[1] Its handling of space, mastery of perspective, treatment of motion and complex display of human emotion has made it one of the Western world's most recognizable paintings and among Leonardo's most celebrated works.

[3][4] The work was commissioned as part of a plan of renovations to the church and its convent buildings by Leonardo's patron Ludovico Sforza, Duke of Milan.

Due to the methods used, a variety of environmental factors, and intentional damage, little of the original painting remains today despite numerous restoration attempts, the last being completed in 1999.

[10] Leonardo, as a painter, favoured oil painting, a medium which allows the artist to work slowly and make changes with ease.

Leonardo also sought a greater luminosity and intensity of light and shade (chiaroscuro) than could be achieved with fresco,[11] in which the water-soluble colours are painted onto wet plaster, laid freshly each day in sections.

From left to right, according to the apostles' heads: In common with other depictions of the Last Supper from this period, Leonardo seats the diners on one side of the table, so that none of them has his back to the viewer.

Distracted by the conversation between John and Peter, Judas reaches for a different piece of bread not noticing Jesus too stretching out with his right hand towards it (Matthew 26: 23).

[19] While the painting was being executed, Leonardo's friend, the mathematician Luca Pacioli, called it "a symbol of man's burning desire for salvation".

[21] One, by Giampietrino, is in the collection of the Royal Academy of Arts, London, and the other, by Cesare da Sesto, is installed at the Church of St. Ambrogio in Ponte Capriasca, Switzerland.

A third copy (oil on canvas) is painted by Andrea Solari (c. 1520) and is on display in the Leonardo da Vinci Museum of the Tongerlo Abbey, Belgium.

[25] By 1556 – fewer than sixty years after it was finished – Giorgio Vasari described the painting as reduced to a "muddle of blots" so deteriorated that the figures were unrecognizable.

Mazza stripped off Bellotti's work then largely repainted the painting; he had redone all but three faces when he was halted due to public outrage.

In 1796, French revolutionary anti-clerical troops used the refectory as an armory and stable;[26] they threw stones at the painting and climbed ladders to scratch out the Apostles' eyes.

[29] However, as of 1972, the repainting done in various restorations had made the heads of saints Peter, Andrew, and James differ significantly from the original design.

From 1978 to 1999, Pinin Brambilla Barcilon guided a major restoration project to stabilize the painting and reverse the damage caused by dirt and pollution.

[33] The Roman mosaic artist Giacomo Raffaelli made another life-sized copy (1809–1814), commissioned by Napoleon Bonaparte, that resides in the Minoritenkirche in Vienna.

[34] In 1955, Salvador Dalí painted The Sacrament of the Last Supper, with Jesus portrayed as blond and clean shaven, pointing upward to a spectral torso while the apostles are gathered around the table heads bowed so that none may be identified.

The artists collaged over the heads of Christ and his apostles in Some Living American Women Artists / Last Supper include Lynda Benglis, Louise Bourgeois, Elaine de Kooning, Helen Frankenthaler, Nancy Graves, Lila Katzen, Lee Krasner, Georgia O'Keeffe, Louise Nevelson, Yoko Ono, M. C. Richards, Alma Thomas, and June Wayne.

[35][38] Sculptor Marisol Escobar rendered The Last Supper as a life-sized, three-dimensional, sculptural assemblage using painted and drawn wood, plywood, brownstone, plaster, and aluminum.

[39] Art dealer Alexander Iolas commissioned Andy Warhol to produce a series of paintings based on The Last Supper, first exhibited in Milan in January 1987.

Author Mary Shelley describes her impression of the painting in her travel narrative, Rambles in Germany and Italy, published 1844: First we visited the fading inimitable fresco of Leonardo da Vinci.

[42]The painting is closely resembled in the film Quo Vadis, where Peter preaches in front of a large Christian crowd.

As he tells the story of the Last Supper, the film shifts into a brief scene where the background, clothing, and positions of Jesus and the 12 Disciples is alike to the painting itself.

The painting is parodied in the motion picture of M*A*S*H (1970), in the scene where Hawkeye Pierce stages a "last supper" for Walt (Painless) Waldowski before his planned suicide.

In one 2015 episode of the CBC drama Murdoch Mysteries called Barenaked Ladies, the suspects recreate the poses of Peter, Judas, and Thomas in their victims.

[44] This claim was later debunked when the Olympic World Library published the media guide (written before the ceremony) which mentioned it being a homage to cultural festivities as the segment is actually called Festivité (Festivity/Celebration).

[17] Debates among art historians still surround the use of the Fibonacci series as some argue that its purposeful use did not fully begin to be applied to architecture until the early 19th century.