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The Last Supper, fresco by Andrea del Castagno, 1447; in the Cenacolo … (credit: SCALA/Art Resource, New York)

(born c. 1419, Castagno d'Andrea, near Florence [Italy] — died Aug. 19, 1457, Florence) Italian painter active in Florence. Little is known of his early life, and many of his paintings have been lost. His earliest dated works are frescoes in the church of San Zaccaria in Venice (1442). In 1447 he began his greatest work, a series of monumental frescoes depicting the Last Supper and other scenes of Christ's Passion for the convent of Sant' Apollonia in Florence (now a museum). His use of pictorial illusionism and scientific perspective, as well as the powerful, sculptural form of his figures, established him as one of the most influential Renaissance painters of the 15th century.

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