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Leonardo Da Vinci's 'The Last Supper'

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Throughout the Renaissance, there was an rise of new attitudes, ideas, and especially art work. Leonardo Da Vinci was a main figure in these new ideas and paintings during this period in time.
"The Last Supper," by Leonardo Da Vinci is a fresco painting, suggesting that it is directly painted on a wall. The "Last Supper" is fascinating to me in several ways. Maybe because I am Catholic and being familiar with it by hanging in our dining area at home. Most of my friends and acquaintances have a picture of it in their home.
Throughout history, many works of art are both created and damaged, and it is only the authentic works of art that people place to memory and embrace on to for years following their making. The Last Supper is one of these …show more content…

From what I have learned he is one of the most gifted, artist, painter and architect of all time. He was born on April 15, 1452, in the town of Vinci. According to records, he started the painting in 1495 for his patron Duke Ludovico Sforza. The Last Supper was painted in the of the Dominican Church of S. Maria delle Grazie in Milan, and was predestined to be a symbol of religious devotion. Some people say that the painting took more than ten years to finish, and yet others say it was finished in two years. It's very important to know that if it was finished in two years, it was quite an accomplishment for Da Vinci, who had a bad habit of procrastinating his work, and even left some of his works …show more content…

Nonetheless, it is not a real fresco because it was painted on dry plaster rather than wet plaster. He wanted to make the painting as detailed as possible, because he wanted to show human feeling and appearance on the character's faces. Before starting the painting, Da Vinci covered the wall with a resin coating, which is a mixture of pitch and mastic. In addition, he utilized chalk in the process of coating. To outline the painting he used tempra which allowed him to highlight the details of human emotions. Unfortunately, the substance proved unsuccessful, and by 1517 the piece began to deteriorate. By 1556, the painting was regarded as ruined and unrecognizable. The painting has kept on decaying in the following centuries. In fact, it was so unrecognizable because of the damage made by sloppy artists who tried to restore the painting and by the adding of an entrance way put in the lower part of the painting. It took many years of restoration to have the painting look as it was originally painted. The last and most successful restoration of the Last Supper painting occurred from 1978 to 1999. The dining room of the convent was cordoned off and the temperature settings inside the room were kept under control for restoration work. The Last Supper painting has been considerably rejuvenated due to the latest

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