What Leonardo changed in ‘The Last Supper’: The unchanging relevance of God’s word

When you think of Jesus’ last supper with his disciples, what image comes to mind?

If you’re like most of us, you think immediately of Leonardo da Vinci’s famous painting. Its iconic depiction of our Lord at the center of a long table, his disciples seated on his left and his right, has for centuries been the way Western culture views this biblical event.

Leonardo’s fresco was completed around 1498 for the Dominican monastery Santa Maria della Grazie in Milan, Italy. It is in the news today since it was on this day in 1999 that the masterpiece was opened for public display after more than twenty years of restoration.

The painting began to deteriorate soon after it was completed, suffering from the steam and smoke of the monastery’s kitchen, soot from the refectory’s candles, and the dampness of its location. In 1652, a door was cut into the wall on which the painting was made, removing Jesus’ feet and loosening the paint and plaster.

Napoleon’s invading troops used the refectory as a stable, further damaging the painting. After a nineteenth-century flood, mold corroded it as well. An Allied bomb during World War II caused the roof and one wall of the refectory to collapse. The painting survived but was exposed to the elements for several months before the space was rebuilt.

The Last Supper finally underwent an extensive restoration beginning in 1978 that took more than twenty years to complete.

The history of the painting is just one part of its remarkable story. Another is the way Leonardo chose to depict Jesus’ last meal with his disciples.

The men sit in chairs at a long, horizontal table. The back wall is dominated by three windows through which Milan’s countryside is visible.

None of this, of course, is accurate biblically or historically.

The unchanging relevance of God’s…