During Leonardo da Vinci’s lifetime, he painted several masterpieces that are admired today. His art is studied extensively by many scholars for its depth. Leonardo’s Last Supper is one of Leonardo’s paintings which has had a lot of attention. It is characterized by the use of symbolic meaning through the characters, their placement in the painting and Leonardo’s techniques used to create depth within it. Leonardo da Vinci was born on April 15, 1452 in Italy during the Renaissance period.
During Leonardo’s lifetime, he created several famous pieces of work including The Mona Lisa, The Last Supper, and more. Leonardo da Vinci was also known as an architect who crafted his ideas into drawings that would later be built among other inventions Leonardo da Vinci had a vast amount of knowledge and accomplishments during his life. Leonardo died on May 2, 1519, at the age of 67 in France Tintoretto was born Jacopo Comin but changed his name when he began producing art for the state of Venice.
Tintoretto is also known as an Italian Renaissance painter from Venice. Tintoretto created several paintings including ones such as Presentation at the Temple, Crucifixion, Last Judgment among others. Tintoretto was born sometime between 1518-1519 and died on May 31st, 1594. Leonardo’s Last Supper vs Tintoretto’s Last Supper: Leonardo’s Last Supper was completed around 1498 while Tintoretto’s Last Supper was completed around 1594. Leonardo painted this iconic piece in Milan which is located in Italy.
There are many paintings by Leonardo da Vinci that can be compared to Tintoretto’s Last Supper but Leonardo’s Last supper is one of the most famous. Leonardo used his previous techniques along with new developing techniques while Tintoretto stayed consistent with the techniques he always used. Leonardo had more than twenty years of experience painting before completing his last supper, meanwhile, Tintoretto created his painting within two decades of painting under various influences and experiences.
Leonardo’s Last Supper is one of Leonardo da Vinci’s most popular pieces of artwork. It was painted between 1495-1498 and is seen as the epitome of Leonardo’s work. Tintoretto’s version of Leonardo da Vinci’s Last Supper , on the other hand, comes from 1592-1594 and took a much different direction than Leonardo’s. Tintoretto painted his piece for a family chapel in a church rather than as a stand alone fresco like Leonardo had originally done with his piece. In terms of composition, Leonardo used unity to bring all disciples together into a single group that surrounds Christ, who is seated at the center.
Each disciple has their own unique reaction upon seeing Jesus betray himself. Leonardo uses color and brush strokes to show depth within the piece, most notably in his use of reds to bring light upon Jesus’ face from the outside of the painting. Tintoretto pays close attention to Leonardo’s use of colors but doesn’t bother with Leonardo’s grandiose talent at foreshortening: Leonardo’s Last Supper has a much more dramatic perspective than Tintoretto’s painting does.
Leonardo brings you into his work while Tintoretto leaves your attention on Christ seated at the center of it all. In terms of subject matter, Leonardo painted The Last Supper as an interpretation on what was told in the Bible about this particular scene between Jesus and his disciples. Leonardo was very interested in facial expressions and overall human emotion. Leonardo focused on showing the emotions of each disciple as they reacted to Christ’s betrayal. Leonardo shows the disciples in different stages of grief, anger, hopelessness, etc. which is why Leonardo’s painting is so unique from many other paintings done at this time period.
Tintoretto painted his version of The Last Supper with a bit more clarity to detail than Leonardo had done with his piece. Tintoretto takes special care within his work to show all twelve disciples seated around the table even though there are only enough place settings for eleven men. Tintoretto also pays attention to perspective by having Jesus sit directly across from Judas Iscariot whose face is hidden behind him.
Leonardo excelled in this because it showed Leonardo as being a master of Leonardo. Leonardo used symbolism using the twelve Apostles to portray the Last Supper, Leonardo uses simple techniques to create depth and perspective an example of this is Tintorettos work where he uses very complex methods. Leonardo also uses colours to portray his feelings through out the painting, an example of this is Leonardo’s use of green which symbolises hope that there will be abundance.
This contrasts with Tintoretto who has many interesting perspectives, each brings attention to their own piece by contrasting elements within there paintings for example Leonardo never shows Judas whereas Tintoretto does yet Tintoretto concentrates on his apostles showing how they are all facing towards Jesus making them more alike in Leonardo’s piece not all characters are facing towards Jesus which creates more tension between the characters. Leonardo also uses symbols within his painting one is Leonardo’s use of wine which represents blood, Leonardo uses this to portray blood literally and metaphorically.
In conclusion Leonardo used simple techniques with a few elements to create a powerful work whereas Tintoretto used complex techniques with many elements to show individuality through his piece. Leonardo focused on symbolism whereas Tintoretto focused more on the apostles themselves and their reactions to Jesus’ teaching.
Tintoretto successfully portrays emotion throughout his whole piece where Leonardo has very little emotion present in his work, Leonardo incorporates movement through out by showing different actions of each apostle for example Peter pointing, John writing or Judas leaning towards Jesus creating tension from Leonardo’s piece.
