The Last Supper is one of the most recognizable artworks, painted by Leonardo da Vinci, an Italian painter, from the High Renaissance period between 1495 and 1498. At his time, Da Vinci was very active as a painter, draughtsman, engineer, scientist, sculptor, and architect. He was very intelligent and always took actions precisely with logical thoughts. Unlike other presentations of The Last Supper, Da Vinci not only depicted the last time Jesus would eat the last supper with his twelve disciples before being captured and sentenced to death by nailing his body on a cross, but also Da Vinci portrayed the moments when Jesus revealed to his twelve disciples that he would know one of them betray him to the government. This painting is 15 feet by 29 feet in diameter, painted on the wall of the dining room of the Santa Maria Delle Grazie, a church in Milan. Because this painting is too big and frail to be moved anywhere, so currently it is still in Santa Maria Delle Grazie. Now let me tell you why I am amazed at this great wall painting.
Da Vinci makes The Last Supper look like an alive, non-talking movie to me. The way Da Vinci painted the disciples helps me tell the emotions or guess the conversations by just looking at the body posture, hand gestures and facial expressions of each disciple, which express the thoughts and feelings of the twelve disciples. I can see Batholomew, James Minor, and Andrew were all shocked by the news. Andrew had his hands up in the air, kind of saying “Stop! I don’t believe anyone here would betray you.” Peter was angry, holding the knife and shouting “Who is it? I am going to kill this betrayer and defend you” John seemed faint and Judas seemed unsurprised. Thomas, James Major, and Philps were agitated, stunned, and confused respectively, asking for an explanation “How come this happens? How do you know this news?” Matthew, Thaddeus and Simon discussed together. Both Matthew and Thaddeus turned their faces to Simon, hoping to see if Simon had any answer about the betrayer. When looking closer, I can see that Da Vinci painted Judas in a shadow. Judas’ right hand was grabbing a small bag of silver, the payment for betraying Jesus and his left hand was moving toward the bread, suggesting he was not that sad, angry, or shocked and he could still eat the meal. This is how I know, from Da Vinci’s painting, that Judas was the betrayer.
The Last Supper informs me many outstanding traits about Da Vinci. First, Da Vinci is a perfectionist. Before painting The Last Supper, he did a lot of observations on facial expressions. He used the faces of actual people and put them into the disciples’ faces. He even went to jail to find an appropriate face and expression for Judas. He wanted to present this painting perfectly so he took care of each little detail and strived for flawlessness. In addition, Da Vinci has a unique perspective in painting and explaining the story. Previous presentations of The Last Supper, the figures of twelve disciples were separated from one another without much body language or facial expression. Judas was painted from the group off to the other side of the table. In Da Vinci’s painting, he divided Jesus’s twelve disciples into 4 groups of three people in a balanced way by knitting three body figures together but overlapped with another group to make the drama in The Last Supper. Therefore, the tension and the contrast among the twelve disciples were created. He put Jadas among the group rather than excluding Jadas. Moreover, Da Vinci is a mathematical person. He used lines and angles and precisely measured them to create a 3-dimension feeling in The Last Supper to attract the viewers’ eyes to look at Jesus. He painted this masterpiece in a balanced and symmetrical way that Jesus was at the center of the table with the 4 groups of 3 disciples. Jesus forms an equilateral triangle with his outstretched arms.
From the masterpiece of The Last Supper, I have learned three main moral lessons: calm, peace, forgiveness. It is human nature that people, just like the twelve disciples, feel shock, anger, sadness, and loss, even wanting to take revenge when learning their friends or someone they love betrayed them. But from The Last Supper, Jesus reacted to Judas’ betrayal calmly and peacefully. It seems that Jesus knows why Judas betrayed him. This teaches me when someone betrays me, it is not helping to act angry or sad. Instead, I should try to act calmly by putting myself into the betrayer’s shoes to think about the reasons behind the betrayal. Also, The Last Supper shows that Jesus did not say a mean word, give him a mean face, or take any reaction. Jesus did not reveal who the betrayer was to the twelve disciples. This tells me to be a peace-maker, not a mean-maker. In addition, In The Last Supper, Jesus did not confront Judas. Although Jesus might seem a little lost and sad, Jesus still looked at Judas with love. It seems that Jesus already forgave Judas for his betrayal. I feel that if Jesus could forgive Judas who caused his death, then I should forgive people who did not treat me well or who did something bad to me.
The Last Supper is one of the best masterpieces that Leonardo da Vinci had ever made. Although there are other artists painting the story of the last meal Jesus had with his twelve disciples, Leonardo da Vinci is the only person who catches the moment when Jesus made the announcement of the last meal and the betrayal from one of the twelve disciples. He made The Last Supper very vividly, like a non-talking movie, which makes me see a lot of emotions and hear a lot of conversations. From The Last Supper, I know that Leonardo da Vinci sees things in a very unique way and he knows how to attract the audience into the center of the artwork. More importantly, Leonardo da Vinci’s The Last Supper teaches me some essential lessons that I can put into real life. I am hoping one day I could have a trip to Milan with my family to see The Last Supper in person. I want to feel how he painted this great work in what environment 500 years ago.
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