It is common that the legendary “secret evening” created by Leonardo da Vinci is incorrectly called the fresco. We checked whether the author really did not use the fresco technique for his masterpiece.

The fresco work of Leonardo is called in "Big Russian Encyclopedia", encyclopedias Britannica, textbook "World art culture" for the 10th grade, "Atlas of world painting", book "The art of Italian Renaissance" and many other solid sources. But the famous artist Alexander Benois in his "History of the painting of all times and peoples" He calls the work of Leonardo da Vinci "Picture". At the same time in Network A lot publications, Where Emphashesthat Leonardo is impossible to call this masterpiece.

So, we need to figure out what the work of Leonardo da Vinci “The Secret Office” is. She was Created Around 1495-1498, on the territory of the monastery of Santa Maria-Della-grace in Milan, where he occupies the entire back wall of the refectory. We turn To the art history dictionary, in which the picture is defined as a "work of easel painting." "Big Soviet Encyclopedia" additionally reportsthat the picture is not necessarily attached to a certain interior. In other words, the key feature of this type of art is portableness, which is not possessed by the “secret evening”, depicted on the wall and became part of the architectural ensemble. It follows that the “Secret Office” is definitely not a picture.

Now get acquainted with the definition of fresco, again turning to the dictionary. Fresco called A variety of monumental painting, where lime is used as the main binder. The key aspect of such a technique is a letter on fresh, raw plaster (from Ital. Fresco - “fresh”). Speaking about the history of the creation of the Secret Party, art historians They pay attention The fact that Leonardo da Vinci was quite slow. Thinking every step, he leisurely created his masterpiece. Monks who served the artist, celebratedthat Leonardo was often absent in the workplace. The technique of frescoes does not imply delay, because the plaster dries quickly - this limits the author in the time of writing of the work. The author was pedantic in his approach, so the technique of frescoes simply did not suit him. He did not use it.

What in this case is a "secret evening"? One could use a more general and universal answer - painting. However, this term is not related to a particular technique and covers all types of painting associated with architecture, with the exception of mosaics and panels, but we would like the classification at the same level of concretization as the fresco. The inventive and at the same time inconsistent in the nature of Leonardo da Vinci needed a type of mural that would make changes in the course of work. For this reason, the artist chose the opposite fresco technique And sex (Italian. "By dry"), which is characteristic usage As a soil, a mixture of resin, gypsum and mastic. This explains why the painting was almost not preserved in its original form - it simply could not withstand the harsh conditions of the refectory, which used to constantly receive wet air from the kitchen of the monastery.

Despite the fact that, strictly speaking, the “secret evening” Leonardo da Vinci is incorrectly calling a fresco, this cannot be considered a rough mistake. The fact is that there is a generalized, everyday understanding of the word “fresco”, which includes both the technique A Fresco and the technique a sexko. It even reflected in the same "Brief Dictionary of Fine Arts". How Notes The art critic Sofya Bagdasarova, "in the everyday normal life, the use of the word" fresco "for what is not written by wet disaster is no longer." However, if we strive for academic literacy, then Leonardo’s masterpiece should be called painting or, more accurately, and sexo.