As noted above, the depiction of Christ in these paintings is often the center of attention, though not always so for the artists. Castagno decided to put John at the very center off his painting, while Jesus sat beside him. Polzer notes that the placement of Christ off-center was not restricted to Castagno or even just artists in Italy (17). After examining the various different Last Supper paintings, he concludes that the focus of these artists, and their patrons, was on “mortal man” (20). A main focus was to contrast the overarching evil of Judas with the spiritual goodness of John (20). However, Leonardo did not follow this historical precedent (21). Instead of placing Jesus off-center and placing either Judas or John in the middle of the painting, Leonardo took a wholly different approach. His absolute focus was on Jesus, and he placed him in the center of the painting, with six of the apostles on either side of him (21). However, Leonardo faced a…show more content… Feinberg notes that Leonardo followed local and historical precedent, specifically Castagno and Ghirlandaio (153). In contrast, however, he points out that Leonardo made each character’s gestures more explicit and pronounced than previous versions. In his book, Leonardo Da Vinci: The Last Supper: A Cosmic Drama and an Act of Redemption, Michael Ladwein notes that each of the twelve apostles reacts to Jesus’s announcement in a different way, and that their reaction is based on their individual characteristics (35). He notes that none of the unique expressions, hand positions or gestures are repeated in another character (35). Additionally, we can also identify Peter who, like in many Last Supper paintings, holds a knife and is a reference to his later attempt to protect Jesus by attacking a soldier and cutting off the soldier’s ear (Harris and
