During the War: The well-protected wall containing the After the War: Allied generals visit the famous Last Supper miraculously escaped destruction.
After the War: Allied generals visit the famous painting after the removal of its protective wall.
Last Supper
One of Leonardo’s iconic works of art, the Last Supper, has been endangered since its completion in 1498. Frederick Hartt, a Monuments Man and noted art historian, described the mural as the result of “a disastrous technical experiment on Leonardo’s part.” Rather than utilizing the traditional fresco method, whereby the artist paints directly onto a wet-plastered wall, Leonardo used a mixture of oil tempera paint on a dry wall. As early as 1517, the great mural had begun to deteriorate. The Last Supper has since undergone unspeakable hardships, from being repainted at least three times to the destructiveness of Napoleon’s soldiers, and even having a door cut through the mural.
The Last Supper was commissioned by the Milanese Duke Ludovico Sforza for the refectory of Santa Maria delle Grazie in Milan. Despite the many imaginative interpretations of this famous painting over the years, the Last Supper remains decipherable and ingenious. Leonardo establishes a mathematical perspective that creates a unified and organized composition which focuses entirely on the central figure of Christ. The apostles are depicted in groups of three, a motif that not only enhances pictorial cohesion, but also under reflects the symbolism the sacred number of three.
Leonardo has depicted the moment during the Last Supper that Jesus reveals to his disciples that one of them will betray him: “But the hand of him who is going to betray me is with mine on the table .... They began to question among themselves who would be the one.” (Luke 22). Judas is identified as the third figure from Christ’s right hand – he is the only apostle to reach for food as the others react to the announcement of betrayal, implying that he was unworthy to have just received the communion sacrament. Judas is also the only figure whose face is in the shadows.
Concerned with safeguarding artistic treasures, Italian art officials took cautionary measures as early as 1940 to protect the Last Supper. The wall containing Leonardo’s Last Supper was protected first by a layer of sandbags, then encased in wooden scaffolding, which was finally supported by metal rods. Allied bombing raids of 1943 inadvertently destroyed most of the refectory, but the well-protected mural miraculously survived. In 1978, extensive conservation efforts were commenced that lasted twenty-two years revealing that a great deal of original paint had survived beneath the repainted layers. After many years and some controversy, the painting has now been restored to the fullest extent practically possible.