Leonardo da Vinci was already a well known artist when he created his masterpiece
The Last Supper. He painted it on the back wall of the dining hall at the Dominican
convent of Sta Maria delle Grazie in Italy. The reason the painting is laid out
the way it is is that Leonardo was trying to "extend the room", to make
it look like Jesus and his apostles were sitting at the end of the dining hall.
This painting became an instant famous work, for many reasons.
The painting depicts the very moment that Jesus said to his disciples:
Now when the even was come, he sat down with the twelve. And as they did
eat, he said, Verily I say unto you, that one of you shall betray me. And they
were exceeding sorrowful, and began every one of them to say unto him, Lord,
is it I? And he answered and said, He that dippeth his hand with me in the dish,
the same shall betray me. --Matthew 26
The disciples are all reacting in horror to the thought that someone at that
table would betray their master. |
