Leonardo Paints The Last Supper
A monastery dining hall gets a mural that fails as fresco and succeeds as psychology
Quick facts
- Artist
- Leonardo da Vinci
- Location
- Santa Maria delle Grazie, Milan
- Technique
- Oil and tempera on dry plaster
- UNESCO status
- World Heritage Site since 1980
What happened
On the refectory wall of the Dominican convent of Santa Maria delle Grazie in Milan, Leonardo da Vinci painted The Last Supper between 1495 and 1498, capturing the instant Christ tells the twelve apostles that one of them will betray him. Rather than working in true fresco, which required painting quickly onto wet plaster, Leonardo used an experimental technique of oil and tempera applied to dry plaster, which let him work slowly and rework passages but adhered poorly to the wall; the paint began flaking within his own lifetime. He grouped the apostles into clusters of three around the calm, still figure of Christ at the center, each group reacting differently to the announcement.
Why it matters
The Last Supper became one of the most studied and copied images in Western art for its psychological drama and composition, and it is also a well-documented case of Leonardo's technical experimentation outrunning what the materials of the day could support, a mural now conserved through repeated restoration rather than surviving intact.
How we know
The mural still occupies its original wall in Milan, now managed as the Museo del Cenacolo Vinciano, whose own history of the site and the World History Encyclopedia's account of Leonardo's career both describe the 1495-1498 dating and the painting's technique and condition.
Sources
- Museo del Cenacolo Vinciano. The Last Supper, Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519) · General sourcecenacolovinciano.org · Cited as a "reference" source (no stronger domain match). · Link is live and its text matches the event's key terms (Jul 2026)
- World History Encyclopedia. Leonardo da Vinci · Reputable sourceworldhistory.org · The domain "worldhistory.org" is on our Reputable source registry. · Link is live and its text matches the event's key terms (Jul 2026)
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