Art & Culture · 2

Instead of using true buon fresco on wet plaster, what technique did Leonardo apply to dry plaster when painting The Last Supper?

Answer

Oil and tempera

Leonardo wanted the flexibility to rework details slowly, so he applied layers of oil and tempera onto dry plaster rather than working quickly into wet plaster as true fresco requires, which made the paint unstable over time.

💡 Did you know?

Leonardo da Vinci's Last Supper began deteriorating within years because he rejected traditional fresco technique, experimenting instead with oil and tempera on dry plaster.

Other options people guess

  • Encaustic wax paint
  • Watercolor wash
  • Acrylic paint

Topics

  • renaissance
  • leonardo-da-vinci
  • painting-technique
  • art-history

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