Last Supper
Preserved but no longer current.
Leonardo da Vinci's famous picture of this was painted on a wall of the refectory of the convent of Santa Maria delle Grazie, Milan, in 1494-97. The artist varied the normal tempera with a formula of his own which was not a success, hence the painting wore badly with time.
Era: ca. 1898 (Victorian)
Sources & notes
Reproduced from Brewer’s Dictionary of Phrase and Fable (1898 edition, public domain; archive.org, retrieved 2026-07-31; OCR text, minor errors possible). Reflects the scholarship and attitudes of its era.
Common questions
What does “Last Supper” mean?
Leonardo da Vinci's famous picture of this was painted on a wall of the refectory of the convent of Santa Maria delle Grazie, Milan, in 1494-97. The artist varied the normal tempera with a formula of his own which was not a success, hence the painting wore badly with time.
Is “Last Supper” formal or informal?
No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.