Leonardo painted The Last Supper for the refectory, or dining hall, of Milan’s Santa Maria delle Grazie convent.
A refectory was where members of a religious community ate their meals, making it a fitting setting for a scene of Christ dining with the Twelve Apostles. Leonardo’s mural occupies the end wall of the Dominican convent’s dining space, opposite Giovanni Donato da Montorfano’s Crucifixion. The placement created a visual pairing between Christ’s Passion and the Last Supper.
The work was commissioned under Ludovico Sforza, the Duke of Milan, during the late 15th century. Leonardo did not use conventional true fresco. Instead, he painted tempera and other materials onto a dry wall, allowing more time for careful modelling but making the surface unusually vulnerable. Repeated restorations have been necessary.
The room is sometimes mistaken for a chapel because the subject is religious, but its function was communal dining. The painting’s Italian title is Il Cenacolo, meaning “The Cenacle,” another name for the upper room associated with the Last Supper.