ART AND FAITH: 
leonardo's "The last supper" 

Picture
The disciples accompanied Jesus as far as they could go including his last supper, which becomes our Holy Communion meal.  How has this experience been depicted in art?  How do we experience this time alongside Jesus?  You will find resources here that help us learn more about "The Last Supper" by Leonardo Da Vinci, and how we experience the Last Supper in worship.  Let this painting and its story be your entrance into a deeper experience of eating with Jesus.
RESOURCES
Picture
Can't visit Milan, Italy, yourself?  Take a tour with Dr. Beth Harris and Dr. Steve Zucker through Khan Academy's Smart History video.
Picture

Adele Reinhartz has written an article on Leonardo's "The Last Supper" for Oxford Biblical Study Online that encourages us to encounter this painting with our faith.  She sees that a study of this work invites many to "reconfirm their connection to and faith in Jesus as the Christ. For all, however, believers or not, Leonardo's wonderful painting takes us into that moment of fellowship right before it all changes, for Jesus and for history."
Leonardo painted "The Last Supper" on one wall of a monastery refectory, Santa Maria della Grazie. He painted from 1494-1497, starting when he was 42.  The painting was commissioned by his patron, Duke Ludovico Sforza and his duchess Beatrice d'Este.  Another way to experience the painting is to view this video which gives you a 360-degree view of the painting in the room where it exists today.  Let yourself settle into the space as the music plays.  The other end of the room is a fresco painted by Donato Montorfano. Experiencing both can be very worshipful.
Picture
According to the New York Times reviewer Michiko Kakutani, Ross King "gives us a gripping account of how that painting was created and how it represents... one of the few times in Leonardo's life he managed to 'harness and concentrate his relentless energies and restless obsessions'." Read the review at the link below.