Leonardo has remarkably seized that celestial purity and melancholy composure, which must have filled the soul of our Saviour when he uttered the words, " One of you shall betray me," without directing his eys towards any one. The flush of indignation seems to mount into every countenance of his assembled followers, mixed with horror and amazement, most admirably varied. The atti tude of St. John, who seems greedily to listen to a hur ried observation of St. Peter, from which he appears to expect some clue to the mystery, is exceedingly natural ; as well as the conscious suspicion of Judas, half turning to catch by stealth what St. Peter says, expecting disco very, while the ready purpose of denial seems to settle on his expression of resolute villany. The ferment of the surrounding group, in the midst of whom the meek Jesus seems wrapt in godlike serenity, shows that the traitor is already discovered. St James the Less seems to whisper to St. Peter, while he stretches across St. An drew, who casts a glance of horror on the villain. St. James is in a beautiful attitude of attesting his own inno cence, and love of his Master, as well as horror of what they have just heard ; the same purpose is obvious in the animated movement of St. Thomas. There is an admi rable mixture of irresolution in many of the countenances —the natural desire to avert the horrible catastrophe an nounced to them—at the same time suppressed by indeci sion, front the consciousness of their own weakness, and the power of their master to prevent its accomplishment; the injured pride, which seems to repeat with amaze ment, " one of us" did he say ? In the group of St. Mat thew and St. Simon, they seem to refer to each other, in doubt of their having accurately heard the words of our Savour; one of them seems utterly to distrust the evi dence of his senses.
Yet, with all this animation of expression, it is remark able how the genius of the painter has succeeded in malt ing the tranquil Jesus the object upon which the eye can not help to fix itself. The spectator's attention is drawn round the group with the same rapid anxiety 01 inquiry that seems to animate every countenance in the picture; but constantly returns, as by the attraction of a magnet, to the figure of our Saviour, wrapt in that composure which seems to see beyond this world, and scarcely to participate in the agitating feelings of human nature. The still serenity of evening diffuses its light with beautiful ef fect over these perturbed groups, in unison with the great presence of our Saviour alone, which shows the sublime conception Leonardo had of his subject. It diffuses a sort of melancholy tranquillity, like the death-bed of a saint. We seem to feel that it is the last evening of our Saviour's earthly existence ; he is in mind already with drawn from all the agitations of humanity to the serene contemplation of his higher nature.
It may with truth be pronounced a sublime composition, with all the simplicity belonging to so dignified a subject. It suited well the chaste composure of Leonardo's style. Even his formality, which in other subjects is marked as a defect, is here perfectly in character with the gravity of such an assembly. The picture now lives almost solely in Morghen's admirable engraving. We had the melan choly satisfaction very lately to see all that remains of the original, which gives but a faint shadow of its former ex cellence. It is thirty-two feet long by sixteen feet high in dimensions. Tradition has fixed the person intended by each particular figure, which is probably correct, as the most remarkable of the apostles correspond perfectly with the figures allotted for them. Beginning from the left of the spectator, the figure standing is St. Bartholomew, then follows in order St. James the Less, St. Andrew, St.
Peter, Judas, St. John, Jesus, St. James the Greater, St. Thomas, St. Philip, St. Matthew, St. Thadeus, and St. Si mon. In one respect, no copy or engraving can approach the remarkable effect produced by the original, from the circumstance of its exactly filling up the whole space of the end wall of the apartment ; and the beams and cor nices represented in the picture are the exact continuation of the architecture of the hall, so as to produce the illu sion of its being actually a prolongation of itc length.
Leonardo appears to have proceeded with the greatest precaution in the performance of his picture. Besides paint ing a cartoon of the whole subject of the Last Supper, he made finished sketches of each particular figure and head, then painted pictures of each, and even went so far as to model some of them, in order to be able to study more perfectly the effect of light and shade. This was a degree of care and study that would be considered quite super fluous by our modern artists; but doubtless it was to the perseverance and care in execution, joined to profound re flection and study of the subject, that he owed that excel lence which placed his work among the finest specimens of the art. We are moreover indebted to these prepara tory works, which are still existing, for the perfection of the engraving, as reference was obliged to be had to them to supply the deficiency of the original. One of the reasons for its very rapid decay, was very probably the circum stance of its being painted in oil,—a mode which was then but recently invented, and perhaps imperfectly understood ; as in the same apartment there are some fresco pictures of other masters, no doubt bad enough in composition, but fresh in preservation, which makes the inimitable work of Leonardo be the more regretted.
Many things seemed to conspire to bring about the ra pid destruction of this picture. The plaster of the wall turned out to be defective, and began soon to scale off, leaving fearful blotches. The hall is in a low damp situa tion, and on the ground floor of the convent, which in rainy seasons is flooded with water, so that the brilliancy of the colours began very soon to be affected. To com plete its misfortunes, the lazy monks were so regardless of their treasure, as to cut off a piece of the picture, even the legs of our Saviour's figure, for the purpose of enlarg ing a doorway ; and sacrilegiously nailed up the imperial arms upon the face. Upon being made aware afterwards of the extent of their outrage, they endeavoured to repair the injury, by setting a dauber to work to repaint it ; so that what is seen now has very little of the great Leonardo. A story is narrated in the life of this artist, but with what truth it is impossible from the present state of the picture to ascertain ; that he had left the head of Jesus unfinished, from inability to conceive dignity and beauty superior to what he had given to St. James the Greater and his bro ther. It is abundantly obvious that various parts have been at different times retouched. Francis I. when he made himself master of Milan, conceived the plan of carrying off the whole wall entire with its picture into France, and took measures for that purpose; but no engineer was found bold enough to make the attempt. The simple means since adopted of securely pasting canvass over the face of a wall picture previous to detaching it, was not then thought of; which is perhaps to be regretted, as it might have proved the means of preserving this surprising work. During the French revolution the hall was converted into a stable, then a magazine, and lastly it was shut up alto gether; when the water was allowed to stagnate and ex hale putrid vapours from the floor.