but laid out or had done other than the failed the question project and 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 by laying out a was in effect a special effects man for the duke and so i 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 the little nordo 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 had been done primarily in florence in tuscany sienna for the previous 200 years but of course he did something quite

different that archetype showed christ breaking bread thus 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 room is a traitor. that news literally explodes from the center and hits the apostles and 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. in order wanted action and then 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 that he brings that to life and we see that him instantly i think we can understand what's happening there is that hold for techs of human drama that's right where everyone is reacts. definitely they're asking each other there's a credulity there's a disbelief there's anger there's in the cases i like saint john he just appears to be coming awake and these being interrogated by st peter and so he does he takes each of each of these 12 and gives them. some characteristic some of the 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 unless a medal is not is that i've been all kinds of you me all kind of press because i. wanted to pick up on a picnic because you had an end up the town that i saw book place you know the next

block it out wasn't too said despite going out on a sender and. unlike winter fun or 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 oil paintings the result was catastrophic i think the thing that's so interesting about him is that he's got different intellectual interests and so he's trying to achieve different goals with apes but he's asking different questions of them larry keith is the head of conservation and keeper at london's national gallery but also i think he really was in shooting and exploring. nuances of total british and all those kinds of distinctions that i think are really not possible to achieve in france go.

in 1517 influential cardinal named luigi doggoned and his secretary and tonio debate on this 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 either because of the band and this of the wall or all 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 there's really no way to know what lennart great masterpiece looked like. or is there. long before an tonio to visit another even more distinguished visitor came to milan

with an army into this was the newly crowned king of france louis to 12 just one year after his elevation the king marched on milan to claim the city as this old. and what was the 1st thing that king louis did after he set himself up here in the castello 4th so the answer is in the book written by a layman are those 1st biographer george of us are. as 1st sorry says the king when on a visit he went to see the last supper. the kid was deeply impressed by the actual service picture both in composition and execution and convinced that he should take it back to his kingdom 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

no regard for expense so much to it he want to have it. but since it was painted on a wall it's majesty could not have his design. but kings aren't used to being told what they cannot have and so louis decided on an even bigger gambit but for that he needed leonardo himself of least that's our theory. even though leonardo was in milan he was wanted back in florence to finish another 1st go the battle of and beyond and the whole of the $500.00 of the dumbest seniority so he wasn't 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 adela's thought that if you don't say the state archives of

forms with documents that go back over a 1000 years and here we found a truly remarkable letter with a letter the elysian ethically chasing up unless an idiot if you didn't think india to quest or the she generally are militia question to say it then here is a letter from the french king himself king louis to 12th to the consul and year to the president of the french republic to signoria asking as we have need of must. pay into the city of florence and want to make him do something by his own hand we beg you to kindly let lay out all work for us for a period of time and carry out the what we tend to do. i think it's becoming clear what the french king once lived in order to do if he can have the fresh school itself he will have the next best thing

a copy on canvas that he can take back to france. and what's interesting about is that the king doesn't tell the senior react what he would like him to do he is very cagey about the king doesn't 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 this pupil francesco spaniel the

saint and 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 in the valet an hour ago had a large studio with lots of assistance but he worked very slowly and it's difficult to maintain a large studio when you have a very limited output but it's not so hard if you use your best assistants to make copies of your works for sale under the master's supervision of course so what happened to this copy of the last supper who painted it and as a still exist. there's only one way to find out and that is to go to france.

today we think of paris as the world's epicenter of our culture and fashion this is where the world coms for beauty and refinement but in the 16th century things were 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 to scurry in 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 the 12th came to the throne france 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 that's why he was so incredibly keen to get the last offer into french . but if that's true and if a live 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 go you know which ones served as the residents of george dumbed watts. does not bode well. the most important member besides of a king with a 12 or sort of prime minister we can underline the fact that he was us both with us the king. like his master king louis dumb ones was deeply smitten

with the beauty of italian art he decided he wanted to build a shadow that was entirely in the renaissance time the 1st one and friends and so he brought back scores of italian artists and masons to do just that. it's not enough just one fish to scoot at least one person in the top $25.00 and were asked about the various lottery. the people of new of the beach came the air and what do you do lots of things to degrade yourself in one of the most beautiful shuffle of the cities and to reinforce. the fact that. one of those leading pupils was working in this chateau around 1509 may be the missing piece of the possible. unfortunately the chapel and much of the shuttle were destroyed in the french revolution and the

term world not follow but one work that andrea painted for the shadow still exists the deposition from the cross which today hangs in duluth. central florida what we know of him is that he was from a family of artists we think he was probably was in venice in a period when you're not in his very 1st and so he wasn't there with him right from the beginning and around 49 to 5 he probably came back from venice team with his brother christopher and which is of course exactly the moment when you know days beginning to work on the last supper for s.k. if that's true. then celerity oh must have been present as the great friend of the last supper took shape on the refectory wall and since he was one of léonard those most talented pupils could he have been the one who painted the copy for the french

cane in the archives of the château we find a key piece of evidence an inventory of all property including pings from the 1541 of these paintings is no sin fact on twine and glum persona the film will say your feast opportunity to be a lens supper on canvas with monumental figures which is greece had brought over from alone. could this be our 1st hard piece of evidence of a live size copy of the last supper all go all pass on ours with a monumental figures put this together with what we know that andreas alarie was in ngaio in 1509 and that pieces begin to fall into place. there is little doubt that solari 0 was a favorite of the dumb was family and $1507.00 even painted

a portrait of george his nephew charlotte dunn was charlotte was none other than the governor of milan at that time but given the short time frame in which the copy was finished between 15075009 is likely that not only so lottery 0 but also other leonardo pupils were involved including for example jump. but here's the next question where is this campus after all if it's as big as we think it is it's not something you would lose very easily. and that's why we find ourselves on the train to and. in belgium to follow the next trail of glooms. we usually think of and for prez the city of rubens the painter of the baroque but

even in the early renaissance and for was a very important city primarily because of sort of those the major port and the low countries. but things started to change in the early 16th century primarily as a result of the growing tensions between the protestant north and the catholic south which ultimately produced the 80 years war. this is when the catholic church looked for every which way to defend the faith in the low countries it was founded in this abbey the abbey of total you. know what i think is so interesting is that dutch calvinism rejected all forms of religious imagery paintings sculpture even stained glass it was all torn down and destroyed i think that's why the abbot of total world decided he should

get the biggest painting of christ and his apostles he could find to deter the north and give a boost to the catholic faithful in the sun. reportedly this painting needs to exist in a small chapel on the grounds of this very common. thing . oh my god. there it is again yes but this the painting we've been looking for all these weeks. it is magnificent. so the painting was brought to bear and just in that specific moment the abbot

of tongue good little has asked somebody to look after the beautiful yule should great. painting religion. for the new church he wrote a letter to the abbot. this the last supper of leonardo da vinci was sold on the 2nd of february in 50145 it's oh the painting was actually presented and sold. a product of lived out of the village just painted by leo a lot of the while it was in those days it was not that important but probably. 90 percent of the painting as a work of. disciples p.o.p.o. self cina tell me about this theory of who painted christ and saying just well. you know but i'll be. 80 who has been restoring for 22

years the original fresco in milan will. as she has she said to this is the work of a goof. off few people as disciples of. that but she said i'm convinced that christ is and especially also the apostle of sin john it is your favorite model of that angel has been painted by himself by a layer not of them yeah. mine is that it's it yet but it's a quality the quality of your when you look at a painting you see that tinge honest it isn't a nice it's exceptional quality and very funny about i day also make x. rays of some 20 years ago and there are under gag yeah pasta sketches exact

same john christ you're telling me that there are there is an under drawing under all of the apostles yeah except for john and crossed that is painted directly on the campus that was the result of. of the x. rays that is an astonishing discovery. so we might conclude that even though the apostles may have been painted by his pupils and living perhaps under a a celeriac that lay not to himself painted christ and since the most important figures on the on the last supper bring yeah yeah and that was so it's there both to painting as a work of the things that's fascinating that's fascinating it is a beautiful work but is this the painting that king louis to 12 ordered from leonardo in 1507 and that 100 or so are you brought to france and 1509 fortunately the abbey has an extensive hard time going back many hundreds of years

and here we find in the polishing eyewitness account. that's for saying because hunt and julie just said that the painting is made after an original painted on a wall that is now in bad past when the king of france who called goodbye lon saw all the painting he was very disappointed that he could not take it living since it was painted on a wall and so he gave the order to have a copy made and that's the copy that hangs in the choir today. so what we have here is an eyewitness document from the 16th century that confirms our theory that louis did 12 order a copy of the last supper from leonardo da vinci and that this painting now hangs on the wall of this beautiful abbey in belgium.

but then the plot thickens once more as we saw such a large canvas could not have been painted by just one artist at such a small time frame so who would have painted it on the bench in various solaria the most likely candidate is an italian artist called jump you team for as we will discover in london he went on to make a 2nd copy. for 250 years there while academy at burlington house in london has been training generations of british ours by drawing inspiration from the work of the great masters. so we're sitting here in the library which very much for nights to the training all the artists feeds we're all what we call bacterial through artist and father for them to look at when did the world economy acquire the copy of the last

supper and why did they acquire so it was a few 21 the economy bullshit. the 600 guineas which there was a lot of money as a sort of comparison in 1820 the national gallery bought a real titian just over 300 pounds so to spend 600 pounds on what was a copy was an immense amount of money so they had to gather all the artists together they all have to vote on it and agree that this was a good purchase it was this extraordinary example of leonardo's work i mean although it's a copy i think it was seen as a real window into the sort of achievements of leonardo and to have in the schools for the artist the students to look at was was an amazing there's a night by leonardo that refers to a john pepto who we think is probably the same person and we know that a figure more or less of this name is working in milan from at least around 1507

so in that 2nd period after leonardo has been back to florence and then returned to milan and would you agree that he's probably the one of the principal or at least on the property of the world yes so that's very much the current line of thinking although actually moroni has recently going back to the technical drawings underpinning this work and has a few technical analysis of the undercurrents of the work has asserted that in fact it's probably all traffic is hand initially and then jump at you know coming in as a secondary hand. if it's true that jump you 3 know worked on both the turn all over asia and then later around $1520.00 on this copy it would seem that between these 2 paintings we would have a very accurate sense of what the original fresco once looked like. and i think the scale of it it is it doesn't have to be very very close to the

original and certainly the head that we we've come investigate further seemed to be very place of regional book traffic and champ a train office he had access to be an artist's drawings cartoon and i think with possibly evidence that there may have been some sort of putting out all tracing all you know from these original cartoon so you know this is really interesting that the basis maybe even closer than we originally thought. that we found not one but 2 live sized versions of the last supper by a layer nardo and his top pupils do we have a long last have a key to see what the fresco and milan truly look like. a last supper a painting that would go on to transform the course of western art could anyone in the 49 haven't disappeared the tremendous impact that this fresco would have

he would have been told by the lot of eco and the trier of century deliberate see to the last supper and they probably would have expected he would have done the last supper akin to all of those that have been done primarily in florence in tuscany c.l.o. for the previous 200 years but later oh of course it did not work like that and he did say that the way to make a painting was not to look at other paintings it was to look at real life so i think what he wanted to do and why he thought the bible was find the drama in the story was almost like here. as the director of a film that he was given the brief this is the film you're going to make are going to make a film of the last supper. wanted action and then he also wanted the emotion and the dramatic intensity of what happened in those seconds in jerusalem tonight of course is one of the magnificent things about the painting that he brings that to life and we see that and instantly i think we can understand what's happening there

3 paintings and yet one vision a vision of the picturing the most familiar scene from the gospels in a way that had never been done before. and now we know what that original vision once looked like thanks to a canvas and a remote convent in belgium of course in the years to come the high renaissance would produce some of the most memorable frescoes in history including raw files stuns and the vatican and michelangelo's immortal ceiling of the sistine chapel but all that incredible realisable that monumental grasp of the human figure 1st started with a for us go on the wall of a refactoring in milan. i

stared and exactly one year ago i. here we stand on this way i think donald think i'm playing my goodness this isn't about my life anymore how are musicians and coping with the coronavirus crisis one year after the joint project mozart. marks 21. 30 minutes a little. more

than a 1000 years ago europe witnesses a huge construction. christianity firmly established itself. both religious and secular leaders more eager to display their power. to trace began. to create the tallest biggest and most beautiful structures. stone masons builders and architects compete with each other. this is how a massive church is for creating a. contest of the good. start. on g.w. .

this isn't new news live from berlin germany's president tells people to pull together as the nation spends its 2nd easter under coronavirus restrictions we're not pandemic world champions but we're not enough for failure to know we have the federal republic of germany we may help to have our doubts but there's plenty we're capable of and it's our capabilities not top doubts the.