Essay Sample on Tintoretto's 'Last Supper'

Introduction

Tintoretto's Last supper composition was that of Jesus and his disciples and the hierarchy of holiness. The use of halos was highly depicted. Jesus' halo is seen to be enshrined on his head like bright sunlight, whereas the apostles have a smaller halo. There is an inclusion of people who do not have halos as well. The disparity is a clear visualization of hierarchy in that Jesus is most holy and his apostles more spiritual than the ordinary people; thus, the composition highlights the superiority of Jesus and his disciples. Besides, the painting is based on the Christian belief of Jesus participating in the supper, and also believed that Jesus was preaching the spiritual idea to his disciples. The depiction of darkness symbolized human ignorance. The apostles promised Jesus they would go to the ignorant human world, and they would say the words of Jesus to the unaware people.

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On the contrary, Da Vinci's composition serves a different purpose. Tencati (2018), points out that prominence is only given to Jesus in his place as he is seated at the center of the table to some extent, separated from his apostles. In the painting, Jesus bears no particular attributes of holiness as he and his apostles share the conviviality of a meal. The religious symbolism of Leonardo was that each of the twelve disciples depicted man's personality (Rokni, 2017). The "notion of the mind" would be seen from the posture, gesture, and interaction of everyone in the painting. Jesus is at the center with his arms spread out in disposed of trust. The disciples' reaction appears to be in question of Jesus' words. The layout, geometry, and composition connect to religious symbolism, Jesus to his apostles, and the viewer to the painting.

When comparing the religious symbolism of the two paintings, both depict the same scene of Jesus and his apostles in celebrating the Passover meal in which Jesus was the sacrificial lamb. Using the accounts in the four gospels books, the artists represented the moment in which Jesus had announced that one of his apostles would betray him. Jesus uses bread to symbolize his body in which it is broken and given to be shared. Similarly, his body is broken, and his life given up for others. The wine represents his blood, which would be poured out and shared. There exist controversies on how Leonardo and Tintoretto's identified with the last supper. Leonardo's last supper was to stir the notion of the mind of the viewer of how disciples reacted. Peter is seen holding a knife which he is ready to protect the Lord's betrayer. Tintoretto's mural depicts time and place in that Jesus identified with his disciples and commoners. Also, the darkness in the painting signifies human ignorance.

The Application of Color and Brush Stroke

The perspectives of color and brush strokes are what exemplify the two paintings. Tintoretto's use of the color palettes he chooses for his painting proves some influence by another Titian painter who had used them before and done great work in his art. Tintoretto utilizes the favored gold and red color accents in most parts of his paintings. The red color which he uses mainly means that there is an authority from the master and the master who is being pointed out, in this case, is Jesus (Hall). The use of the favored gold color is used by Tintoretto to show the call to the attention of the master. Naturalism is all that is depicted by this painter when he uses the green colors in the paintings he comes up with, and this again shows the uniqueness from the other painters around Italy.

On the other hand, Leonardo used a color palette that incorporated blues, browns, greens as well as some egg whites in most of his paintings. The neutrality that he utilized in the arts with the use of the fade gray and brown colors worked to show the variation of the moods and tones of the pictures. Bright color palettes like red would show authority, and so on (Wildgen). The painters use fade color palettes to whom the moods of the paintings, as well as the other brighter colors, show aspects of authority, attention, or so. The white color used signifies the purity and holiness, especially in instances where Jesus is revealed. The similarity in the color palettes proves the shared subject matter or the point which is being conveyed by the paintings.

There are individual differences that are seen in the brush stroke applications in the paintings of Leonardo and Tintoretto. Leonardo was unique in the way he painted his artwork in that he used boards, walls, and sometimes stone on which he would wash his work. He applied his brush strokes layer after another to come up with his appealing paintings and used the paint which he got from some ground pigments (Wildgen). The application of brush strokes by Leonardo was made thoroughly and in a repeated pattern for some to show reflection. Tintoretto, on the other hand, made a significant change in the way he applied color to his paintings. This particular change was coming up with another brush stroke application method, which he referred to as prestezza method, which had three steps in it (Hall). He believed and practiced the use of fewer, but functional quality layers in the paintings than using the meticulous and or multiple layers in the arts as his concordat had done. He was sure that even with the few layers, he would get a thrilling output of his paintings.

The main difference that occurs in the paintings work of the two painters is the methods they both used in brush stroke application. Each used the brush stroke application method, which they felt would give them the best quality of output as far as their paintings were concerned. The technique used by Leonardo uses more layers, and the quality of the pictures is high while Tintoretto has been reduced for maximization of cost and he later realizes that the quality has gone down with the reduction of the painted layers. It is the same with the final outlook of the paintings ("Leonardo Vs. Tintoretto - Art For All Ages").

Style Differences

The style preferences used by the painters are unique. Jacopo Tintoretto uses impressionism in the instances where his paintings are done at some angles that are unique and elevated to different degrees. For example, in the art where he shows the apostles and the servants around them, the table which is being used by the apostles is seen to have been receding at a precise steep diagonal. Moreover, the painter uses various light qualities in his paintings and shows the transition between the different scenes and events that take place in connection with the faith of the Catholic Church (Hall). By Tintoretto using the light in his paintings, he shows the presence of the natural light that comes the obscurity of the ceiling as well as the light that is being associated with Jesus Christ as the light of the world and the savior of the world (Nichols, 2016). Impressionism in the work of Jacopo Tintoretto makes his paintings so much appealing and exciting from an angular position where the viewer can see the side view of the tables

Conclusion

Despite the similar subject matter and religious symbolism, Leonardo and Tintoretto each show differences through their different use of color, light, realism, technique perception, and focal points. Leonardo and Tintoretto, though a century apart managed to create the most epic representation of the Last Supper. Da Vinci painted high renaissance aesthetics in symmetry to depict the message to the viewer and through composition,...