Editing The Last Supper (Leonardo) (section)

=== Commission and creation ===
''The Last Supper'' measures {{convert|460|×|880|cm|ftin|abbr=on}} and covers an end wall of the dining hall at the monastery of [[Santa Maria delle Grazie, Milan|Santa Maria delle Grazie]] in Milan, Italy. The theme was a traditional one for [[refectory|refectories]], although the room was not a refectory at the time that Leonardo painted it. The main church building was still under construction while Leonardo was composing the painting. Leonardo's patron, [[Ludovico Sforza]], planned that the church should be remodeled as a family mausoleum. To this end, changes were made, perhaps to plans by [[Donato Bramante]]. These plans were not fully carried out, and a smaller mortuary chapel was constructed, adjacent to the cloister.<ref name=Timeout>{{cite web |title=Santa Maria delle Grazie & The Last Supper |work=Time Out |url=http://www.timeout.com/milan/attractions/venue/1:7329/santa-maria-delle-grazie-the-last-supper |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130329015213/http://www.timeout.com/milan/attractions/venue/1:7329/santa-maria-delle-grazie-the-last-supper |archive-date=29 March 2013 |access-date=7 March 2024}}</ref> The painting was commissioned by Sforza to decorate the wall of the mausoleum. The [[lunette]]s above the main painting, formed by the triple arched ceiling of the refectory, are painted with [[House of Sforza|Sforza]] [[Coat of arms|coats-of-arms]]. The opposite wall of the refectory is covered by the ''Crucifixion'' fresco by [[Giovanni Donato da Montorfano]], to which Leonardo added figures of the Sforza family in [[tempera]]; these figures have deteriorated in much the same way as has ''The Last Supper''.<ref name=King2012>{{cite book |last=King |first=Ross |title=Leonardo and the Last Supper |page=271 |publisher=Bloomsbury |location=New York |year=2012 |isbn=978-1-62040-308-2}}</ref>

Leonardo worked on ''The Last Supper'' from about 1495 to 1498, but he did not work continuously. The beginning date is not certain, as the archives of the convent for the period have been destroyed. A document dated 1497 indicates that the painting was nearly completed at that date.<ref>Kenneth Clark. ''Leonardo da Vinci'', Penguin Books 1939, 1993, p. 144.</ref> A prior from the monastery reportedly complained to Leonardo about its delay. Leonardo wrote to the head of the monastery, explaining he had been struggling to find the perfect villainous face for Judas, and that if he could not find a face corresponding with what he had in mind, he would use the features of the prior who had complained.<ref name=Lair>{{cite web |title=The Last Supper |publisher=lairweb.org.nz |url=http://www.lairweb.org.nz/leonardo/supper.html |access-date=21 December 2012}}</ref><ref name=Steel2003>{{cite episode |title=DaVinci |series=The Mark Steel Lectures |network=[[BBC]] |url=http://www.open.edu/openlearn/body-mind/ou-on-the-bbc-mark-steel-lectures-da-vinci-the-lecture |publisher=The Open University |airdate=7 October 2003 |series-no=2 |number=2 |access-date=21 December 2012 |archive-date=17 September 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180917110707/http://www.open.edu/openlearn/body-mind/ou-on-the-bbc-mark-steel-lectures-da-vinci-the-lecture |url-status=dead}}</ref>

In 1557, [[Gian Paolo Lomazzo]] wrote that Leonardo's friend [[Bernardo Zenale]] advised him to leave Christ's face unfinished, arguing that "it would be impossible to imagine faces lovelier or gentler than those of [[James the Great]]er or [[James the Less]]." Leonardo apparently took the advice.<ref name=Durant2001>{{Cite book |last=Durant |first=Will |author-link=Will Durant |title=Heroes of History: A Brief History of Civilization from Ancient Times to the Dawn of the Modern Age |page=206 |publisher=Simon & Schuster |location=New York |year=2001 |oclc=869434122 |isbn=978-0-7432-2612-7 |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/869434122}}</ref>

<gallery widths="350" heights="200">
File:Donato Montorfano Crocifissione di Santa Maria delle Grazie Milano.jpg|''Crucifixion'' by [[Giovanni Donato da Montorfano]], 1495, opposite Leonardo's ''Last Supper''
File:"The Last Supper" by Leonardo da Vinci - Joy of Museums.jpg|The painting as it appears on the refectory wall
File:Santa Maria delle Grazie with Leonardo's The Last Supper.jpg|alt=The refectory with the last supper on the far wall|The refectory
</gallery>