The Last Supper

The Last Supper was made famous within art history by the extraordinary fresco painting by Leonardo da Vinci that remains one of the true masterpieces in European history.

In truth, however, this Christian theme has appeared on many other occasions within the Renaissance and Baroque art movements, in a variety of different mediums and styles. Lorenzo Ghiberti in this example makes use of the Christian passage as inspiration for one of his gilted bronze panels for his north door series.

Lorenzo Ghiberti was a highly talented sculptor whose career was best summarised by a number of full length portrait pieces plus the series of panels for two twin doors for the Florence Baptistery. The artist would go to exceptional lengths in order to ensure the quality of his sculptures and whilst allowing assistants to contribute to some of his projects, he would always tackle the key areas of each composition.

In a similar fashion to his other panels, there is a touch of architecture at the background of the scene, though nothing as complex as that later found in his Gates of Paradise where his understanding of perspective had developed considerably and those larger panels had more room for detail right across the scene.

It was the original series of panels for his north doors that would raise the artist's reputation and bring about a steady stream of prestigious commissions for the rest of his career. The incredible length of time taken to complete them, therefore, was well worthwhile.