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Wesleyan's Last Supper Restored to its Original Glory
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For years, paint crackled beneath John the Evangelist and a hole widened near the shoulder of Bartholomew. Decades of dust and grime covered details of the historic scene captured on a massive 1929 reproduction held in campus storage. Despite a torn sagging canvas, the splendor of the historic moment remained. In it, Jesus Christ reveals to the apostles that his betrayer is with them at the table. The apostles react in astonishment, save Judas, who unwittingly reveals himself by reaching across the table for Christ’s bread.
The scene comes to life through Wesleyan’s spectacular oil painting, the Last Supper painted by famed Florentine artist A. Corsi Lalli. The painting, measuring five feet in height and eleven in width, is a copy of the Last Supper by Leonardo da Vinci and until this year it had been deteriorating and held in campus storage. But a $15,000 gift from Wesleyan's Board of Trustees ensured that the historic painting, along with its stunning gold-leaf frame, was restored to its original glory.
“The oil on canvas painting is 70 x 132 inches, a full-sized copy of da Vinci's Last Supper in Milan,” according to Wesleyan Professor of Art and Fine Arts Division Chair Dr. Libby Bailey. “The frame is also fabulous. Commissioned in 1929 and painted especially for Wesleyan College, it was a very generous gift from an important donor of the College. Fine copies of paintings by the old masters are valuable and found in many important art collections. Several important works of art were donated to the College in the late 1920s and early 1930s -- including our copy of the Last Supper -- and these were the beginning of a notable art collection for Wesleyan's new Rivoli Campus and the foundation of the current Wesleyan Treasures Collection.”
The important donor was Samuel Candler Dobbs of Atlanta. In 1930, during the opening exercises of the College, he presented the painting personally. "No museum, no church or collection can ever possess [da Vinci’s original] matchless piece of dramatic art,” he said during the presentation. “Therefore, the next best thing that we can have is a copy; and there are altogether too few copies of it in existence today."
Dobbs described traveling through Italy with his daughter and visiting the old church to see da Vinci's masterpiece. The masterpiece, he said, "seemed a mere ghost of a picture as it stood crumbling into decay, notwithstanding the very best efforts to preserve it.” As he looked at da Vinci’s work, Dobbs decided that he would be very happy to give a copy of the masterpiece to Wesleyan. Later, he called Dr. Umberto Gianesi, director of the National Association of Artists in Florence, and discussed a plan for making the copy. Gianesi recommended Professor Lalli as “the best man living to make the copy.”
During the 1930 presentation of the painting, Dobbs told his Wesleyan audience that "through Dr. Gianesi, I entered into negotiations with Professor Lalli, and you have before you today the result of his year's work."
But many years later, like da Vinci’s masterpiece, Wesleyan’s treasure also faced decay despite attempts to preserve it until this year when the Board of Trustees elected to adopt the painting and sponsor its restoration. Because of the canvas’s enormous size, the painting was restored on campus by Restoration Artist Catherine Rogers who traveled from Charleston. Throughout the project, she consolidated paint and ground layers, re-aligned and mended tears, removed dust, flattened planar distortions, reduced canvas slackness, cleaned surface grime, removed old varnish, applied new varnish, filled paint losses, and attached a protective backing board.
“Wesleyan is grateful to Wesleyan College Board of Trustees Chairman Tom Bass who led the initiative to restore the Last Supper,” said Wesleyan’s Vice President for Institutional Advancement Debbie Smith. “Tom and his wife Tricia have been valuable supporters of Wesleyan’s adopt-a-painting program. They recognize that conserving the Wesleyan Treasures Collection is a critical, ongoing process.”
The Last Supper painting was one of many awaiting restoration through a unique Adopt-a-Painting program that allows donors the opportunity to select a specific work of art and sponsor its conservation. Donors help Wesleyan ensure the longevity of the College’s extensive collection of fine paintings, prints, furniture, and objects.
Individuals like Tom and Tricia Bass have contributed greatly to Wesleyan’s conservation and restoration efforts, helping to preserve some of Georgia’s most beautiful artwork. Adopt-a-Painting was created in 2002 to connect prospective donors who wanted to support the Wesleyan Treasures collection with specific and tangible needs. Initially, almost 150 paintings were examined through a comprehensive evaluation of the collection. A restoration expert provided estimates for repair ranging from $700.00 to $8,000.00, depending on the extent of the damage and the work involved in the restoration of each painting.
“To date,” according to Debbie Smith, “nearly fifty paintings have been adopted through Adopt-a-Painting; of those, forty-six have been restored. Approximately, $150,000.00 has been raised since 2002 through this successful program. It’s wonderful to see donors connect on a personal level with a specific work of art. Dynamic relationships have developed from these adoptions, and we place the greatest value on that intangible outcome.”
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