Steinberg and the Attention to Detail

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Part One: Steinberg and the Attention to Detail

Original to the point of provocation, veteran art historian Leo Steinberg, a professor emeritus at the University of Pennsylvania, has long been a legendary figure in his field. Leo Steinberg’s “Leonardo’s Incessant Last Supper” serves to further inspect and investigate one of the most universally recognized paintings in the world. While first glance shows Jesus simply and modestly at the center of a dining table, flanked by six disciples on either side, upon further inspection of details there is much disagreement and controversy. In his studies, Steinberg strategically attempts to answer various debates on what exactly is represented, what the depicted actions express, and how and where the assembly is seated. Leo Steinberg’s intricate and well thought-out book serves to dismiss all of the debates through his method of careful investigation of each detail presented.

“The Last Supper” was a mural painted in the 15th century by renowned painter Leonardo da Vinci. In the Gospels found in the Christian Bible, the Last Supper was the final meal shared by Jesus and his twelve disciples in Jerusalem. Misinterpretation of Leonardo’s picture, Steinberg believes, commenced early. Steinberg’s study displays a thorough analysis through various aspects of Leonardo’s painting. Separated in distinct nine chapters, Steinberg organizes and systemizes his thoughts and theories regarding this work of art. Chapters on the twelve disciples, feet and hands, functions of objects, and the importance of space and its connection with the viewer, all serve to further aid in the understanding of the depth of Leonardo’s art. Jesus, being the main figure, bears the closest and most careful examination. This book offers very concise and calculated arrangements towards supporting Steinberg’s theory that all these features are not the result of “a chance optical constellation” (p.23), but in fact part of a prearranged and planned design. As a reader, one can appreciate the attention to detail and the deep study and inspection required to formulate such a book. However, undertaking the task of evaluating such a piece proves difficult as Steinberg enlists the help from two distinct sources: “the observations of writers and scholars, and the responses of artists as expressed in copies and adaptations” (p. 14). By including the aid of other authors and professionals, Steinberg offers a more exhaustive study. The inclusion submits alternative opinions and perspectives, which serve to further the detailed analysis of Leonardo’s art. Steinberg’s book does, at times, read like the calculated ravings of a madman. It contains a descriptive surplus of persons, themes, words, and patterns. But this excess clearly arises from a long, ardent appreciation of Leonardo’ s painting, supplemented by bounteous scholarly depth and imagination; his thoughts can perhaps only be contained in such an eccentric book.

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The structure of the mural and the connection with its viewer plays a large part in Steinberg’s discussion and argument about the representation of space. Details such as the receding banquet hall, with its darkened wall tapestries and faint far-off apertures, presents a huge disjunction. The space is internally coherent, a mathematically exact projection of a rectangular room onto a two-dimensional canvas. But it is also radically severed from our visual experience, so that  no matter where one stands in the refectory at Santa Maria delle Grazie, the painting refuses to “come right” (p.121). Always, the perspective construction swerves dramatically ...

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