The Many Images of Christianity
Art Assessment – The many images of Christianity:
Historical artwork: The Last Supper by Leonardo Da Vinci
Practice (5 marks). Background information, nationality, style of general artworks, influences, major concerns in art, techniques/ materials used:
Describe the artwork, what does it say about Christianity (use of compositional, stylistic and symbolic devices to achieve this), materials & techniques to communicate meanings of Christianity:
The first notes on the design of the painting in Leonardo’s manuscripts are dated between 1494 and 1495. Leonardo began working on the painting in 1496. As the painting developed is created astonishment; Matteo Bandello wrote a unique, contemporary description of Leonardo at work on the Last Supper in 1497.
“Many a time I have seen Leonardo go early in the morning to work on the platform before the Last Supper; and there he would stay from sunrise to darkness, never laying the brush... Then three or four days would pass without touching the work, yet each day he would spend several days examining it and criticizing the figures to himself. I have also seen him, as the caprice or fancy took him, set out at midday from the Corte Vecchia when he was at work on the stupendous horse of clay, and go straight to the Grazie. There, climbing on the platform, he would take a brush and give a few touches to one of the figures: and then suddenly he would leave and go elsewhere.
This description offers us an insight into Leonardo’s working method and how he could be distracted during periods of contemplation. The last supper was Leonardo’s first wall painting and, because of the large scale and the nature of the wall surface, in was not practicable for him to work in oil paints, which would have allowed him to make alterations as he went along. The buon fresco method with which he would have been familiar with from his early days in Florence, although the most obvious choice for large-scale wall paintings allowed no changes to
Historical artwork: The Last Supper by Leonardo Da Vinci
Practice (5 marks). Background information, nationality, style of general artworks, influences, major concerns in art, techniques/ materials used:
Describe the artwork, what does it say about Christianity (use of compositional, stylistic and symbolic devices to achieve this), materials & techniques to communicate meanings of Christianity:
The first notes on the design of the painting in Leonardo’s manuscripts are dated between 1494 and 1495. Leonardo began working on the painting in 1496. As the painting developed is created astonishment; Matteo Bandello wrote a unique, contemporary description of Leonardo at work on the Last Supper in 1497.
“Many a time I have seen Leonardo go early in the morning to work on the platform before the Last Supper; and there he would stay from sunrise to darkness, never laying the brush... Then three or four days would pass without touching the work, yet each day he would spend several days examining it and criticizing the figures to himself. I have also seen him, as the caprice or fancy took him, set out at midday from the Corte Vecchia when he was at work on the stupendous horse of clay, and go straight to the Grazie. There, climbing on the platform, he would take a brush and give a few touches to one of the figures: and then suddenly he would leave and go elsewhere.
This description offers us an insight into Leonardo’s working method and how he could be distracted during periods of contemplation. The last supper was Leonardo’s first wall painting and, because of the large scale and the nature of the wall surface, in was not practicable for him to work in oil paints, which would have allowed him to make alterations as he went along. The buon fresco method with which he would have been familiar with from his early days in Florence, although the most obvious choice for large-scale wall paintings allowed no changes to