The Canton mail. [volume] (Canton, Miss.) 18??-1882, 1875-07-31
The " Last Supper

painting is a lasting regret to all art
students. As to its causes, the first
misfortune was, that it should have
been painted in oil instead of fresco, a
kind of work i'll suited to the slow re-
touching hand and most fastidious taste
of the artist, Leonardo da Vinci, who
was glad, on this account, to take adj
vantage of the then recent invention of
body colors A miserable fresco at the
other end of the refectory of 8. M. dele
Giraffe, at Milan, in which this great
work was produced, painted in the same
age, still tantalizes the observer by the
freshness of its tints, while the master
piece of Leonardo, perhaps of the art,
has been gone for ages. 1t is further
said that he used oil too much rein ed
and of too thin consistency.
1t is certain, too, that the plaster on
which he worked had some defect, which
made it scale off in few years. Then
the convent is situated in damp place,
and the refectory is in the lowest part
of the building; 80 that ut all times
when there is an inundation in the
Milanese, the room is filed with water.
From all these causes the picture re-
tanned its original beauties only for a
few years. It was finished in 1888 in
154O it was half effa,ed; and ten years
later, the outlines only remained, the
colors being entirely gone. A century
after this, the venerable fathers whose
lot it was to occupy the same room with
it during a very interesting portion OF
the day, observing with their wonted
sagacity) that the straight line which
Joined their table and the kitchen passed
through the centre of the picture. ano
L he onT
aware, from instructive s",s-. 40 roi ,,ts
S%sds Gle sh0ftess, ".aaehs proper to Gu,
through the wall, and thus destroyed 9
part Of the principal figure, and the two
| figures next it. With tenderness fol
their sovereign, almost equal to theil
zeal for their own clerical duties, they
next nailed a grea1 eecutcheon of the
emperor upon the middle of the wall,
SO as to reach the heads of the group.
But the tender mersiss of those rever-
end personages hse been still more
fatal to this MASTERPIECE, and have fin
ished the destruction which the neg.
ligence begun. Inl726 they employed
an artist who pretelded to have a secret
for reviving lost cobrs, and allowed him
to work upon the Supper" under an
awning that conceded his operations.
| This dauber, who's. name was Belloti,
painted the whole picture over again,
with the exception of a portion of the
sky, as seen through the window, the
original color of which remained nearly
entire. Finally. is destruction was
completed in ITO. by one Mazza, who
actually scraped ont most of the few
outlines which remlned of the original,
and had inserted heads of his own in all
the figures but t,ree, when he was
stopped by a chang in the convent, and
new prior succeeding.
| In 1876, Bonapare, out of respect fol
the place, rather tan that it signifed
much what now beanie of the picture,
mounted his hore, prohibiting any
military use being made OF the apart
ment but soon after, one of his geher.
stable of it. The dagoons, as might
be expected, amuse, themselves with
throwing stones at tls heads, being told
they we're meant to rpresent the apos
ties: The refectorv vas then used fol
some years as a Magazine of folage
and when at length permission was
given to wall up the door, in order tt
prevent further diapidations, SO little
was it attended to, that in 1900, a f1ood
having covered tie floor a foot deer
with water, it WIS suffered to remain
until it dried by saportion.
Such is the hispry, md so complet,
the destruction O. this celebrated pic
ture and thus enireiy from tradition
and through the Medium of copies ant
engravings, do we ierive all the knowl
edge ef it's merit which we can nov
obtain. Happily hose copies are nu
merous, and some Of them by contem
porary artists of note, who studied tn
original in the days of its greatest pres
| arvatiOn