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
Know your art & culture trivia?
Play a free Art & Culture quiz and see how many you get right — no signup needed to start.
More Art & Culture facts
Art & Culture
Which Leonardo da Vinci mural began flaking apart within years of its completion because he experimented with oil and tempera instead of true fresco?
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.
Art & Culture
Because Leonardo da Vinci's oil-tempera technique for 'The Last Supper' failed over time, what proportion of the mural's original paint is estimated to survive today?
The Last Supper by Leonardo da Vinci wasn't actually painted on wet plaster—his experimental oil technique failed, causing centuries of deterioration and requiring constant restoration.
Art & Culture
Despite years of persistent requests from patron Isabella d'Este, which Renaissance master never completed a painting for her?
Isabella d'Este spent decades acquiring artworks but never owned a single painting by Leonardo da Vinci, despite obsessively pursuing him for commissions.
Art & Culture
During the Sistine Chapel ceiling's 1980s–90s restoration, what did some art historians argue was mistakenly stripped away in the cleaning process?
Michelangelo's Sistine Chapel ceiling was nearly destroyed by restorers in the 1980s who removed layers art historians now believe the master intentionally applied.
Art & Culture
Which anonymous Italian street artist painted over his own murals in Bologna to protest their preservation as museum pieces?
Blu, the anonymous Italian muralist, famously painted over his own works to protest their commodification and permanent preservation by governments.
Art & Culture
In the subway system of which city did Keith Haring create his chalk drawings in the early 1980s, art the transit authority there later officially commissioned?
Keith Haring's subway drawings in 1980s New York were technically illegal, yet the MTA eventually hired him to create authorized murals.