What type of landscape is seen through the windows behind Jesus?

A hilly landscape is visible through the windows behind Jesus in Leonardo da Vinci’s *The Last Supper*.

Beyond the three rear windows, Leonardo painted a luminous, greenish landscape of receding hills rather than a desert, city, or seascape. The distant view gives the room atmospheric depth and contrasts with the strongly ordered interior where Jesus and the apostles sit at the table.

The landscape also contributes to the painting’s symbolism and structure. The central window’s light surrounds Jesus and helps focus attention on him, while the distant hills extend the space beyond the refectory wall. Leonardo’s use of soft atmospheric perspective makes the far landscape appear hazier and more distant than the figures in the foreground.

The setting is not intended as a precise documentary view of first-century Jerusalem. Renaissance artists frequently adapted sacred scenes to contemporary visual language, and Leonardo’s architecture, tableware, clothing, and landscape reflect his own artistic world. The outdoor view is therefore best described as a hilly or verdant landscape, not a literal city panorama.