Editing Leonardo da Vinci (section)

=== Paintings of the 1490s ===
[[File:The Last Supper - Leonardo Da Vinci - High Resolution 32x16.jpg|thumb|upright=1.5|''[[The Last Supper (Leonardo)|The Last Supper]]'',{{#tag:ref|'''''The Last Supper'''''
* {{Harvtxt|Kemp|2019|p=67}}: {{circa|1495–1497}}
* {{Harvtxt|Marani|2003|p=339}}: between 1494 and 1498
* {{Harvtxt|Syson ''et al.''|2011|p=252}}: 1492–1497/1498
* {{Harvtxt|Zöllner|2019|p=230}}: {{circa|1495–1498}}
|group=d}} [[Santa Maria delle Grazie (Milan)|Convent of Santa Maria delle Grazie]], Milan ({{circa|1492–1498}})]]
Leonardo's most famous painting of the 1490s is ''[[The Last Supper (Leonardo)|The Last Supper]]'', commissioned for the refectory of the Convent of Santa Maria della Grazie in Milan. It represents the [[Last Supper|last meal]] shared by Jesus with his disciples before his capture and death, and shows the moment when Jesus has just said "one of you will betray me", and the consternation that this statement caused.{{sfn|Arasse|1998}}

The writer [[Matteo Bandello]] observed Leonardo at work and wrote that some days he would paint from dawn till dusk without stopping to eat and then not paint for three or four days at a time.{{sfn|Wasserman|1975|p=124}} This was beyond the comprehension of the [[Prior (ecclesiastical)|prior]] of the convent, who hounded him until Leonardo asked Ludovico to intervene. Vasari describes how Leonardo, troubled over his ability to adequately depict the faces of Christ and the traitor [[Judas Iscariot|Judas]], told the duke that he might be obliged to use the prior as his model.<ref group="‡" name=":0">{{harvnb|Vasari|1991|p=290}}</ref>

The painting was acclaimed as a masterpiece of design and characterisation,<ref group="‡">{{harvnb|Vasari|1991|pp=289–291}}</ref> but it deteriorated rapidly, so that within a hundred years it was described by one viewer as "completely ruined."{{sfn|Ottino della Chiesa|1967|p=97}} Leonardo, instead of using the reliable technique of fresco, had used tempera over a [[Ground (art)|ground]] that was mainly [[gesso]], resulting in a surface subject to mould and to flaking.{{sfn|Ottino della Chiesa|1967|p=98}} Despite this, the painting remains one of the most reproduced works of art; countless copies have been made in various mediums.

Toward the end of this period, in 1498 Leonardo's trompe-l'œil decoration of the [[Sala delle Asse]] was painted for the Duke of Milan in the [[Castello Sforzesco]].