The Last Supper

What you are looking at

Thirteen men sit along one side of a long table covered with a white cloth, in a plain room whose walls, hung with tapestries, recede toward three windows. Christ sits at the center, framed by the middle window, his arms spread low on the table, his head tilted, calm. On either side of him the apostles erupt. They gather in four groups of three: recoiling, leaning in, rising, gesturing, asking each other the same question. Christ has just said, "One of you will betray me."

Leonardo da Vinci painted The Last Supper on the north wall of the refectory, the monks' dining hall, of the Dominican convent of Santa Maria delle Grazie in Milan, for Duke Ludovico Sforza, around 1495–98. It is about 4.6 by 8.8 meters and is still where Leonardo painted it.

Reading the apostles

The figures, identified from inscriptions on early copies, run from left to right: Bartholomew, James the Less and Andrew; then Judas, Peter and John; then, beyond Christ, Thomas, James the Greater and Philip; and finally Matthew, Thaddeus and Simon. Judas is the key. He sits on the same side as the others, not alone across the table as in earlier versions, but he leans back into shadow, clutching a small bag, the silver of his payment. Peter, behind him, holds a knife, foreshadowing his violence at Christ's arrest. John, beside Christ, swoons away from him.

Look at the hands. Thomas raises one finger, the doubter; Philip presses his hands to his chest; Christ's hands are open, one palm up, one down, reaching toward the bread and the wine.

How it was made, and why it is damaged

A true fresco is painted quickly into wet plaster. Leonardo, who liked to work slowly and revise, instead painted on a dry wall with an experimental mixture of tempera and oil over a preparatory layer. It allowed subtle effects but did not bond well, and the paint began to flake within decades. Damp, a doorway cut through the bottom center in 1652, Napoleonic troops and bombing in 1943, which destroyed the refectory roof, did further harm. A restoration from 1978 to 1999 removed centuries of overpaint, revealing what survives of Leonardo's own surface.

The perspective

All the lines of the ceiling and walls converge on Christ's head, the vanishing point of the room. Leonardo makes the architecture point to the meaning.

Where to see it

The painting is in the Cenacolo Vinciano, Santa Maria delle Grazie, Milan. Visits are by timed, pre-booked ticket in small groups. See also Mona Lisa, Study of Hands and the Renaissance guide.