“Leonardo’s Last Supper is one of the most famous pictures in the world—rivaled only by Michelangelo’s Creation of Adam and Edvard Munch’s The Scream… Like other supericonic images it has been reproduced, appropriated, plagiarized, and lampooned to such a degree that it is very difficult to think of it soberly in its functional context. We are confronted by what everyone can see is a very battered image, high on one of the end walls of a large hall… We are in the presence of a certified masterpiece; that is what matters.”
— Martin Kemp (born 1942), British art historian, exhibition curator and author of Leonardo By Leonardo (2019). [1]
“When you have been well-schooled in [linear] perspective and have committed to memory all the parts and forms of things, let it please you often when you are out walking to observe and contemplate the positions and actions of men in talking, quarreling, laughing and fighting together—what actions there might be among them, among the bystanders, those who intervene or look on. Record these with rapid notations in this manner in a little notebook which you should always carry with you.”
— Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519), painter, sculptor, architect, scientist, anatomist, geologist, engineer, inventor, theatrical designer and musician, writing in his posthumously published treatise on painting. [2]
“One who was drinking has left his glass in its place and turned his head towards the speaker.
“Another wrings the fingers of his hands and turns with a frown to his companion.
“Another with hands spread open to show the palms shrugs his shoulders up to his ears and mouths astonishments.
“Another speaks in his neighbor’s ear, and the listener twists his body round to him and lends his ear while holding a knife in one hand and in the other some bread half cut through by a knife.
“Another while turning round with a knife in his hand upsets a glass over the table with that hand.
“Another places his hands upon the table and stares.
“Another splutters over his food.
“Another leans forward to see the speaker and shades his eyes with his hand. Another draws back behind the one who inclines forward and has sight of the speaker between the wall and the leaning man.”
— da Vinci, writing in a pocket notebook his observations of people sitting at a table. [3]
“[A]lthough most excellent, it [the Last Supper] is beginning to deteriorate, I do not know whether it is because of the humidity that the wall produces or because of another inadvertent problem.”
— Antonio de Beatis (15th-16th centuries), secretary to Cardinal Luigi d'Aragona, on viewing the Last Supper in 1517. [6]
“King Louis of France is said to have been so taken with this work that, contemplating it with profound emotion, he asked those around him whether it was possible to remove it from the wall and take it back to France, even if it meant destroying the famous refectory.”
— Paolo Giovio (1483-1552), Italian physician, historian and biographer. [7]
“This picture is the foremost in the world and the masterpiece of all painting.”
— Pierre-Paul Prud’hon (1758-1823), French painter. [9]
“In Leonardo da Vinci’s painting, artistic skill reigns free, having developed enough to attempt the most difficult task. The Lord’s words, the prediction that someone at the table would betray him, agitates the whole group with great suddenness and vehemence. All are startled and form highly animated, superbly arranged groups. There is life and movement everywhere. The diversity of emotions and gestures could not be greater. The pose, figure and features of each person reflect perfectly what he has heard and the pain he feels; the rendering is true-to-life and strong. … Probably no other examples could demonstrate so clearly and vividly the beginning stages and later perfection of the art of early modern times.”
— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1758-1823), German poet, playwright and critic. [10]
“One must visualize what it was like when the painting was uncovered, and when, side by side with the long tables of the monks [for whom it was painted], there appeared the table of Christ and his apostles. Never before had the sacred episode appeared so close and so lifelike. It was as if another hall had been added to theirs, in which the Last Supper had assumed tangible form.”
— E.H. Gombrich (1909-2001), Austrian-British art historian and author of The Story of Art (1950). [13]
“Never again, so profoundly, has an artist revealed in one picture so many souls…”
— Will Durant (1885-1981), American historian and author of The Story of Civilization (1935–1975). [14]
“The result is the most spellbinding narrative painting in history, displaying multiple elements of Leonardo’s brilliance... By conveying ripples of motions and emotions, Leonardo was able not merely to capture a moment but to stage a drama, as if he were choreographing a theatrical performance. The Last Supper’s artificial staging, exaggerated movements, tricks of perspective, and theatricality of hand gestures demonstrate the influence of Leonardo’s work as a court impresario and producer.”
— Walter Isaacson (born 1952), American journalist, professor, biographer and author of Leonardo da Vinci (2017). [15]
“The Last Supper is indeed a landmark in painting. Art historians identify it as the beginning of the period they used to call the High Renaissance: the era in which artists such as Michelangelo and Raphael worked in magnificent and intellectually sophisticated style emphasizing harmony, proportion, and movement. Leonardo had effected a quantum shift in art, a deluge that swept all before it.”
— Ross King (born 1962), Canadian novelist and author of Leonardo and The Last Supper (2012). [17]
References
1. Martin Kemp, Leonardo By Leonardo, (New York: Callaway, 2019) p. 94.
2. Martin Kemp and Margaret Walker, Leonardo On Painting, (New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1989), p. 199.
3. Martin Kemp and Margaret Walker, Leonardo On Painting, pp. 227-228.
4. Martin Kemp and Margaret Walker, Leonardo On Painting, pp. 144-146.
5. Martin Kemp, The Marvellous Works of Nature and Man, (New York: Oxford University Press, 2006), p. 166.
6. Carmen Bambach, Leonardo da Vinci: Master Draftsman, (New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2003), p. 239.
7. Frank Zollner, Leonardo da Vinci: The Complete Paintings, (Los Angeles: Taschen, 2011), p. 122.
8. Martin Kemp and Lucy Russell (translators), The Life of Leonardo by Giorgio Vasari, (London and New York: Thames & Hudson, 2019 ), p. 82.
9. Frank Zollner, Leonardo da Vinci: The Complete Paintings, (Los Angeles: Taschen, 2011), p. 135.
10. John Gearey, “Goethe: Essays on Art and Literature,” (Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1994) pp. 60-61. (Originally published by Berlin: Suhrkamp Verlag.)
11. Walter Isaacson, Leonardo da Vinci, (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2017), pp. 283-284.
12. Kenneth Clark, Leonardo da Vinci, (London: Penguin Books, 1993), p. 149.
13. Ernst Gombrich, The Story of Art, (London: Phaidon Press Limited, 16th Edition, 1995), p. 296.
14. Will Durant—Leonardo da Vinci (16:58 mark). (Originally from Will Durant, The Story of Civilization: Book V: The Renaissance, 1953.)
15. Walter Isaacson, Leonardo da Vinci, pp. 280-281.
16. Curtis Bill Pepper, “Saving ‘The Last Supper,’” (The New York Times Magazine, October 13, 1985.)
17. Ross King, Leonardo and The Last Supper, (New York: Bloomsbury USA, 2012), p. 268.
18. Leonardo: The Works, “One of You Will Betray Me” (United Kingdom: Seventh Art Productions, 2019), (1:16 mark).