Who painted a notable copy of The Last Supper now in the Royal Academy of Arts?

Giampietrino painted the notable copy of Leonardo da Vinci’s The Last Supper now held by the Royal Academy of Arts.

Giampietrino is the name traditionally used for the Lombard Renaissance painter probably identified as Giovanni Pietro Rizzoli. He belonged to Leonardo’s circle and helped spread the master’s visual style through copies and adaptations.

The Royal Academy’s version is an unusually valuable record because it is a full-scale copy, made around 1520, when Leonardo’s original was already deteriorating. It preserves details that later disappeared from the Milan mural and assisted the major restoration carried out from 1978 to 1998.

A common mix-up is to name Leonardo himself, since the composition, figures, and gestures closely follow his mural. The Royal Academy work is not Leonardo’s original, however; it is a later copy attributed to Giampietrino and was once associated with another painter, Marco d’Oggiono.