The Last Supper (Italian: Il Cenacolo or L'Ultima Cena) is a 15th century mural painting in Milan created by Leonardo da Vinci for his patron Duke Ludovico Sforza and his duchess Beatrice d'Este. It represents the scene of Da Vinci The Last Supper from the final days of Jesus as narrated in the Gospel of John 13:21, when Jesus announces that one of his Twelve Apostles would betray him. The Last Supper is one of several major events in the earthly life of Jesus Christ that are recorded in the Bible. The Last Supper is a description of the last meal Jesus Christ had with His disciples prior to His arrest and crucifixion on a roman cross about 2,000 years ago. The Last Supper contains many significant principles, and continues to be an important part of Christian lives throughout the world.

The Last Supper painting measures 450 × 870 centimeters (15 feet × 29 ft) and covers an end wall of the dining hall at the monastery of Santa Maria delle Grazie in Milan, Italy. The theme was a traditional one for refectories, although the room was not a refectory at the time that Leonardo painted it. The main church building had only recently been completed (in 1498), but was remodeled by Bramante, hired by Ludovico Sforza to build a Sforza family mausoleum. The painting was commissioned by Sforza to be the centerpiece of the mausoleum. The lunettes above the main painting, formed by the triple arched ceiling of the refectory, are painted with Sforza coats-of-arms. The opposite wall of the refectory is covered by the Crucifixion fresco by Giovanni Donato da Montorfano, to which Leonardo added figures of the Sforza family in tempera. (These figures have deteriorated in much the same way as has The Last Supper.) Leonardo began work on The Last Supper in 1495 and completed it in 1498—he did not work on the oil painting continuously. This beginning date is not certain, as "the archives of the convent have been destroyed and our meagre documents date from 1497 when the painting was nearly finished."

The Last Supper was held on the evening of preparation for the Jewish Passover, a very holy time for the Jewish nation in remembrance of when God spared the Jews from the plague of death on every firstborn child in Egypt. Jesus arranged the dinner purposely by instructing His disciples where to host it. His twelve disciples were with Him during and after the meal. It is here that Jesus makes the prediction that Peter will deny knowing Him three times before the rooster crows that morning, which became true. Jesus also predicts that one disciple, Judas Iscariot, will betray Him, which also became true. The Last Supper was a gathering for Christ to fellowship with His disciples one last time prior to His arrest and crucifixion.

Because his employer requested he do so. Leonardo worked for Ludovico Sforza, Duke of Milan, for nearly eighteen years (1482-99). The Duke decided he wanted this particular religious scene painted and Leonardo, who was not stupid, decided painting it made perfect financial sense. The original mural is on a wall of the refectory (dining hall) in the Convent of Santa Maria delle Grazie in Milan, Italy. If you'd care to see a reproduction or fifty, they're easily found. As an image, Last Supper has been put on everything from mirrors, to mouse pads, to musical pillows. If Leonardo were still around, he'd be earning billions of (insert your currency here) on licensing fees alone.

Leonardo, The Last Supper, translated from the Italian, is the definitive record of the recently completed restoration of Leonardo's great masterpiece in the refectory of Santa Maria delle Grazie in Milan. 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 color reproductions, a comprehensive report of the project by chief conservator 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 an invaluable historic record, an extraordinarily handsome book, and an essential volume for anyone who appreciates the beauty, technical achievements, and fate of Renaissance painting. Leonardo da Vinci was working based on the few known documents which describe this meal. As all artists do, he was trying to convey an impression and message, and took "artistic license" with his source material. Just as artists will often rearrange a scene in order to better convey what they are trying to have the viewer feel and think about, so did Leonardo da Vinci rearrange what was *said* about this important event, in order to convey his own thoughts and feelings on the subject. I list a lot of his changes below. Part of why Leonardo's version was so famous immediately was that he had chosen a very unusual way to portray the scene. Pretty much every painting of the Last Supper up until now had involved Jesus blessing the bread and wine - a nice, serene scene. Judas was always shown off in a corner, sulking, away from the rest of the disciples. This is what the Dominicans thought they were getting. When they instead got this "violent" version with the disciples all screaming and yelling, the monks were not exactly pleased. It created a lot of publicity.

Last Supper is Leonardo's visual interpretation of an event chronicled in all four of the Gospels (books in the Christian New Testament). The evening before Christ was betrayed by one of his disciples, he gathered them together to eat, tell them he knew what was coming and wash their feet (a gesture symbolizing that all were equal under the eyes of the Lord). As they ate and drank together, Christ gave the disciples explicit instructions on how to eat and drink in the future, in remembrance of him. It was the first celebration of the Eucharist, a ritual still performed. Specifically, Last Supper depicts the next few seconds in this story after Christ dropped the bombshell that one disciple would betray him before sunrise, and all twelve have reacted to the news with different degrees of horror, anger and shock.

The Leonardo Da Vinci oil painting was made using experimental pigments directly on the dry plaster wall and unlike frescos, where the pigments are mixed with the wet plaster, it has not stood the test of time well. Even before it was finished there were problems with the paint flaking from the wall and Leonardo had to repair it. Over the years it has crumbled, been vandalized bombed and restored. Today we are probably looking at very little of the original.