“The Last Supper” is a painting from the Renaissance Era created by the artist Leonardo DaVinci. The painter includes many visual elements to help to contribute to the overall theme of the artwork. Some of the visual elements included that really help the viewer to understand the painting include the artist’s use of color scheme and the use of shape and space throughout DaVinci’s masterpiece. These elements are essential in aiding the viewer to be able to understand the theme of the painting.

One of the first things in the painting that the viewer’s eyes immediately go to would be Jesus, who is the center of the artwork. In the visual, Jesus is wearing bright red clothing. Not only is this to make him stand out from every other person in the picture, but also to symbolize the blood that he had shed when he was crucified. Another thing the viewer can see is that the table cloth is completely white to represent Jesus’ purity and the idea that he has cleansed his believers from all sin. DaVinci seems to have used darker more somber colors surrounding Jesus throughout the work including the shadows in the background and the clothing on the other people joining Jesus at the table. The viewer can interpret that these depressing colors represent the foreshadowing of his impending death. Another color used repeatedly is the color blue, which is known to represent heaven. Behind Jesus, there is a window with a pretty landscape and a bright blue heavenly sky, which represents Jesus as a holy figure. DaVinci chose to use all these colors in this certain way to really make the viewer feel and understand what he believed as a devout Christian, which is that Jesus shed his own blood to cleanse everyone’s sins. 

DaVinci was able to be very creative when using spacing and different shapes throughout his masterpiece. As the viewer may have noticed before when looking at DaVinci’s color scheme, there are windows behind Jesus that look out onto a beautiful landscape. The artist could have painted just one window in this artwork, but he intentionally chose to paint three. The three windows could symbolize multiple things. Firstly, it could represent the holy trinity; the father, the son, and the holy spirit. It could also symbolize Jesus on the cross along with the two other crosses when he was being crucified, another foreshadowing of death in the painting. DaVinci also used spacing cleverly when painting each person in the artwork. Jesus is centralized so that the viewer’s attention immediately goes to him. The other people seem to all be crowded next to each other while Jesus has plenty of space between his neighbors at the table on each side of him. The artist specifically painted everything in such a way so the viewer could notice Jesus and realize the theme of Jesus being the center of everything. He wanted the viewers to see Jesus in the same light that he did as a Christian.

DaVinci’s use of color scheme and the use of space and shapes throughout his artwork, “The Last Supper”, are critical to help the viewers to understand the meaning behind the painting. As a Christian, he wants other people to see Jesus as he does, which is his purpose for creating this painting. Without these subtle yet important visual elements included, the viewer may have never been able to understand the theme DaVinci is really trying to portray.