Identifier: leonardodavincia01mn (find matches)
Title: Leonardo da Vinci, artist, thinker and man of science
Year: 1898 (1890s)
Authors: Müntz, Eugène, 1845-1902
Subjects: Leonardo, da Vinci, 1452-1519
Publisher: London : W. Heinemann New York : C. Scribner's Sons
Contributing Library: Harold B. Lee Library
Digitizing Sponsor: Brigham Young University

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ome of the heads, one might describe it aschildish, so naively does the painters inexperience betray itself inthe dramatic conception of the subject. The beloved apostle, his headon the table, appears to be sleeping ; thus one actor disappears ;another pours himself out some wine ; the rest look calmly in front ofthem. As to Judas, he is placed, as usual, on the near side of the table,opposite to Jesus. We look in vain for men who show traces ofastonishment, indignation, or grief; all we see are personages—andeven this is almost too emphatic a term for them—without elevationand without character. I pass over the other faults of the composi-tion, the absence of grouping, the distraction caused by the portrayalof the subordinate incident in the background—Christ on the Mountof Olives—the introduction of movable discs, detaching themselvesin the most puerile fashion on the chancel enframing the principal VIII • The Last Supper. (kKI-KCIOUV ok SANTA MA1;1A DKI.LI GKAZIF, MII-AN.
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THE LAST SUPPER 183 picture. In short, it is only too evident that we need not seek eitherprototype or pendant for the miracle of Santa Maria delle Grazie inthis feeble work. In his religious compositions, Leonardo, it must be admitted, wasgiven to straying a little from his theme. The Virgin of the Rocks,the Adoration of the Magi, the John the Baptist, astonish and charmus beyond measure ; but they hardly tend to edify us in the samedegree. In his Last Stipper, on the other hand, the master attackedthe problem from the front, without circumlocution or subterfuge,determined to restrict himself to the gospel story, and to look to thesubject itself for all it could offer. Hence it is that the painting inSanta Maria delle Grazie may be classed with Raphaels cartoons,as a work breathing forth the purest evangelic spirit, a work beforewhich believers of every creed love to meditate, and in admiration ofwhich they find a stimulus to faith. No picture was ever lingered over more lovingly. It

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