Leonardo and the Last Supper

Leonardo da Vinci's transcendent painting The Last Supper defined the master artist. Leonardo and the Last Supper tells the full story behind its creation. Political events weighed on da Vinci and all of Italy during the time of the painting's conception and creation, as his patron, the Duke of Sforza, unleashed forces leading to a decades-long series of tragedies known as the Italian Wars. Sforza was overthrown by French forces in 1499, forcing da Vinci to flee Milan with the paint on The Last Supper barely dry.