevance to today.