Renaissance Man

Executed sporadically over several years in the mid 1490s, Leonardo da Vinci’s mural of The Last Supper is commonly regarded as a triumph, the crowning glory of a master. According to Leonardo’s latest biographer, The Last Supper is arguably the most famous work of art in history, the next most famous being Leonardo’s painting of the Mona Lisa. That Leonardo should occupy both first- and second-place positions is in itself extraordinary if only because so little of his output has survived. Fifteen of the paintings are accounted for, notes Ross King in Leonardo and the Last Supper, the most recent study of the man and his most famous work, and four of those remain unfinished.

But Leonardo’s greatness is not simply a matter of quality trumping quantity. Quite apart from the depredations of time and the misadventures and accidents that can diminish such a...