About Leonardo's Last Supper continued

IV. THE LOOK OF JOHN THE EVANGELIST? IS IT MARY MAGADALENE?

If you look at most representations in the Renaissance of John the Evangelist, he’s always shown as a very pretty young man.  With long or short hair, it doesn’t really matter.  It’s easy for someone to want to make this into a woman, but it’s not possible for a number of reasons.  First of all, this is a Dominican church.   They’re not about to allow on their wall a painting that represents something as unorthodox as the position of Mary Magdalene in the Last Supper.

The Duke of Milan commissioned Leonardo to make this painting.  He enlarged and decorated this conventual complex, on one level, as expiation for sin; it’s not the first time this has happened in the history of the West, or anywhere.  It’s unlikely, highly unlikely, that the Duke would sponsor an unorthodox representation of the Last Supper in a conventual church that he was planning for his own resting place. It just doesn’t make any sense.  It would not fit, and  Leonardo was painting for Dominicans, and Dominicans as we well know  gave us much of Catholic theology. 

If one looks at other works by Leonardo, and there are not that many paintings by Leonardo that are extant, two come to mind.  One is the Louvre St. John the Baptist. There’s a variation of that in Milan, as well, which shows a rather unusually idealized, beautiful young man with long tresses and so forth.  There’s another example of Leonardo’s making of an image of a handsome or beautiful young man.

Renaissance painting wants to paint ideal types whether they are beautiful men or beautiful women. This is a goal. It’s not until you get into the 17th century where you’re starting to think more or less about the way people really look in nature.  The Renaissance artists intend to remake nature, make it better than it is.

previous page   1   2   3   4   

view all pages