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The Last Supper Is Deteriorating
Mar 27, 2025
We’ve all seen the iconic scene portrayed by Leonardo Di Vinci in The Last Supper. It’s a masterpiece known the world over, but you’re running out of time to see it. In this video Sam talks about the paintings origin and deterioration, as well as a colorful way to make an omelette.
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Emotion, spirituality, and drama make this fresco one of the world's most admired works of art
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Ladies and gentlemen, the Last Supper. A little less than 2,000 years ago, 12 men and their rabbi sat down to have a Passover meal
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It was April 1st, and it would become the year 33 AD, when Jesus of Nazareth sat down with his disciples to recite the Seder prayers
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They washed their hands, recited the Hamotzi, Jesus passed around some bread and wine, which would become fairly well known
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and then when they were towards the end of the meal, Jesus made an announcement that would go on to change the course of history
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It was that moment, the moment that followed Jesus telling his disciples
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that one of them would betray him, that Leonardo da Vinci captured in what would become
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one of the most famous scenes in the history of humankind. And I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but you're running out of time to see it
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But in order to understand why, we need to go back in time. It's 1495
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A 42-year-old Leonardo da Vinci is frustrated with his lack of passion for his current work
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Although things were going well for Leonardo, he was not yet considered one of the great artists of his time
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He continuously fell short of artists like Pinto Riccio or Pietro Purugino, who would go on to teach Raphael
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He was gaining a name for himself, sure, but he had yet to achieve his masterpiece
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the one work of art that would outlive him and bring him the acclaim that he craved
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Luckily for him, he had finally figured out what it would be. Several years earlier, the Duke of Milan had requested that Leonardo make him a giant, magnificent, bronze statue of a horse
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Well, when you say it like that, it sounds underwhelming. This wasn't going to be a horse statue
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This was going to be the horse statue. Standing at 26 feet tall, Leonardo's design was set to be the largest equestrian statue ever sculpted
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It was going to be a magnificent feat, which cultivated da Vinci's near decade of planning
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in nearly 70 tons of bronze Leonardo felt it in his bones This was it This was his legacy The problem with bronze though is that you can use it for a lot of things which some people deem more practical than a six
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meter horse statue. Right before the construction was set to begin, the Duke decided that metal would
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better be put to use making cannons to ward off the attacks of Charles VIII. War had come to Italy
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and the battlefield doesn't have much use for grand art. I mean, what use is a giant fake horse
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and defeating any army. That'd be ridiculous. I promise this ties into the painting
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Stay with me. Leonardo was understandably upset. In addition to his years of preparation being for nothing
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the news of his failed foal had reached quite an audience. One day, while walking through the streets of Florence
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Michelangelo made fun of Leonardo for his inability to finish his masterpiece
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Da Vinci's record for unfinished work was almost more famous than his art itself
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Feeling terrible about the whole ordeal, the Duke of Milan decided to point Leonardo's genius
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in another direction. The Santa Maria del Grazi had a wall in the dining room that needed a mural
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As compensation for taking away his horse, the Duke offered Leonardo a chance to take a crack
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at portraying the most famous dinner in history. The Last Supper is an enormous masterpiece of work
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29 feet across and 15 in height, it steals the attention of anyone who looks at it. The painting
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shows Jesus centered at a long table with six of his disciples on either end. Da Vinci was known for
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his ability to capture emotion in the physical expression of his subjects. All of the individuals
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seated at the table are in states of upset and shock at the thought of one of their own betraying
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Jesus. That is except, of course, for Judas, who is turned away and has his face in the shadows
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When working on The Last Supper, Leonardo would often work from dawn until dusk painting
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not even stopping to eat. He would then frequently take breaks from working for several days at a
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time, sometimes coming back for only a few minutes each day to make minor changes. The inconsistency
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of Leonardo's work bothered the prior, who would frequently complain to him that he had to work
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faster Ever the shady guy it said that Leonardo made the man the model for the face of Judas So a couple of months ago I was scrolling on my phone and I came across a picture of The Last Supper
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that looked different from the one that we usually see. Not the picture in our head of how it looks, but how it actually looks today
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See, in the 1500s, there was a method of painting onto a wall known as fresco
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It involved paint and color onto wet plaster, which would then chemically bond so that the paint would stick
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The painter was obliged to work before the plaster dried. This didn't fit well with da Vinci's sporadic painting method that made the Pryor so angry
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He wasn't taught to paint using fresco, and his method involved a lot of going back and changing what he had already painted
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That's kind of hard to do when your colors are chemically bonded to the wall
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Because of this, da Vinci decided to use an experimental painting method, which used a mixture of vinegar, oil paints, and egg yolks
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I'm sure Da Vinci's paint was a little bit more complicated, but yeah, The Last Supper is partially made up of 500-year-old eggs
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Unfortunately, his experiment was a colossal failure. I mean, besides being one of the most famous paintings of all time
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Within 20 years of completing the work, the paint that he had used started to flake off the stone wall
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And within 100 years, it was described as completely ruined. In the hundreds of years that would follow
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there would be countless attempts to restore the painting, each one making it worse
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sometimes significantly so. In 1768, a curtain was put over the painting to protect it that
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actually trapped moisture inside and caused mold to form. Other attempts to paint over or fix the
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colors were ultimately unsuccessful and dangerous to the original layer. Additionally, in 1796
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invading French troops used the room as an armory and threw stones at the work, causing significant
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damage. Several bad restorations later, in 1943, the Santa Maria del Grazi was struck by Allied
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bombing and was mostly destroyed. Miraculously, the mural wall survived but took damage
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due to the vibrations. The most recent restoration attempt in the 1970s was the longest taking 21 years to meticulously complete
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Although they stabilized much of the damage that had been done in previous restorations
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the painting came away looking dramatically different, a shadow of its former self
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still deteriorating. Of course, going to see the painting is still going to be an amazing experience
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Because it's painted on a church wall, you're literally standing where da Vinci stood while he
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painted it. Standing in that room, you can feel all of the history of the work. When Leonardo began
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painting The Last Supper, he was 42 years old. In the 1490s, if you were contracted a generous life
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this is about the age that you would probably live to. This meant that Leonardo likely thought
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that The Last Supper would be among his last works, and it shows. Today, in order to protect
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the painting and make it last as many years as it can, there are rules in place to limit how many
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people can see the painting per day. Exposure to dust particles from visitors continues the
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deterioration process, and at some point, people may have to stop viewing it altogether. Now, I'm
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not saying they're going to close it this year. I'm not saying they're going to close it this decade. But if seeing this amazing painting is on your bucket list, and I think it should be
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you should do it sooner rather than later. I have no doubt Leonardo would very much appreciate it
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Thank you so much for watching and all the research that I've done on The Last Supper
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It's become one of my all-time favorite paintings. If you have any favorite paintings
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please let me know what they are in the comments because I love learning about new ones. If you're
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planning on going to see The Last Supper, I would highly recommend looking at Bright Trips
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How to Document Your Trip course so that you can capture that experience in a video or photo
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journal. There's also a ton of other travel courses, all of which you can find at brighttrip.com
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Thanks again, and see you next time
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