The last supper. Living she when it was 1st shown in 1499. 00 they created shock waves through italy and beyond changing the world of art for ever but a 20 year restoration effort has revealed the awful truth of the original fresco only some 20 percent is still visible simply put we can no longer seed or understand why this painting had such a devastating impact. Or can we. This is the incredible story of a hope across europe fall. On the trail of clues and documents hidden for centuries that suggests that later idol and his workshop painted another last supper a huge life size scale but none other than the king of france does that painting still exist if so can it reveal the secrets of the original fresco. This is where a story starts in milan the most important fashion and business city in all of modern italy and in that sense not much has changed even in the 15th century milan was a bustling city filled with artists and musicians. Of old a city states and italy the duchy of milan was the most powerful the most exuberant and the wealthiest buy for no wonder that many kings in europe wanted to conquer particularly because the man in charge of the juke named Ludovico Sforza was a tyrant who had seized power in 1481 and many other such rulers he was desperate to cloak his the legitimacy with the splendor of a renaissance court. The jew had many projects a monastery complex called the tolls of the pov and a new church built right here in milan called the sometime out he had that i cannot see but the biggest project of all was this massive cathedral deliberately designed to be the Biggest Church building in all of italy so naturally this city was a magnet for Young Artists and sculptors from all over the region. But while they are not up this artist wasnt from one marty he was one for. More than the most exciting city in all of italy the wellspring of the renaissance what was he doing painting at fresco in milan. Answer may be found in a small village outside of florence called village. Ludo was a natural child the son of a farmers daughter katherina who one day had a role in the hay with a promising young notary called 7 pm of course marys was out of the question a Bright Future awaited said pietro provided he married a wife from a prestigious family. Thats why leonardo was never truly part of the creative circles of florence around lorenzo the major with artists like betty gillen diet or michelangelo these were folks who wrote latin sonnets and could hold their own and find society there not i was never part of that. But said piero never forgot his son and was only as ready to use his connections to help him get work but the lack of a proper education left Young Leonardo at a major disadvantage. Instead he was apprenticed to the workshop of one of the most prolific artists of florence and that i am here. Here leonardo learned how to mix pigments prepare panels or transfer a large fresco drawings cold cartoons to a plaster wall. And eventually for rocky allowed him to paint one of the angels in his panel of the baptism of christ its obvious that leonardos angel is much more beautiful than the rather dire angel to the right painted by photopia himself so how did he create such lovely and gelug faces the answer by using a New Invention called oils whereas most of florence still use the flat collars of tempera paint which dries quickly leonardo had begun to experiment with pigments mixed with oils the technique 1st developed in Northern Europe day adventists oil has several suspects and price that in order to create a 3. 00 dimensional object you pretty much have to mix everything right single color that you put in there or crosshatch it so you get the feeling that i mentioned but with oil you didnt have that problem you have an incredible range from black to white almost seamlessly and sell this was a huge shift for for the artists and the renaissance. And there is a classically trained artist who painted a life size re creation of the Sistine Chapel for the Motion Picture angels and the. And how where these oils may well they wont ground up pigments that could be anything from bones through dry costly to of course famous altruria blue that came from afghanistan that was so expensive that it cost more than actual gold in its own weight my god more than gold yes it did. The 15th century to quote the cento was a an exciting time to be in florence it was a time of rebirth the renaissance the revival of the ancient world and the arts and science in literature and in engineering here for example feel really pull brunelleschi used roman engineering to create this vast dome over the do moment the cathedral of florence. While burlesque he was taking measurements of ancient temples in rome he had discovered that when you draw as street or a building all the horizontal lines seem to converge to a Common Center what today we call the vanishing point. The lansky had discovered the laws of linear perspective it revolutionized the renaissance art suddenly painters could create in the allusion of 3 dimensional space this if the image they painted was a window on another world. You know for us its almost impossible to imagine the impact of this innovation and why because today we are surrounded by simulated images a form of billboards Television Cinema they have conditioned our brain to interpret flat images as 3 dimensional reality but in the middle ages men and women never had that experience before and so there must have been utterly amazed by a painting like this one. The crucifixion by massaging the 1st fresco in history to use linear perspective. People in those days most of us some form of magic to see space rather was only a flat wall. There no no was also trained in the magic of linear perspective in the workshop of its mass of a rocket and he too was amazed by the possibilities but as he began his 1st major painting they are now realized that linear perspective had one major drawback. It tended to stifle the figures and inhibit their expressive power in many paintings the figures became like puppets fixed on a rigid grid 10 years later leonardo would write how to give you figures a pleasing air. Look about you. When you see a beautiful face remember its features and fix them in your mind. So what layer nardo is saying is dont let geometry deprive your characters of feelings of emotions of psychological drama and the 1st ball that tends to do just that is a painting that hangs right here in the o. Feeds it called the adoration of the magic. Unfortunately the monks who commissioned a panel werent interested in moving the boundaries of italian art they simply wanted a pretty picture of the native any that people could recognize and worship. And so the work was stopped and the painting remained unfinished it would take nearly 2 decades before layer nardo group realize his great vision he talked about wanting to create his work of fame he could see but unless his work of fame he could see done to tell us works of fame and he wanted to create his own and so his destiny he felt he lay with a large a large court with a grand patron and a Single Person who was going to be writing the checks and that happened to the most powerful man in italy many the 14 eighties and for the ninetys was the duke of milan lot of equals fortson and so thats why he went north in 1482 to begin working for someone who was in effect a prince and not just a group of monks thats why a layman are decided to turn his back on the forums and thats why he came here in milan filled with ambition not as an artist but as an engineer a military engineer he even prepared and then press a picture for the job but catalogued all of us military towns. Methods for destroying every fortress were strong and was built on a rock. I can also design different types of can which was from the stones and ball like a hail storm. Leonardos hopes came to naught it took several years for a joke ludovico to finally noticed a florentine artist but the project he gave. Even a huge equestrian statue ended in failure the only thing that remains of this massive project are his studies. Live in arthur was ready to tackle the greatest most ambitious composition of his young career a series of 13 live size portraits of men seated at a table for a wall in milan. How did the last supper project come about and who asked leonardo de painted. This may come as a surprise but we really dont know what we need to know is that the jukes fault so i tended to favor home grown artists like giovanna dont want to follow it may not have been particularly in the mansion a tape but they delivered their work on time and on budget like this fresco of st peter part of. What we do know is that the joke had chosen this church to become the pantheon of his dynasty. Actually it was part of a Dominican Convent and the abbot white away saw as opportunity so he asked the joke if he would build him a new or factory place to have meals for the monks complete with frescos. A refectory was usually decorated with 2 paintings a last supper and a crucifixion of christ. The last supper illustrated the institution of the eucharist. Whereas the crucifixion depicted the redemption of mankind to the suffering of jesus the 2 condor points of christian theology. The most important for us go destined for the south wall was the crucifixion of christ this did you gave to giovanni dum want to fun know whose family had been working in the cathedral of milan for many decades. The aunt who was going to paint a north wall. Lay not a vinci up to this point but lay it out or had done other than the failed the question project and the 2 small portraits was the production of plays and masks for the entertainment of the jucundus court was he truly going to be given this monumental fresco but laid out a was in effect a special effects man for they do you can so i guess we would think of him as a sort of a combination set designer Costume Designer and special effects person for these spectaculars that lot of equal would have staged maybe a couple of times a year in the lion. That is why lew nardo was determined that with this fresco he was going to stomach the moment. And they probably would have been expecting that he would have done a last supper akin to all of those that have been done primarily in florence in tuscany sienna for the previous 200 years but of course he did something quite different that archetype showed christ breaking bread thus establishing the 1st eucharist but like a skilled film director leonardo picked a far more dramatic see the moment when jesus the players that one of the men in the. Who is a traitor. That news literally explodes from the center and hits the apostles and various poses of shock disbelief sorrow even anger the full panoply of Human Emotions is laid bare the same idea that had galvanized his adoration of the manager some 25 years earlier leonardo wanted action and he also wanted the emotion and the dramatic intensity of what happened in in those seconds in jerusalem and that of course is one of the magnificent things about the painting he brings that to life and we see that and instantly i think we can understand whats happening there is that hold for techs of human drama thats right where everyone is reacting differently theyre asking each other theres even credulity theres disbelief theres anger there is in the cases of the light st john he just appears to be coming awake and theres being interrogated by st peter and so he does he takes each each of these 12 and gives them. Some characteristics some you know with facial expression hand gestures things like that in order to take us into the character but here is the great tragedy most of these beautiful expressions are no longer visible to us and metal is not it that that little cousin to me often has to present emotional to me on a particular on a technique because you have been an opportunity that if i ask book express you direct pluck it out with us you want to said specially dont add on i send it in a. Unlike want to funnel who used conventional fresco techniques leonardo could not resist experimenting with this pigments to try to create the same optical effects that he had pioneered with his Oil Paintings the result was catastrophic. I think the thing thats so interesting about him is that hes got different intellectual interests and so hes trying to achieve different goals with paint and hes asking different questions of them larry keith is the head of conservation and keeper at Londons National Gallery but also i think he really was in city and exploring nuances of tonal british and all those kinds of distinctions that i think are really not possible to achieve in france. In 1517 influential cardinal named luigi dada go on and his secretary on tonio debate up this went on a tour and among others visited the convent in milan to see the last supper. As the b. Artist would write it is most excellent although it is beginning to decay either because of the down the sun the wall or some other form of the play. And the centuries since the 1st go continue to the turret because it was adjoining our kitchen so all the moisture was trapped in the wall. In the end theres really no way to know what lennart great masterpiece looked like. Or is there. Long before and tony owes a visit another even more distinguished visitor came to milan with an army into this was the newly crowned king of france louis to 12 just one year after his elevation to the king marched on malone to clean the city as his home. And what was the 1st thing that king louis did after he set himself up here in the castello 4th so the answer is in the book written by leonardo as 1st biographer george of authority. As for sorry says the king when on a visit he went to see the last supper. It was deeply pressed by the Actual Service picture both in composition and execution and convinced that he should take it back to his kingdom so he tried to find architects who could build a framework of wood and i am to safely transport the fresco back to france with no regard for expense so much to he want to have it. But since it was painted on a wall is majesty could not have this design. But kings arent used to being told what they cannot have and so louis decided on an even bigger gambit but for that he needed leonardo himself at least thats our theory. Even though leonardo was in milan he was wanted back in florence to finish another francisco the battle of and beyond and the whole of the 500. 00 of the lots of dallas a new audience so he wasnt in a position to stay in milan and do whatever the king had in mind for him but then something extraordinary something that changed everything. This is the arche view adelas thought that if you had say the state archives of forms with documents that go back over a 1000 years and here we found a truly remarkable letter if they left it at the elysian ethical they go to chase him up leslie if you didnt think in the attic what dorothy she generally up to me little question to say then here is a letter from the french king himself king louis the 12th to the consul of the year in the president of the French Republic to signoria asking as we have need of must. Paint in the city of florence and want to make him do something by his own hand we beg you to kindly let it all work for us for a period of time and carry out the work we tend to here to do. I think its becoming clear what the french king once lived in order to do if he can have the fresh school itself he will have the next best thing a copy on canvas that he can take back to france. And whats interesting about this is that the king doesnt tell the senior react what he would like him to do he is very cagey about the king doesnt say how long because if our theory is correct and he wants leonardo to make a copy of the last supper that would take. A very long time indeed. The idea of such a live sized copy was not far fetched leonardo was arguably one of the 1st painters in history who used his studio to make copies of his own works for sale such as divergent of the rocks painted with his associate umbrella judith platys. The madonna of the yarn winder possibly painted with his pupil francesco spaniel the saint m. Painted with his assistant to mel c. And of course the mona lisa painted by his pupil and close companion solomon. There was a good reason for that here in the sometime early in a valet and that about had a large studio with lots of assistance but he worked very slowly and its difficult to maintain a large studio when you have a very limited output but its not so hard if you use your best assistants to make copies of your works for sale under the masters supervision of course so what happened to this copy of the last supper. Who painted it and doesnt still exist theres only one way to find out and that is to go to france. Today we think of paris as the worlds epicenter of art culture and fashion this is where the world kongs for beauty and refinement but in the 16th century things were very different. People sometimes forget that but in the middle ages it was actually burgundy. Which dictated french culture not just an art but also in poetry and music and then came the scourge of the black plague and the 100 years war in which joan of arc would play such an important part. Somebody time during the 12th came to the throne france was a mere shadow of its former self and louis was very much aware. He knew that french artists needed to take their cue from the italian relatives. And i think thats why he was so incredibly keen to get the last supper into french. But if thats true and if a lot of sides copy of the last supper was actually made where did it go the answer i think maybe hidden behind these walls this is the shot to dig out your which once served as the resident. Of yours dumb why. Does the west was the most important man besides the king with the treads are sort of Prime Minister weve done underline the fact that he was polish we are sticking her there. Like his master king louis dumb ones was deeply smitten with the beauty of italian art he decided he wanted to build a chateau that was entirely in the renaissance time the 1st one in france and so he brought backs gores of italian artists and masons to do just that. But it took an artist when the fiftys could just come full soon or sell 25. 00 and restaurant. 3 its a lottery. The people of new you know to the beach he came here there and what did he do you do lots of things to degrade yourself and one of the most beautiful shots of the sixtys and to reinforce. The fact that. One of those leading pupils was working in this chateau around 1509 may be the missing piece of the puzzle. Unfortunately the chapel and much of the shuttle were destroyed in the french revolution and the turmoil not follow but one work that andrea painted for the chateau still exists a deposition from the cross which today hangs in the. Central florida what we know of him is that he was from a family of artists we think he was probably working in venice in a period when you know out of his very 1st in line so he wasnt there with him right from the beginning and around 49 to 5 in public came back from venice to learn with his brother christopher and which is of course exactly the moment when theyre not is beginning to work on. Fact i if thats true then celerity 0 must have been present as the great francisco of the last supper took shape on the refectory wall and since he was one of leonard those most talented pupils could he have been the one who painted the copy for the french king in the archives of the chateau we find a key piece of evidence an inventory of all property including printings from the 1540 s. One of these paintings is no sin fact on twine and glum persona the film will say your feast up r. T. D. Beetle a last supper on canvas with monumental figures which his grace had brought over from alone. Could this be our 1st hard piece of evidence of a live size copy of the last supper on gone past on ours with monumental figures. Put this together with what we know that andreas alarie was in guy you know in 1509 and that pieces begin to fall into place. There is little doubt that solari 0 was a favorite of the dumb was family and 1507. 00 even painted a portrait of georges nephew charlotte dumb ones charlotte was none other than the governor of milan at that time but given the short time frame in which the copy was finished between 15071509 is likely that not only sold audio but also other leonardo pupils were involved including for example jump. But heres the next question where is this campus after all if its as big as we think it is its not something you would lose very easily. And thats why we find ourselves on the train to antwerp in belgium to follow the next trail of glimpse. We usually think of and for prez the city of rubens painter of the baroque but even in the early renaissance and for it was a very important city primarily because it served as the major port of the low countries. But things started to change in the early 16th century primarily as a result of the growing tensions between the protestant north and the catholic south which ultimately produced the 80 years war. This is when the Catholic Church looks for every which way to defend to faith in the low countries and is founded in this abbey the abbey of total. You know what i think is so interesting is that dutch calvinism rejected all forms of religious imagery paintings sculpture new stained glass it was all torn down and destroyed i think thats why the abbot of total world decided he should get the biggest painting of christ and his apostles he could find to deter the north and give a boost to the catholic faithful in the sun. Reportedly this painting students ists in a small chapel on the grounds of this very calm. And. Oh my god there it is again here look at this the same thing weve been looking for all these weeks. It is magnificent. So the painting was brought to help and just in that specific moment the other tough dunga little has asked somebody to look after the beautiful great. Painting religious painting for the new abbey church he wrote a letter to the abbot tap this the last supper of Leonardo Da Vinci that was sold on the 2nd of february and 50145 its oh the painting was actually presented and sold. A product of lived out of the big painted by leo not of the view while it was in those days was not that important but probably. 90 percent of the painting as a work of. Disciples spiel pulls off. Tell me about this theory of who painted christ and saying just well. You know but i believe. Lady who has been restoring for 22 years the origin of fresco in milan. As she passed she said to this is a work of a goof. Off if you feel as disciples of. Jesus but she said im convinced that christ is and especially also the apostle of sin john your favorite model of diving she has been painted by him said by a layer not of them yeah. Why is that city if its a quality the quality of off you know when you look at painting you see that in john this. Is very nice and its exceptional quality and very very about and they also made x. Rays of some 20 as they go in there are under dig yeah boston schedule exact same town and crashed youre telling me that there are there is an under drawing under all of the apostles except for john and christ that is painted directly on the campus that was the result of. Of the x. Rays that is an astonishing discovery. So we might conclude that even though the apostles may have been painted by his pupils in a living perhaps under a a celeriac that lay not to himself hated christ and since the most important figures on the last supper paid yeah yeah and that was so its they both painting ass of work. Thats fascinating thats fancy and it is a beautiful work but is this the painting that pin louis to 12 ordered from leonardo in 1507 and that 100 or so laurie you brought to france and 1509. Fortunately the abbey has an extensive archive going back many hundreds of years and here we find in this publishing eyewitness account. That force a poor hunt and jewel it is said that the painting is made after an original painted on a wall that is now a bad patch. When the king of france who conquered milan sold the painting he was very disappointed that he could not take it with him since it was painted a whole wall and so he gave the order to. I have a copy made and thats the copy that hangs in the choir to day. So what we have here is an eyewitness document from the 16th century that confirms our theory that louis did 12 ordered a copy of the last supper from Leonardo Da Vinci and this painting now hangs on the wall of this beautiful abbey in belgium. But then the plot thickens once more as we saw such a large campus could not have been painted by just one artist such a small time frame so who would have painted on the bend in various solaria the most likely candidate is an italian artist called jumpy athena for as we will discover in london he went on to make a 2nd call. For 250 years the Royal Academy of Burlington House in london this been training generations of british artists by drawing inspiration from the work of the great masters. So were sitting here in the library which very much relates to the training of the artist these were all what we call bacterial through artist and spot them for them to look at when did the World Academy acquire the copy of the last supper and why did they acquire so it was 821 the academy bullshit the 600 guineas which them with a lot of money as a sort of comparison in a few 20 the national got a report every old kitchen just over 300. 00 pounds so to spend 600. 00 pounds on what was a copy was an immense amount of money so they had to gather all the artists together they will have to vote on it and agree that this was a good purchase it was this. Ordinary example of leonardos work i mean although its a copy i think it was seen as a real window into the sort of achievements of leonardo and to have in the schools for the artist the students with an amazing theres a note by leonardo that refers to a john pepto who we think is probably the same person and we know that a figure more or less of this name is working in milan from at least around 15 years 7 so in that 2nd period after leonardo has been back to florence and has then returned to milan and would you agree that hes probably one of the principal artists in the crop in the world yes so thats very much the current line of thinking although pietro moroni has recently going back to the technical drawings underpinning this work and has to do Technical Analysis of the under drawings of the work has asserted that in fact its probably all tracking his hand initially and then jumper trainer coming in as a secondary hand. If its true that jump you 3 you know worked on both the tunnel over asia and then later around 1520. 00 on this copy it would seem that between these 2 paintings we would have a very accurate sense of what the original fresco once looked like. I think the scale of it is it does appear to be very very close to the original and for me the heads that we weve come investigate further seem to be very close the original book traffic and champion train obviously had access to here now it is crawling with cartoon and i think with possibly evidence that there may have been some sort of putting out all tracing all you know from these original cartoon saying you know this is really interesting that the base is maybe even closer than we originally thought. Not that we found not one but 2 live sized versions of the last supper by layer nardo and his top pupils do we at long last have a key to see what the fresco in milan truly looked like. A last supper painting that would go on to transform the course of western art could anyone in the 49 years havent dissipated the tremendous impact that this 1st poll would have he would have been told by the lord of eco and the trier of sentimental about see the last supper and they probably would have expected he would have done the last supper akin to all of those that have been done primarily in florence in tuscany c. N. N. For the previous 200 years but later of course it did not work like that and he did say that the way to make a painting was not to look at other paintings it was to look at real life and so i think what he wanted to do with why he thought the bible was find the drama in the story was almost like he. Was the director of a film and he was given a brief this is the film youre going to make are going to make a film of the last supper. Going to action and then he also wanted the emotion and the dramatic intensity of what happened in those seconds in jerusalem and not of course is one of the magnificent things about the painting that he brings that to life and we see that and instantly i think we can understand whats happening there 3 paintings and yet one vision a vision of the pink thing the most familiar scene from the gospels in a way that had never been done before. And now we know what that original vision once looked like fangs to work canvas and the remote convent in belgium of course in the years to come the high renaissance would produce some of the most memorable frescoes in history including raw files stones and the vatican and michelangelos immortal ceiling of the Sistine Chapel but all that incredible realisable that monumental grasp of the human figure 1st started with a press go on the wall of a factory in the long. Eco india. How can a countrys economy. Harmony gets people employment when there are do worse look at the Bigger Picture india a country that faces many challenges and whose people are striving to create a Sustainable Future clever projects from europe and india eco. Next on the detail of. What keeps us in shape what makes us see and how do we stand down from. My name is dr carlson the i talked to medical experts to. Watch them at work. And they discuss what you can do to improve your health. State use and lets all try to stay good should. Include. Wu. Each still tells my story. Of the people who planned me. Dedicating lives to me. I am not too dumb to coming. Clean on my secrets. I have mounted my cities days for centuries and accompanied my country through its finest hours until the day i mean. Nothing down to. Dance a feeling. Going to. This is d. W. News and these are our top stories. British Prime Minister Barak Johnson has been taken to hospital with persistent coronavirus symptoms downing street says hell spend a night in hospital for tests the Prime Minister 1st fill ill with covert 19 at the end of march. Also in Britain Queen Elizabeth has stressed the importance of social distancing in a rare televised address to the nation the queen of the
comparemela.com © 2020. All Rights Reserved.