The Last Supper – Leonardo da Vinci
Da Vinci painted The Last Supper in tempera, a mixture of pigment and egg yolk. Soon after the painting was completed in 1498 it began to deteriorate. As early as 1517, the painting was starting to flake. By 1556 – fewer than sixty years after it was finished – Vasari described the painting as reduced to a “muddle of blots” so deteriorated that the figures were unrecognizable. In 1652, a doorway was cut through the painting and later bricked up. In 1768, a curtain was hung over the painting intended for its protection; the curtain instead trapped moisture on the surface, and whenever it was pulled back, it scratched the flaking paint.
A first restoration was attempted in 1726, another in 1770. In 1796, French revolutionary anti-clerical troops used the refectory as an armory and stable. They threw stones at the painting and climbed ladders to scratch out the Apostles’ eye. In 1821, Stefano Barezzi, an expert in removing whole frescoes from their walls intact, was called in to remove the painting to a safer location; he badly damaged the center section before realizing that Leonardo’s work was not a fresco. Barezzi then attempted to reattach damaged sections with glue.
On 15 August 1943, the refectory was struck by Allied bombing. A major restoration project to stabilize the painting and reverse the damage caused by dirt, pollution, and the eighteenth- and nineteenth-century restoration attempts took 21 years. On 28 May 1999, the painting was returned to display. Visitors were required to book ahead and could only stay for 15 minutes. When it was unveiled, considerable controversy was aroused by the dramatic changes in colors, tones, and even some facial shapes.
Nevertheless, half-a-million people visit Da Vinci’s Last Supper every year. – from Wikipedia
Vocal – Patrick Page
Electric piano – Greg Pliska
Flute, clarinet – Peter Hess
Trumpet – Jim Hynes
Tenor saxophone – Andy Snitzer
Trombone – Mike Davis
Music by Mel Marvin and Dahlak Brathwaite
Programming – Dahlak Brathwaite
Horns arranged by Greg Pliska