Leonardo's Last Supper (1495-1498) does something very different from the other Renaissance portrayals of this scene from the Gospel. Unlike Andrea del Castagno's or Domenico Ghirlandaio's Last Supper versions, Leonardo's is at once more earthly (neither Christ nor the Apostles wear halos) and chaotic than the others -- and yet at the same time it is substantially more divine and imposing in its stark simplicity. This paper will trace the compositional, stylistic and symbolic development of the story of the Last Supper as it is told by Leonardo da Vinci in his masterpiece of the same name.The first thing to note about the composition of Leonardo's Last Supper is that there is a distinct separation between the space occupied by Christ and the Apostles and the viewer. They exist together, cramped, huddled, literally on top of one another on one side of a long table covered like an altar by white linen. (There is a religious significance to that linen as represented by the movement of Christ's hands in the portrait -- but this shall be described shortly). The viewer, on the other hand, is left standing, looking up at the painting -- outside the perspective given the picture by Leonardo (the vanishing line passes through Christ, whose head is at the center of the picture -- but the line of perspective itself passes over the head of the viewer in real life if he is visiting the actual monastery where the picture is. Thus, the painting immediately demands of the viewer that he look up -- that he elevate himself to the subject of the painting. Leonardo is thus requiring that the viewer be lifted in order to contemplate the eternal mysteries described in the painting. It is a practical but necessary point underlying the artistic expression made by the painter: the viewer must work -- must climb to really begin to be part of what is going on. And even then there is the line of demarcation -- the table and the setting of the Apostles at the table -- that keeps the viewer from actually entering into the painting's space. Again, it is a deliberate and spiritually significant representation by Leonardo ("The Last Supper"). The room depicted in the painting is like a church's sanctuary, the table like the altar rail separating the laity from the sacrament confected here by Christ (his Body and Blood present under the species of Bread and Wine).

This sacrament (the transubstantiation) in which Christ Himself declares the bread and wine to be his Body and Blood was known as the Holy Eucharist or Communion in the Church. In the painting, this moment of transubstantiation is being depicted by Leonardo as Christ reaches out with his left hand toward a life of bread and with his right towards a glass of wine. At the same time, the...

Indeed, the reactions of the Apostles seem to justify this latter interpretation as much as the movement of Christ's hands seems to justify the former. The fact is that both narrative points are being depicted at one and the same time: the painting offers the viewers multiple levels of narrative in the one single composition -- inviting the viewer to meditate on any number of ideas being expressed all at once ("Leonardo da Vinci").
Compositionally, the scene is divided into parts -- which also makes it unique from earlier representations. In the painting by Castagno, the Apostles are more or less evenly spaced out across the composition and all sit on the opposite side of the table with Christ (save Judas, who is separated from the other eleven Apostles in order to symbolically represent his later betrayal). Curiously Christ is left of center in Castagno's painting and it is St. John, the only disciple to actually be with Christ at the crucifixion, who has center place in Castagno's painting. Likewise in Ghirlandaio's Last Supper, the same is true: Christ is left of center, with St. John beside him center of composition and Judas across from them on the other side of the table. In both of these representations, the symbolism is clear: John is the disciple who most loves Our Lord and that love is the center narrative of the painting -- juxtaposed with Judas's self-love and ultimate betrayal of Christ. In Leonardo's painting, these symbolic representations are less obvious. Leonardo places Judas on the same side of the table as the other Apostles. He is recognizable because he is cast in shadow whereas the other disciples are not, and his neck is twisted to symbolize his later hanging -- his act of despair upon realizing the enormity of his sin. Leonardo does something even more dramatic with Judas, however, than the other two painters: he has Judas reaching out with his hand towards Christ even as the rest of his body reels away from Christ: it is as though he himself is torn in two. What makes this narrative portion of the painting even more interesting is the way in which Christ's hand and Judas's hand seem to be reaching for the same thing: a bowl of water, in which they are to dip their hands before eating. (To add another layer of possible interpretation to the painting, it is unclear whether Christ is reaching towards the bowl or towards the wine -- it could be either). Judas's reach, however, is clearly for the bowl,…