Leonardo's Last Supper example essay topic

439 words
Leonardo was born in 1452 and died 1519. Leonardo da Vinci is a well known artist who captured the elusive smile of the Mona Lisa and envisioned the Last Supper which many people now associate him with. However, Leonardo da Vinci was perhaps even more accomplished as an "artist-engineer" of the Italian scientific Renaissance which set him apart from the other artists of the time as well as a mathematician, philosopher, naturalist, astronomer, architect, and musician. While quite a lot is known about his works of art, not as much is known about his hundreds of scientific and engineering designs which were well ahead of his time and placed him considerably high in the development of the Italian Renaissance in the arts and sciences. He contributed in a lot of different art styles.

He was Born in Vinci, Tuscany, he was the son of a Florentine notary and a peasant girl. His precocious artistic talent brought him to Verrocchio's workshop in 1466, where he met Botticelli and Ghirlandaio. The culmination of his art in this first period in Florence is seen in the magnificent, unfinished Adoration of the Magi, with its characteristic dramatic movement. In 1484 and 1485 drew his attention to town planning, and his drawings and plans for domed churches reflect his concern with architectural problems. Leonardo's Last Supper is a wonderful piece with much hidden meaning and obvious talents bestowed upon a wall. Leonardo's was able to use his skills in creating a very detailed and a very naturalistic piece of work that would be remembered hundreds of years.

His portraits were not the only the characters magnificent, but the symbolism he used which emphasized the story being in the last supper. That's why Ludovico Sforza (another great artist) chose Leonardo to create the Last Supper in the refectory of the Dominican Church. He worked on this painting from 1495 through 1498. Before Leonardo started painting the picture, he put down a substance which was suppose to absorb the temporal and protect the temporal from the moisture on the wall. Unfortunately, the substance was proved unsuccessful, and by 1517 it began to deteriorate.

The painting has continued to decay the following centuries. It was further damaged by restorations made by careless artists. The painting the last supper is a part out of the bible, the last supper that god had when he was alive on earth. Leonardo made it so the viewers are able to recognize this scene by the gestures both the Lord and the Apostles.