LEONARDO, THE LAST SUPPER AND THE ART OF THROWING A GREAT DINNER PARTY
Type: Interactive On-Line Webinar or Live Event
Sites/Artists/Works of Art Discussed: Last Supper, Leonardo
“Leonardo, the Last Supper and the Art of Throwing a Great Dinner Party”
Presented by Dr. Rocky Ruggiero
Leonardo Da Vinci’s Last Supper is one of the world’s most famous works of art. Painted in 1495 on a wall of the refectory of a Dominican convent in Milan, Italy, the Last Supper is celebrated as the first work of the High Renaissance. But few people realize that Leonardo’s painting of the subject was the culmination of nearly 1000 years of iconographic tradition; and that his depiction of Jesus and twelve (soon to be eleven) of his closest followers sharing their last meal together was one of dozens of Last Supper paintings to adorn refectory – or “dining hall” – walls in Italy. This lecture will explore the evolution of the subject of the Last Supper in Italian art, beginning with Early Christian images through to examples from the late Renaissance.