LEONARDO DA VINCI

I

On the northern wall of the Refectory, or diningroom, of the Convent Santa Maria delle Grazie in Milan is the "Last Supper" of Leonardo da Vinci. Although the glory of the original coloring has departed and the surface of the wall is scarred and cracked, the painting is justly regarded as one of the world's great masterpieces. There are many critics who do not hesitate to declare that as regards composition at least it is the supreme masterpiece in the whole field of pictorial art.

As the wall was built of stone containing nitre, readily absorbing dampness, and as in his zeal for producing splendid effects in coloring the painter experimented in tempera, a medium lacking in durability, the painting had already suffered deterioration when Vasari in 1566 called it a "tarnished patch of colors." Then there were external forces at work. The monks themselves committed vandalism by cutting a door through the wall just below the figure of Christ. When in 1796 the Napoleonic invasion entered Milan, the French soldiers used the Refectory as a stable for their horses,

although Napoleon had given orders that the picture should not be injured. Unfortunately the General in command did not obey the instructions very minutely, for the French soldiers occasionally amused themselves by pelting the heads of the Apostles with clods of clay. In 1800 a flood covered the floor of the Refectory to a depth of two feet, and when the waters subsided, the painting was covered with a thick mould. The picture has also suffered from the injudicious restorers who from 1726 to 1870 imposed their own conceptions of coloring upon Leonardo's masterpiece. Since then the main effort has been to remove all traces of the work of the restorers so that we can get, if only faintly, the original picture. We can get a very good conception of the original composition, if not of the harmony and coloring, from the excellent engraving of Rudolf Stang of Düsseldorf, who after thirteen years of study published an accurate engraving. Especially good also is the engraving bearing the mark of Raphael Morghen.

The original is a large picture, twenty-nine and one-half feet long, and fourteen and three-fourths feet high. The engravings have made us familiar with the famous scene. Christ with his twelve disciples is seated at a table in a plainly furnished room whose three sides, with three windows at the rear, present an illustration of Leonardo's perfect perspective. In the central position is the Savior, the

light of the middle window serving as a halo. He has just announced, "One of you shall betray me." The effect of this declaration has thrown the twelve into violent agitation. The marvel is that although there is intense agitation, yet there is also the dignity of repose in each of the four groups into which the artist has arranged the picture. Christ is in the center of the picture, apart from each group, but every line in the room and every look and gesture of every man in the room leads the eyes to Christ. "In the nobility of the faces of all save Judas, in his aspect of cruel and impenitent resolve," writes a critic, “art has spoken its loftiest word. In the old pictures Judas had been isolated on the other side of the table, with his back to the spectator, an improbable and inartistic arrangement. Leonardo puts him amongst the most favored disciples, between St. Peter and St. John, but he accomplishes the same result by separating him from the others by causing him to lean forward upon the table, facing his Master with implacable gaze as he clutches the money-bag and overturns the salt-cellar. . . . Three of the figures are standing, but they lean forward so gracefully that their heads scarcely rise above those of their seated companions, and they only accentuate the harmony of the lines."

The tradition is that Leonardo worked for ten years upon the painting, the monks fretting at the delay. He probably did most of the work within

two years. Bandello, an eye witness, has given us an interesting account of his method of work,-" I have often seen him come very early and watched him mount the scaffolding- because the 'Last Supper' is somewhat high above the floor- and then he would not put down the brush from sunrise till the night set in, yes, he forgot eating and drinking, and painted without ceasing. Then two, three, or four days would pass without his doing anything, and yet he spent daily one or two hours before the picture, lost in contemplation, examining, comparing, and gauging his figures. I have also seen him at midday during the greatest heat, prompted by a whim or fancy, leave the old castle where he was modelling his wonderful equestrian statue, and hasten to Santa Maria delle Grazie. There he would mount the scaffolding, take up his brush, do one or two strokes to one of the figures, and then turn his back and go away." And Vasari, who knew that genius is often most profitably employed when seemingly idle, relates that Leonardo sometimes spent half a day before his picture in apparent idle contemplation.

This inactivity roused the indignation of the officious Prior, who belonged to the vast order of those who believe that the busier a man seems the more he accomplishes, and so he hastened to the Duke with a remonstrance against the idle painter. The Duke then felt obliged to admonish Leonardo,