Leonardo da Vinci, Essay Example

Leonardo da Vinci was an Italian painter whose genius, apparently more than that of any other figure, characterized the Renaissance humanist idea.  After Leonardo was given a task to paint the picture of the Last Supper on the wall of a chapel, he came up with an idea how to break artistic conventions of the time, thus trying new techniques and compositions. Additionally, Leonardo considered and precisely portrayed the facial expressions of each of the 12 disciples at the very moment when Christ claimed that one of them would betray him. He also chose to paint in tempura, instead of a traditional fresco. In his work, The Last Supper, the artist used one point perspective, thus including all the lines in the painting to converge in one place, which is also called the vanishing point. Consequently, this strategy was used in order to accentuate the central position of Christ on the picture. As one can notice, all the lines converge in his right eye, thus drawing the viewer’s attention to this place. However, people predominantly tend to disregard the incredible sense of perspective the work demonstrates. If you look closer, you can notice the sharp angling of the walls that are within the picture, thus leading back to the presumably outlying back wall of the room and the windows showing the hills and the sky beyond. One can observe that the type of day portrayed through these windows contributes to the feeling of peacefulness, which rests in the center of the piece, around the figure of Christ.

Works Cited

“The Last Supper in Cols.” <http://www.mostmerciful.com/last-supper-in-cols.jpg>.