but he has used these effectively to show the effect of rain and dust on colour and distance. Da Vinci was one of the first artists in Italy to use atmospheric perspective.
The Last Supper
Leonardo’s most famous work is undoubtedly The Last Supper, a fresco in Sante Maria delle Grazie in Milan. Ludovico Sforza paid for the construction of this church and asked da Vinci to paint a fresco on one of the walls in the nearby monastery.
Da Vinci was not happy with traditional fresco techniques. For him, it dried too quickly, and prevented the use of fine detail. To counteract this, he mixed his paints with oil and worked a secco. The experiment proved disastrous, and in less than 20 years the great painting began to disintegrate.
Figure 6.9 The Virgin of the Rocks, 1495–1508, by Leonardo da Vinci, oil on panel, 199 × 122 cm, Musée du Louvre, Paris. The figures are treated with great tenderness, but Leonardo’s love of mystery shows in the gestures, expressions and strange lighting.
Figure 6.10 The Last Supper, 1480, by Domenico Ghirlandaio, fresco, 400 × 810 cm, Church of Ognissanti, Florence.
CHAPTER 6 A GOLDEN AGE: THE HIGH RENAISSANCE IN ROME, FLORENCE AND VENICE
