The The Last Supper (Leonardo) reference article from the English Wikipedia on 24-Apr-2004 (provided by Fixed Reference: snapshots of Wikipedia from wikipedia.org)

The Last Supper (Leonardo)

The Last Supper (in Italian, Il Cenacolo or La Ultima Cena) is a painting by Leonardo da Vinci for his patron Duke Lodovico Sforza. It represents the scene of The Last Supper from the final days of Jesus Christ as depicted in the Christian Bible. The painting is based on John 13:21, in which Jesus announced that one of his 12 discipless would betray him.

The work measures 460 x 880 cm and can be found in the convent of Santa Maria delle Grazie in Milan. Leonardo began work on The Last Supper in 1495 and completed it in 1498.

Leonardo painted The Last Supper on a dry wall rather than on wet plaster, so it is not a true fresco. Because of the method used, the piece has not withstood time very well – within 20 years of completion it already began showing signs of deterioration. It has undergone significant restoration since the 16th century. Because of this it is uncertain whether the faces still resemble Leonardo's original painting.

The most recent restoration took 22 years and on May 28, 1999 the painting was put back on display.

There is a life-sized copy of Leonardo's work in the Viennese Minorite Church.

There is a theory, first publicized in The Templar Revelation by Lynn Picknett and Clive Prince, that the person to the left of Jesus (to his right) is actually Mary Magdalene, rather than the apostle John (as most art historians identify it). This theory is central to Dan Brown's popular novel The Da Vinci Code

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