Every Easter for four centuries, 13 priests gathered at the Apostolic Palace in the Vatican to have their feet washed by the Pope. The ceremony became one of the most important symbolic rituals of Holy Week and took place under the gaze of Jesus, as depicted in a 16th century tapestry depicting Leonardo da Vinci. The last supper (1495–98).
This tapestry is today one of the highlights of In the shadow of Leonardo», a new exhibition at the Palace of Venaria that explores the ritual of Maundy Thursday at the papal court. It is joined by the woven canopy of Pope Clement VII’s papal throne, created by the famous Flemish tapestry weaver Pieter Van Aelst and, like Leonardo’s tapestry, on loan from the Vatican Museums.
The woven canopy of the papal throne of Pope Clement VII. Photo: The Palace of Venaria.
As the title of the show suggests, the Last Supper The tapestry is a copy of Leonardo’s mural painted in the refectory of Santa Maria delle Grazie in Milan. Woven from silk covered in gold and silver, the tapestry was a wedding gift from King Francis I of France to Pope Clement VII when the former’s son married the latter’s niece, Catherine de’ Medici. Work on tapestry probably began in the late 1510s, and some have claimed that Leonardo was aware of tapestry during his stay in France from 1516 to 1519.
“In 1518, Francis I purchased a large painted copy of Leonardo Last Supper of a Milanese goldsmith,” Alessandra Rodolfo, one of the exhibition’s curators, told Artnet News. “It was placed in the Armory of the Château d’Amboise where it could be copied to make the model or the cartoon of the tapestry.”
Around the same time, Clement VII ordered the canopy of the papal throne from Van Aelst, whose workshop had already woven the famous Raphael tapestries for the Sistine Chapel.
With these artifacts, writes Rodolfo in The arts journal“the exhibition recreates the traditional setting of the Maundy Thursday ritual in the majestic Ducal Hall of the Apostolic Palace in the Vatican and later in St. Peter’s.”
Also on display at “In the Shadow of Leonardo” are 18th-century ritual paintings, 19th-century lithographs and two unpublished drawings from the Vatican Museums collection.
See more images from the exhibit below.
View of the installation “In the Shadow of Leonardo” at the Palace of Venaria. Photo: The Palace of Venaria.
A golden ewer by Innocente Gaya. Photo: The Palace of Venaria.
View of the installation “In the Shadow of Leonardo” at the Palace of Venaria. Photo: The Palace of Venaria.
A lithograph of the annual ceremony in which the pope washes the feet of 13 priests. Photo: The Palace of Venaria.
View of the installation “In the Shadow of Leonardo” at the Palace of Venaria. Photo: The Palace of Venaria.
“In Leonardo’s Shadow” is presented at the Palace of Venaria, Piazza della Repubblica 4, Venaria Reale, Italy, until June 18.
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