February 9, 1498

The Last Supper (Leonardo)

Leonardo's Last Supper is unveiled and documented as complete

The date comes from a mathematician's book dedication, not from any record of Leonardo putting down his brush.

9 February 1498

The art historian Pietro C. Marani identifies 9 February 1498 as the unveiling of Leonardo's completed Last Supper in Milan.

The date is tied to Luca Pacioli's dedication of De divina proportione, which praised the Last Supper as an accomplished work. That establishes the painting was complete by then — not that Leonardo applied a final brushstroke that day.

Treccani dates Pacioli's dedicatory letter to 8 February; the official museum gives a working range ending at the beginning of 1498, and UNESCO dates the work 1495–1497.

Where it was, and who ate under it

The finished painting covered the north wall of the Dominican monastery's refectory at Santa Maria delle Grazie, where the friars ate, prayed and meditated. It measures 460 by 880 centimetres.

Ludovico Sforza had commissioned the decoration while reshaping Santa Maria delle Grazie into a celebration of Sforza power and a family mausoleum.

Painted on dry plaster

Leonardo did not use true fresco. The pigments sat over a preparatory layer instead of being absorbed into wet plaster, which left him free to keep revising.

The official museum classifies the work as dry wall-painting and attributes its deterioration chiefly to that technique and to imperfect environmental conditions.

Decay was being observed by 1517.

Sources

Researched 23 Aug 2026 6 sources not yet audited Traditional date

How this was checked

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Traditional date. This date is the conventional one, not one fixed by a contemporary record.

What the sources leave uncertain

The exact last day of painting is not documented. The strongest claim is that Pacioli’s dedication establishes a terminus ante quem: it was complete by early February 1498.
Marani uses 9 February as the unveiling date, while Treccani dates Pacioli’s dedicatory letter to 8 February. The official museum gives a range ending at the beginning of 1498, and UNESCO dates the work 1495–1497.
Accordingly, 9 February is best treated as a traditional unveiling or documentary date, not a securely observed final-brushstroke date.