"The Last Supper" was created by Italian artist Leonardo da Vinci, with the theme of Jesus having the last supper with the Twelve Apostles in the Bible. The characters' expressions of fear, anger, suspicion, and dissection, as well as their gestures, eyes, and behavior, are depicted in a subtle and vivid manner, making them the most famous of all works created on this subject. Collected at the Santa Maria Thanksgiving Church in Milan, Italy.

Content Background
"The Last Supper" is based on the New Testament Bible. According to the New Testament Bible, the Gospel of Mark, Jesus went to Jerusalem for the last Passover, and the Jewish chief priests conspired to arrest him at night, but suffered from no one leading the way. At this moment, Judas, the disciple of Jesus, confided to the Jewish chief priests, saying, "How much money are you willing to give me when I give him to you?" So the Jewish chief priests gave Judas 30 yuan. So Judas made an agreement with the chief priests: The person he kissed was Jesus. On the day of the Passover, Jesus sat down with the 12 disciples for the last supper. He said to the 12 disciples gloomily, "I tell you the truth, one of you is going to betray me!" After hearing this, the 12 disciples were either shocked, angry, excited, or nervous. "The Last Supper" shows the tense scene at this moment. [1]
Composition layout
"The Last Supper" is 420 centimeters wide and 910 centimeters long. Leonardo da Vinci not only strived for innovation in his painting techniques, but also had a unique originality in the layout of his paintings. All along, the layout of the screen has been for Jesus disciples to sit in a row, with Jesus sitting alone at one end. Da Vinci had the twelve disciples either sit or stand on either side of Jesus, and Jesus sat alone in the middle, his face reflected in the bright window behind him, looking solemn and solemn. The strong contrast in the background allows people to focus all their attention on Jesus. The restless disciples next to Jesus had different facial expressions, eyes, and movements. In particular, Judas, who was flustered, hit the salt shaker with his elbow, leaned back, and his face was filled with fear and anxiety.

From left to right, the characters in the painting are Bartholomew, James, son of Alphaeus, Andrew, Judas Iscariot, Simon Peter, John, Jesus, Thomas, James, son of Zebedee, Philip Matthew, Jude Thaddeus, Simon the Zealot.

Painting process
In the 1590s, novelist Matteo Bandello was just a child when he was a trainee monk at the Dominican monastery of the Santa Maria Grateful Church in Milan, where his uncle Vicenzo was then the dean. Bandaro would often watch Leonardo da Vinci pass the time working on the north wall of the monastery while he was painting one of the great masterpieces of the Sforza era, "The Last Supper.".
Bandaro describes: Da Vinci climbed onto the scaffold early in the morning and started working without stopping. Sometimes he would work there from morning until night, holding a paintbrush in his hand. He keeps drawing and often forgets to eat or drink water. Sometimes, he would stand in front of his work for several hours a day without touching the paintbrush, with his arms crossed in front of his chest, examining the characters in the painting alone with a critical eye. I have also seen him drop the clay mold he was working on at noon when the sun was at its peak, as if he suddenly had something urgent to do. He left the Palazzo Vecchio and headed for the Church of Thanksgiving in Santa Maria. Without finding a shady place to rest for a moment, he quickly climbed onto the scaffold, picked up a paintbrush, painted one or two strokes on the wall, and then turned around and left.
Draw from the left side of the wall
To draw "The Last Supper", first of all, a uniform layer of plaster should be applied to the wall of the monastery dining room. The plaster in the middle of the wall should be somewhat rougher than the plaster next to it, because this way the plaster can adhere more firmly to the paint layer overlying it. "People have found traces of the sketch of" The Last Supper ", which is directly drawn on the plaster." Very simple red lines are painted with a smooth brush, and the outline or shape of an outstanding person is outlined according to his layout. "After the sketch is drawn, plaster powder or a base is applied.". The gypsum powder used at that time was "a mixture of small particles, 100 to 200 microns thick, made by binding calcium carbonate and magnesium with protein like substances." The top layer was then coated with a thin layer of lead white primer. Da Vinci deliberately left some cuts in the surface, mainly to outline the shape and panorama of the architectural background; In order to pursue the accuracy of the work, a small hole is also punched in the center of the drawing area as the vanishing point of the entire mural, which is located on the right temple of Jesus.
The oil painting probably began with three semicircular walls carved with arms on the already painted scene. Most of them have now been damaged, but you can still see fragments of the inscription and shield shaped arms, as well as a beautiful wreath made of fruit and grass. The main scene of the mural is probably painted from the left. In the words of Matteo Bandalo, during this period, Leonardo da Vinci worked nonstop, sometimes crossing his arms and focusing on the wall for a long time.
"I have to make a living."
In the summer of 1496, while painting "The Last Supper", Leonardo da Vinci was also decorating certain rooms (possibly the rooms of the Duchess of Beatrice at the Palace of Sforza). On June 8th, an incident involving Leonardo da Vinci's demeanor occurred, which was recorded by the Duke's secretary: "The painter who decorated the room made an ignominious incident today, and he left angrily." This tense state may be related to the draft of another incomplete letter addressed to the Duke, In his letter, Leonardo da Vinci complained about his financial difficulties: "I am very upset. You should have found me very short of money, and... I have to make a living. This has forced me to interrupt this work and engage in less important matters, rather than continue the work you entrusted me with." This important work refers to "The Last Supper.".
He continued, "Perhaps Your Excellency did not give Mr. Guardiello more instructions, and he thought I had enough money to spend... If you thought I had enough money, you must have been deceived." This refers to Guardiello Baskapi, who has also been referred to as the "Duke's gift judge," or the Duke's cashier. Da Vinci did not seem to have received some expected "gifts": so-called "gifts" are essentially money, and cannot be considered salary because they are not paid regularly. According to Bandalo, Da Vinci's annual salary was 2000 ducats, but another source close to the situation said that the Moors only paid him 500 ducats a year.
In this letter, we can see from a side view that when Finch drew "The Last Supper", he was under tremendous creative pressure, which has not been relieved by other things, but has also been increasing. This is the same Leonardo da Vinci captured by Bandaro, who strode down the hot and quiet street towards the Thanksgiving Church of Santa Maria. [3]
Practice composition
A page of notes from the Royal Library of Windsor contains an early composition exercise in pen: the composition is still based on the traditional composition of "The Last Supper" - Judas did not sit with the crowd, sitting on the left side of the table with his head turned back; St. John sat next to Jesus, already asleep, to indicate that he "leaned in Jesus' arms" when Jesus announced the news of his betrayal. Both images were discarded in the final version.
There are also two relatively independent sketches on this page. In the sketch on the left, there are ten characters, and behind them, there are lightly painted arches. This is the earliest idea about the background of the picture, that is, the "top floor" where the "Last Supper" takes place. The sketch on the right shows four characters, but the main focus is on the two characters Jesus and Judas. Here, Leonardo da Vinci focuses on the dramatic moment of clarifying his identity as a traitor: "The person who shares a dish with me is about to betray me." Judas in the painting stands up from his stool and is reaching for the dish. Da Vinci tried to draw two positions for Jesus' hands - one was to lift them as if they were going forward; The other is when the hand has already touched the dish, making brief contact with the traitor's hand. This smaller sketch highlights the focus of the story and finds the dramatic fulcrum - the touching moment when two hands touch. To highlight this moment, Leonardo da Vinci traces the traditional story of the "Last Supper" back to a scene before the Bible, the Eucharist ritual.
The smaller sketch also depicts St. John sleeping soundly, with Jesus' arm on his back, demonstrating Jesus' "benevolence," as the Bible states that John was the "beloved" disciple of Jesus. In the eyes of skeptics who disregard religion, John's "leaning in the arms of Jesus" is a manifestation of homosexuality. A hundred years later, one of the many blasphemous acts attributed to Christopher Marlowe was that Jesus had "a special love" for John and "used him as a sinner for Sodom.".
Soon after, Leonardo da Vinci drew another sketch with a red chalk brush, which was later traced in ink by others. The drawing is now stored in the Museum of Fine Arts of the Venice Academy. The rough appearance of this sketch is largely due to the influence of ink, but the uniform layout of "The Last Supper" has already begun to take shape in this sketch. The disciples were divided into several groups, and the images paid more attention to the personality characteristics of the characters. In order to clarify the identity of the character, hastily written explanatory text appears below the character image (where Philip was mentioned twice). But Judas was still on the side of the table near the viewer, and John was still sleeping soundly.
However, in Leonardo da Vinci's sketchbook, there is another older piece of paper, dating back to the 1880s, that depicts three interrelated sketches: a group of people sitting at a table, one sitting alone at the table, his head in his hands, and another person, Jesus, with his fingers pointing to the destined dish. These three sketches were not written for "The Last Supper," because there are only five people sitting at a table chatting happily to pass the time, and they are not disciples of Jesus. The scene in the painting may have taken place during a rural feast, with people sitting around a table. "But I don't know what inspired Leonardo da Vinci to quickly draw the heartbreaking scene of Christ eating the Eucharist on the same page, and it took 15 years to realize this idea.".

Character archetypes
The Last Supper in Da Vinci's Notes
The Last Supper in Da Vinci's Notes
The focus of the sketches collected in the Royal Library of Windsor and Venice has gradually shifted from overall layout to individual character characteristics. The Royal Library of Windsor has a famous series of avatars, most of which are painted in red chalk, and some have been painted more fully: Judas, Peter, Daniel, and St. Philip (the last two images use the same model, but are given distinct personality characteristics in the paintings). One of them is a painting of Saint John's hands, with a very delicate picture; There is also a painting of Saint Peter's sleeve on the painting. There are also brief comments in the "Foster Notebook" that complement these exercises - a certain Alexander from Palma provided a prototype for Jesus' hand; "Christopheno da Castillone, who lives in Bita, has a beautiful head shape.". One of the notes, with a very simple title, was written with the words "Jesus", and below it was written by Leonardo da Vinci, "Giovanni Conte, under Cardinal Motalo." This person may be the model of Jesus.
Some of the character descriptions are reflected in the final mural, such as the white-bearded San Andrei (third from left), who opens his palm and shrugs his shoulders. The other people's movements changed, and the person who turned around and held the knife in his hand became St. Peter, while the person who knocked over the glass became another person, Judas, who knocked over the salt shaker. At least one of these poses has already appeared in the first composition sketch in the Royal Library of Windsor collection, in the smaller group of portraits where the person between Jesus and Judas "covers his eyes with his hand.".
Like the overall composition, these emotionally charged movements embody a new concept in Leonardo da Vinci's "The Last Supper": he abandoned the medieval tradition of composition, in which believers sat rigidly in a straight line along the table. In "The Last Supper," the lines of the diner are interrupted, achieving a magical effect. In front of us is a wavelike group of people, with the disciples divided into four groups of three believers: the assembled believers suddenly reached a critical juncture. Da Vinci also found his dramatic moment: not the Eucharist ceremony, nor the confirmation of Judas' identity, but the shocked reaction of the crowd when they heard the news from Jesus - "Only in front of you can I confidently say that one of you is about to betray me." The believers were deeply saddened. Therefore, the smooth part of the layout of the screen is caused by the decision of Christ, that is, the moment the story is told, which is almost a scene in the movie.
Judas is the villain of this painting, but in the profile painting for the preparation of "The Last Supper" (in the collection of the Royal Library of Windsor), Judas is a person uglier than the devil, almost a monster. However, he also exhibits a certain sense of regret and self hatred, which also makes this profile with a certain tragic color or a sense of Christian benevolence. Regarding Judas' face, Vasari once told an interesting story: The abbot of the Thanksgiving Church of Santa Maria always urged Leonardo da Vinci to "complete this work as soon as possible" and complained to the Duke about how the artist had delayed time. After learning about this, Leonardo da Vinci told Ludovico that he was still looking for a person with a very sinister and venomous face to use as a prototype for Judas, but if he couldn't find a suitable face, "he would definitely use the head of the less understanding and impatient abbot" as a model. Upon hearing this, the Duke immediately burst into a wild laugh, and "the unfortunate abbot came home confused and worried about the workers working in his garden.".

The original creative idea of Da Vinci's "The Last Supper" began with Castaneo's works. In Leonardo da Vinci's sketch, Judas sits alone on the other side of the long table in a zigzag pattern. Jesus is handing the dough to Judas, and everyone's attention turns to Judas. In order to form an overwhelming momentum towards Judas, Leonardo da Vinci raised the horizon in his sketch. In his sketch, Leonardo da Vinci also learned Castagno's approach, letting the disciple John lie on the table. In the past, the traditional painting method was based on the description of the original Bible, allowing John to cast himself into the arms of Jesus. Almost everyone on the sketch copied material from life. The characters have intense moods, large movements, and few connections with each other. Leonardo da Vinci inherited Karzai's plot based approach to religious themes - telling a vivid and true story in his paintings. This tendency towards secularization of religious themes developed further in the 15th century. At that time, many painters liked to present biblical stories in the real environment here and now, and often took pride in painting images of themselves and their friends in them. [4]
Leonardo da Vinci adopted a parallel perspective, using the most traditional zigzag composition convention, with the central focus on the bright forehead of Jesus. Jesus stretched out his hands and lowered his eyes. He had finished speaking and remained silent. However, his gestures have an irresistible spiritual appeal, calling and inspiring people to introspect and meditate. "Da Vinci is considered the father of light and shade contrast, especially in his" The Last Supper ", which was the first large-scale use of light and shade as a composition factor in later art. All characters are captured in mysterious and peaceful light and shadow.". Unlike the three painters such as Castaneo, Leonardo da Vinci used shadows to eliminate all the details that should have been present in the background. Wolflin said that in order to meet the need for spiritual unity, in Leonardo da Vinci's works, "factors that can only provide the viewer with pleasure or distraction have been removed from the scene. Only things that can meet the urgent needs of this theme... are provided to the imagination. Nothing exists for its own sake: everything in the painting is for the whole." [5]
The emotions and strong movements of the twelve disciples demonstrate Leonardo da Vinci's ability to observe and shape various characters. At the same time, with Christ as the center, they are organized in a fairly orderly way into four balanced groups. The ingenious combination enabled them to obtain the tranquility of order. The "retreat" of Judas himself transformed the passion of his disciples into a "silent noise", becoming the "harmony" of the "strongest voice" of Jesus. It is precisely because of this contrast that Jesus' silence shows great power. Gombrich once used the term "pantomime" to describe the scene atmosphere of this work, which can be said to be meaningful.
Wolflin believes that the various "identities" embodied in Da Vinci's "The Last Supper" indicate the arrival of the Baroque style. He harmoniously unites the contradictory contents of the "establishment of the Eucharist" and the "declaration of betrayal" in the Bible text, and this creative ability is also unprecedented. Perhaps it is precisely because Leonardo da Vinci did not succeed in attempting this original "pantomime" technique 15 years ago that his "The Three Sages of the Past" remained permanently in the sketch stage. "The Last Supper", a masterpiece, has finally succeeded in harmonizing the new artistic achievements with the outstanding artistic traditions and cultural connotations inherent in the themes of all previous dynasties.
Of course, Leonardo da Vinci's creation cannot go back to the polysemy of "dividing bread" in Priscilla's tomb, nor can he adopt the cold and symbolic character modeling and techniques of the Middle Ages. Through the efforts of generations of humanists and artistic masters, the long and rich ancient culture and the human nature and emotions of real life should no longer be separated in the creation of art. Da Vinci's "The Last Supper" is one of the best examples of inheriting cultural traditions and combining innovative development.

In 1817, Goethe published an article on Leonardo Da Vinci's "The Last Supper" in Volume 1, Issue 3 of "Art and Ancient Times", which analyzed this painting in detail. Goethe believes that the core of understanding this painting lies in questioning the central event that triggers the entire plot and excites and loves all audiences. Goethe once again enriched his aesthetic thoughts with the observation methods of natural science. He believes that an exciting plot, like a highly developed organism, develops from a most intrinsic point of life, that is, art becomes a spiritual organism. For Leonardo da Vinci's "The Last Supper", the decisive word is the famous saying of Christ: "One of you betrayed me!" Then, Goethe vividly described the different images of the various apostles in a similar way to face-to-face techniques, depicting their different psychological and personality through imaginary human object dialogues. For example, Judas said, "What does this mean? What's going to happen?" Philip said, "Lord, I'm not a traitor! You know, you know my pure heart, and this is not me!" Dathai said, "Didn't I already say this? Isn't this something I've been speculating about all along?" [6]
In "Classical Art", Wolflin makes a wonderful analysis of Da Vinci's "The Last Supper" with special chapters. Wolflin believes that Leonardo da Vinci broke tradition in two ways. He canceled Judas' solitary position and changed John's sleeping posture. Wolflin cites this work in every chapter of "Art Stylistics" to demonstrate the concept of form he proposes. He restored (or constructed) the formal problems faced by Leonardo da Vinci at the beginning of his creation.
Gombrich conducted a comprehensive and in-depth study of Leonardo da Vinci in his book The Renaissance. Gombrich believed that, starting from the study of "the science of painting," Leonardo da Vinci conducted a "live" simulation of the "Eucharist" scene as a pantomime unfolded in order to depict "the effects of some shocking news on a group of people." [7] Gombrich restored the traditions related to the biblical scriptures and further demonstrated the "environmental functions" that might exist in the work at that time, The intention of Leonardo da Vinci is to use "effective reality", which is a means for painters to break the sacred tranquility of dinner and create an exciting atmosphere, to change the "rigidity" that exists in the same subject matter works created by Girandayo and others [4].

"The Last Supper" by Leonardo da Vinci not only marks the peak of Leonardo da Vinci's artistic achievements, but also marks the maturity and greatness of Renaissance artistic creation. This work achieves the accuracy of sketch expression and observation of things, enabling people to truly feel the corner of the real world. It has also achieved great achievements in composition and processing. The combination of character images constitutes a beautiful pattern, and the screen has a relaxed and natural balance and harmony. [8] More importantly, he creatively brought the creation of the Eucharist theme back to the cultural roots of history, thereby endowing his works with creative vitality and historical significance.

Due to a congenital deficiency in the production process, the entire mural painting began to peel off while Da Vinci was still alive. I don't know how many times it has been repeatedly painted by later painters, and it is difficult to find which one is the authentic work of Da Vinci; In addition, this holy land has also experienced many wars. In addition to the bombardment of Napoleon's artillery, churches were also bombed during World War II. Thanks to the Italians completely covering the wall with several layers of sandbags, the mural survived.
The abbey hall where "The Last Supper" is now stored is completely isolated from the outside. All doors and windows are covered with aluminum alloy and glass, truly achieving constant temperature, humidity, and full closure. Visitors must pass through three glass doors to reach the entrance, and each door must be fully closed before opening. When the quaint door of the restaurant opens to pilgrims, you enter an empty, dark, and quiet hall, where the walls with murals appear under ultraviolet light. The opposite wall also has murals depicting the crucifixion of Jesus. The staff will explain these two paintings to people in detail for nearly 20 minutes, which is also the allowed time for visitors to stay in the hall.