Leonardo's "The Last Supper" Essay by Master Researcher

This essay will argue that Leonardo's "The Last Supper" is a Renaissance rather than Medieval work because it embodies the scientific spirit of the age. As will be seen, Leonardo's approach to the theme and execution of the painting reflect not religious inspiration but scientific aspiration. In this work the artist focused a Renaissance passion for experimentation, his innovations in the area of perspective, and the distillation of his years of observation and study of human movement, emotion and form. Indeed, even those qualities of the painting that have been pointed to as flaws in Leonardo's vision are, it will be shown, characteristic of the Renaissance rather than the Middle Ages.