Издания и произведения

В 1495 году Леонардо да Винчи приступил к работе над «Тайной вечерей» – стенной росписью, которой суждено было стать одним из самых знаменитых и влиятельных произведений в истории мирового искусства. После десяти лет службы при дворе миланского герцога Лодовико Сфорца, дела Леонардо обстояли плачевно: в свои 43 года он так и не успел еще создать чего-либо по-настоящему достойного его блестящего дарования. Заказ на стенную роспись в трапезной доминиканского монастыря был небольшим утешением, да и шансы художника на успех – призрачными. Никогда еще Леонардо не доводилось работать над столь монументальным живописным произведением, не было у…

For more than five centuries The Last Supper has been an artistic, religious and cultural icon. The art historian Kenneth Clark called it "the keystone of European art", and for a century after its creation it was regarded as nothing less than a miraculous image. And yet there is a very human story behind this artistic "miracle". Ross King's Leonardo and the Last Supper is both a "biography" of one of the most famous works of art ever painted and a record of Leonardo da Vinci's last five years in Milan.

Early in 1495, Leonardo da Vinci began work in Milan on what would become one of history's most influential and beloved works of art - "The Last Supper". After a dozen years at the court of Lodovico Sforza, the Duke of Milan, Leonardo was at a low point personally and professionally: at forty-three, in an era when he had almost reached the average life expectancy, he had failed, despite a number of prestigious commissions, to complete anything that truly fulfilled his astonishing promise. His latest failure was a giant bronze horse to honor Sforza's father: His 75 tons of bronze had been expropriated to be turned into cannons to help repel…