The fight. The last supper by Leonardo Da Vinci when it was 1st shown in 1499 he created shock waves through italy and beyond changing the world of art for ever but a 20 year restoration effort has revealed the awful truth of the original fresco only some 20 percent is still visible simply put we can no longer seen or understand why this painting had such a devastating impact. Or can we. This is the incredible story of a hub across europe following a trail of clues of documents hidden for centuries that suggests that labor go at his workshop painted another last supper a huge life size cant see but none other than the king of france does that painting still exist and if so can it reveal the secrets of the original fresco. This is where the story starts in milan the most important fashion in business city in all of modern italy and in that sense not much has changed even in the 15th century milan was a bustling city filled with artists and musicians. Of old a city states in italy. The duchy of milan was the most powerful the most exuberant and the wealthiest by far no wonder that many kings in europe wanted to conquer it she kuli because the man in charge that you named Ludovico Sforza was a tyrant who had ceased power in 14 he was than any other such rulers he was desperate to cloak his the legitimacy with the splendor of a renaissance court. The jew had many projects a monastery complex called it the tolls of the pov yeah and a new Church Building right here in milan called the sometime area that i got outside but the biggest project of all was this massive cathedral deliberately designed to be the biggest Church Building in all of italy so naturally the city was a magnet for Young Artists and sculptors from all over the region. But while a lot of this artist wasnt from lombardy he was from florence the most exciting city in all of italy a wellspring of the renaissance what was he doing painting at fresco in milan. Answer may be found in a small village outside of florence called vinci. Leonardo was a natural child the son of a farmers daughter cut enough for one day had a role in the hay with a promising young notary called 7 pm of course marriage was out of the question a Bright Future awaited said pietro provided he married a wife from a prestigious family. Thats why labor nardo was never truly part of the creative circles of florence around lorenzo the major with artists like to betty. Or michelangelo these were folks who wrote latin sonnets and could hold their own and find society. Theyre not i was never part of that. But said piero never forgot his son and was only his ready to use his connections to help him get work but the lack of a proper education left Young Leonardo at a major disadvantage. Instead he was apprenticed to the workshop of one of the most prolific artists of florence and their clear here leonardo learned how to mix pigments prepare panels or transfer a large fresco drawings called cartoons to a plaster wall. And eventually for allowed him to paint one of the angels in his panel of the baptism of cries its obvious that leonardos angel is much more beautiful than the rather darr angel to the right painted by frodo peel himself so how did he create such lovely and gentle like faces the answer by using a New Invention called oils or as most of florence still use the flat collars of tempera paint which drives quickly leonardo had begun to experiment with pigments mixed with oils the technique 1st developed in Northern Europe day adventists all hast several suspects temporary as that in order to create a 3 dimensional object you pretty much have to mix every great single color that you put in there or crosshatch it so you get the feeling that i mention but with oil you didnt have that problem you have an incredible range from black to white collar seamlessly and sell this was a huge shift for for the artists and a renaissance. Im there is a classically trained artist who painted a live size re creation of the Sistine Chapel for the Motion Picture angels and demons. And how were these oils made well they were ground up pigments that could be anything from bones to dry possibly to of course famous drawing ability that came from afghanistan that was so expensive that it cost more than actual gold in its own weight my god more than gold yes it it. The 15th century the quatro cento was a an exciting time to be in florence it was a time of rebirth the renaissance the revival of the ancient world and the arts and science and literature and engineering here for example Filippo Brunelleschi used roman engineering to create this vast dome over the do moment the cathedral of florence while burlesque he was taking measurements of ancient temples in rome he had discovered that when you draw as street or a building all the horizontal lines seem to converge to a Common Center what today we call the vanishing point. Rule asking had discovered the laws of linear perspective it revolutionized the renaissance art suddenly painters could create an illusion of 3 dimensional space as if the image they painted was a window on another world. You know for us its almost impossible to imagine the impact of this innovation why because today we are surrounded by simulated images are full of billboards Television Cinema they have conditioned our brain to interpret flat images as 3 dimensional reality but in the middle ages men and women never had that experience before and so there must have been utterly amazed. By a painting like this one. The crucifixion by massager the 1st fresco in history to use linear perspective. People in those days most of thought it was some form of magic to see space weather was only a flat wall. Layer not all was also trained in the magic of linear perspective in the workshop of his master of the rockies and he too was amazed by the possibilities but as he began his 1st major painting they are now realized that linear perspective had one major drawback. It tended to see by fall the figures and inhibit their expressive power in many paintings the figures became like puppets fixed on a rigid grid 10 years later naruto would write how to give you figures or pleasing air. Look about you. When you see a beautiful face remember its features and fix them in your mind. So what leonardo is saying is dont let geometry deprive your characters of feelings of emotions of psychological drama and the 1st bold attempt to do just that is a painting that hangs right here in the feeds it called the adoration of the magic. Unfortunately the monks who commissioned a panel werent interested in moving the boundaries of italian art they simply wanted a pretty picture of the native any that people could recognize and worship. And so the work was stopped and the painting remained unfinished it would take nearly 2 decades before layer nardo good realize his great vision he talked about wanting to create his work of fame you can see but unless hes work of fame he can see donna tellers works of fame and he wanted to create his own and so his destiny he felt he lay with a large a large court with a grand patron and a Single Person who is going to be writing the checks and that happened to be at the most powerful man and itll lead me to 14 eighties and for the ninetys was the duke of milan lot of equals 4 and so thats why he went north in 1482 to begin working for a summit was in effect the prince and not just a group of monks thats why a layman are decided to turn his back on the forums and thats why he came here in milan filled with ambition not as an artist but as an engineer a military and it is he even prepared and then press a pitch for the job but catalogue all of us military towns. Methods for destroying every fortress or stronghold and thats built on a rock. I can also design different types of can which we heard in stones and ball like a hail storm. Leonardos hopes came to look and it took several years for a joke ludovico to finally notice the florentine artist but the project he gave him a huge equestrian statue ended in failure the only thing that remains of this massive project are his studies. Live in arthur was ready to tackle the greatest most ambitious. Composition of his young career a series of 13 live sized portraits of men seated at a table for a wall in milan. How did the last supper project come about and who asked leonardo to pain it. Has become a surprise but he really dont know what we need to know is that the jukes fault so i tended to favor home grown artists like giovanna the month of fall that may not have been particularly in the maginot it but they delivered their work on time and on budget like this fresco of st peter water. What we do know is that the joke had chosen this church to become the pantheon of his dynasty. Actually it was part of a Dominican Convent and the abbot white away saw as opportunity so he asked the joke if he would build him a new or factory place to have meals for the monks complete with frescos. A refectory was usually decorated with 2 paintings a last supper and a crucifixion of christ. The last supper illustrated the institution of the eucharist. Or as the crucifixion depicted the redemption of mankind to the suffering of jesus the 2 connor reports of christian theology. d the most important for us go destined for the south wall was the crucifixion of christ this did you gave to giovanni dum want to fun know whose family had been working in the cathedral of milan for many decades. But who was going to paint the north wall. Lay not of the vinci up to this point but lay it out or had done other than the failed question project in the 2 small portraits was the production of plays and masks for the entertainment of the jucundus court was he truly going to be given this monumental fresco but laid out a was in effect a special effects man for the duke and so i guess we would think of him as a sort of a combination set designer Costume Designer and special effects person for these spectaculars that lot of eco would have staged maybe a couple of times a year in the lion. That is why lunardi it was determined that with this fresco he was going to stomach the moment. And they probably would have been expecting that he would have done a last supper akin to all of those that have been done primarily in florence in tuscany sienna for the previous 200 years but of course he did something quite different and that archetype showed christ breaking bread thats establishing the 1st eucharist but like a skilled film director leonardo picked a far more dramatic see the moment when jesus the players that one of the men in the. Whom is a traitor. That news literally explodes from the center and hits the apostles in various poses of shock disbelief sorrow even anger the full panoply of Human Emotions is laid bare the same idea that had galvanized his adoration of the manager some 25 years earlier by an order wanted action and he also wanted the emotion and the dramatic intensity of what happened in in those seconds in jerusalem and that of course is one of the magnificent things about the painting he brings that to life and we see that and instantly i think we can understand whats happening there its that whole vortex of human drama thats right where everyone is reacting differently their asking each other theres a the credulity theres a disbelief theres anger there is in the cases of the light st john he just appears to be coming awake and theres being interrogated by st peter and so he does he takes each of each of these 12 and gives them. Some characteristics some you know with facial expressions hand gestures things like that in order to take us into the character but here is the great tragedy most of these beautiful expressions are no longer visible today but i said metal is not a cat that. Often enough credit has an emotional beat on it a trick upon a technique because you had an end up on the other that if i ask book would laugh was the express you the next left it out was not thats still too sad especially dont add on to sender and. Unlike the funnel who used conventional fresco techniques leonardo could not resist experimenting with his pigments to try to create the same optical effects that he had pioneered with his or helping to use the result was catastrophic. I think the thing thats so interesting about him is that hes got different intellectual interests and so hes trying to achieve different goals with paint and hes asking different questions of them larry keith is the head of conservation and keeper at Londons National Gallery but also i think he really was in sydney and exploring nuances of tonal gradation all those kinds of distinctions that i think are really not possible to achieve in france. In 1517 influential cardinal named luigi dada gone and his secretary and tonio debbie optus went on a tour and among others visited the convent in milan to see the last supper. As the b. Artist would write it is most excellent although it is beginning to decay eva because of that than most of the wall or some other form of the collect. In the centuries since the 1st go continue to deteriorate because it was adjoining a kitchen so all the moisture was trapped in the wall. In the end theres really no way to know what len are those great masterpiece looked like. Or is there. Long before antonios visit another even more distinguished visitor came to milan with an army into this was the newly crowned king of friends louis de 12 just one year after his elevation the king marched on milan to claim the city as his home. And what was the 1st thing that king louis did after he set himself up here in the Castello Sforza the answer is in the book written by leo nanos 1st biographer george of us are. As for sorry says the king when on a visit he went to see the last supper. The kid was deeply pressed by the Actual Service picture of him composition and execution and convinced that he should take it back to his king so he tried to find haka techs who could build a framework of wood and i have to safely transport the fresco back to france with the regard for expense so much to he want to have it. But since it was painted on a wall his majesty could not have his design. But kings arent used to being told what they cannot have and so louis decided on an even bigger gambit but for that he needed leonard of himself at least thats our theory. Even though leonardo was in milan he was wanted back in florence to finish another fresco the battle of beyond and the whole of the 500. 00 and your ego so he wasnt in a position to stay in milan and do whatever the king had in mind for him but then something extraordinary something that changed everything. This is the arcadia adelas thought of the feet hands in the state archives of forms with documents that go back over a 1000 years and here we found a truly remarkable letter which they let out the elite you think although they chase him up unless an idiot if you didnt fit in the attic with dorothy she jane najar militia question to say it then here is a letter from the french king himself king louis to 12th to the going following year to the president of the French Republic and signoria asking as we have need of must. Paint the city of florence and want to make him do something by his own hand we beg you to kindly left out all work for us for a period of time and carry out the work we take him to do. I think its becoming clearer what the french king once lived in order to do if he can have their 1st school itself he will have the next best thing a copy on canvas that he can take back to france. And whats interesting about is that the king doesnt tell the signoria what he would like him to do he is very cagey about the thing doesnt say how long because if our theory is correct and he wants leonardo to make a copy of the last supper that would take. A very long time indeed. The idea of such a live size copy was not far fetched leonardo was arguably one of the 1st painters in history who used his studio to make copies of his own works for sale such as divergent of the rocks painted with his associate umbrella joy the platys. The madonna of the yarn winder possibly painted with his pupil francesco spaniel the saint m. Painted with his assistant mel c. And of course the mona lisa painted by his pupil and close companion solomon. There was a good reason for that here in the sometime early enough about had a large studio with lots of assistance but he works very slowly and its difficult to maintain a large studio when you have a very limited output but its not so hard if you use your best assistants to make copies of your works for sale under the masters supervision of course so what happened to this copy of the last supper who painted it and as a still exist. Theres only one way to find out and that is to go to france. Today we think of paris as the worlds epicenter all our culture and fashion this is where the world comes for beauty and refinement. But in the 16th century things for very different. People sometimes forget that but in the middle ages it was actually burgundy. Which dictated french culture not just an art but also in poetry and music and then came the scourge of the black plague and the 100 years war in which joan of arc would play such an important part. So by the time i mean a 12th came to the throne friends was a mere shadow of its former self and louis was very much aware. He knew that french artists needed to take their cue. From the italian renaissance and i think thats why he was so incredibly keen to get the last cell for him to friends. But if thats true and if alive size copy of the last supper was actually made where did it go the answer i think maybe hidden behind these walls this is the shuttle did god which one served as the residents of georgia done was. Doesnt wealth was the most important name besides that of a king with a 12 a sort of Prime Minister we can underline the fact that he was us both with us the king. Like his master king louis done ones was deeply smitten with the beauty of italian art he decided he wanted to build a chateau there was entirely in the renaissance time the 1st one in france and so he brought back scores of italian artists and masons to do just that. Its not enough to just let him feel this current. Unforeseeable felt when he died and rested on. Various flattery. The people of new notice that she came here. And what do we do lots of things to degrade yourself and one of the most beautiful shaka of the sixties and to reinforce. The fact that. One of leone are those leading pupils was working in this chateau around 15