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.