Recording from Ross King’s talk, ‘Leonardo Da Vinci & The Last Supper’ for CVHF, Thursday, 27th June 2013.

Leonardo da Vinci’s Last Supper took three years to complete and stands fifteen feet high by twenty feet wide – a vast mural, which, for more than five centuries, has been an artistic, religious and cultural icon. The art historian Kenneth Clark called it ‘the keystone of European art’ and, for a century after its creation, it was regarded as nothing less than a miraculous image. And yet there is a very human story behind this artistic ‘miracle’, which was created against the backdrop of momentous events both in Milan and in the life of Leonardo himself. In this talk, Ross King tells the complete story of the creation of this astonishing mural: the adversities suffered by the artist during its execution; the experimental techniques he employed; the models for Christ and the Apostles that he used; and the numerous personalities involved. This is the compelling human story of one of the most famous paintings ever created.