Leonardo's "Last Supper," one of the most important works of the
Renaissance if not all of Western art, was painted between 1494 and
1498 in the refectory of Santa Maria delle Grazie in Milan. From
the moment that the prior there complained to Leonardo that the
work was taking too long, the" Last Supper" has endured centuries
of controversy, neglect, and difficulty. "Leonardo, The Last
Supper," translated from the Italian, is the definitive document of
the recently completed project to reverse these centuries of
decline by restoring the painting to close to its initial state and
preserving it in a manner that generations of conservators have
failed to do.
The technical problems with the "Last Supper" began as soon as
Leonardo started to paint it. He jettisoned the traditional fresco
technique of applying paint to wet plaster, a method unsuited to
Leonardo's slow and thorough execution, and created the work
instead with an experimental technique that involved painting
directly on the dry plaster. Rather than creating a durable surface
in which the pigment and the plaster dry and cohere together, he
applied an oil tempera of questionable composition to the surface
of the dry plaster, causing the paint to flake immediately. With
this renegade method, Leonardo rendered one of the most enduring
painting techniques volatile and unstable.
The fortunes of the "Last Supper" continued to suffer after its
completion; it was repainted no fewer than four times over the
course of the centuries. Leonardo may have been the first to
attempt to restore it in 1517; this effort was followed by two
further interventions in the eighteenth century and another in the
nineteenth century. "The LastSupper" has withstood food fights in
the refectory staged by Napoleonic soldiers; it survived Allied
bombs in 1943, although the rest of the refectory was nearly
destroyed. With centuries of additional damage caused by age,
tourists, candle smoke, grease from the refectory, and pollution,
the "Last Supper" was in desperate need of a complete restoration.
Pinin Brambilla Barcilon was chosen to head this twenty-year
project, and "Leonardo, The Last Supper" is the official record of
her remarkable effort. It first documents the cleaning and removal
of the overpainting performed in the other attempts at restoration
and then turns to Barcilon's meticulous additions in watercolor,
which were based on Leonardo's preparatory drawings, early copies
of the painting, and contemporary textual descriptions. This book
presents full-scale reproductions of details from the fresco that
clearly display and distinguish Leonardo's hand from that of the
restorer. With nearly 400 sumptuous color reproductions, the most
comprehensive technical documentation of the project by Barcilon,
and an introductory essay by art historian and project codirector
Pietro C. Marani that focuses on the history of the fresco,
"Leonardo, The Last Supper" is the definitive chronicle of one of
the most extensive restoration projects ever attempted.
Naturally of great interest to Italian Renaissance art historians
and scholars, "Leonardo, The Last Supper" should also be considered
an essential volume to anyone who appreciates the splendor, beauty,
and technical achievements of Renaissance painting. It is both an
invaluable historic record and an extraordinarily handsome volume.
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