The Last Supper is an oil and tempera painting created by Leonardo da Vinci at the end of the fifteenth century in the Convent of Santa Marfia delle Grazie in Milan, Italy. It is a brilliant composition where Leonardo utilized all of the lines of perspective to converge upon the face of Jesus. In accordance with this perspective the figures farthest from the center are actually larger than the figures adjacent to Jesus. Leonardo divided the disciples into groups of three and included three windows as perhaps a reference to the Holy Trinity but compositionally it was a very clever means of organizing the figures. From Leonardo’s notebooks it is revealed that he identifies the figures as, from left to right, Bartholomew, James son of Alphaeus, Andrew, Judas Iscariot, Peter, John, Thomas, James the Greater, Phillip, Matthew, Jude Thaddeus, and Simon the Zealot. Other artists portraying this scene have isolated Judas but Leonardo simply lowers him into the composition and places him within shadow (he is also actually tiny compared to the others). He holds his bag of silver and reacts to the statement of Jesus “The one who has dipped his hand into the bowl with me will betray me,” (Matthew 26:23) as Judas himself is reaching for a piece of bread to dip. His elbow knocks over a pillar of salt which some consider to be unlucky or an evil omen. Peter is shown holding a knife in probable reference to his violent reaction to Jesus’s arrest in the garden.

Leonardo painted the work on a double layer of dry plaster with an undercoat of white lead. This might have worked but for the fact that it was painted on an exterior wall. The increased humidity, contraction, and expansion of the wall coupled with Leonardo adding tempera on top of his oil paint created an unstable surface which almost immediately began deteriorating. Within a dozen years it was thought of as in ruin. 

My composition both mimics and emphasizes Leonardo’s. I created additional lines of perspective to compliment Leonardo’s and the figures, furniture, and space react and move in accordance with these lines. I first drew out the original composition in charcoal then worked the entire surface and developed my own composition in acrylic paint. Then the entire surface was reworked and glazed with oil. I also drew additionally from the work of the artist Giampietrino who completed a full size copy of Leonardo’s Last Supper within twenty or so years after the original. 

This painting represents four months of my life. If you consider the knowledge and skill required, then this work represents the entirety of my existence. 

I call my painting “The Next Supper.” 

Acrylic and Oil on Canvas 38" x 96"