she was 15 at the time of her marriage to il moro.when she died at the early age of 22 in giving birth to a stillborn child, the duke was plunged in grief, and the story is told of his spending three days and nights mourning for her in the church of santa maria delle grazie. ludovico had chosen this dominican church as the court church and as the mausoleum for his family. leonardo was given the commission to paint the last supper for the refectory of the church. this is one of the most famous and unifying christian symbols ever created. it is impossible to think of the last supper without thinking of leonardo's painting of it. it has become a religious object in itself. technically, however, the work was a failure. the fresco technique, which required the quick application of paint to wet plaster, was unsuited to leonardo's working methods. in order to try to work at this own pace, leonardo developed a new technique for his wall painting, a sort of oil tempera applied to the stone on a base compounded of pitch and mastic. but the pigm