Photo By Yanelli Z. Robles / Staff
THE GEOMETRY OF GENIUS—Michael Leaf’s stunning metallic replica of the ‘Last Supper’ is a masterwork of mathematics and artistry.
By Alexa Lima
Leonardo da Vinci liked to think big.
So does Chula Vista artist Michael Leaf.
One of Da Vinci’s great masterpieces, his wall-sized mural “The Last Supper” is acknowledged as one of mankind’s most remarkable artistic creations – and one of its most abused. It has been damaged by soldiers, vandals, bombs and talentless clods doing “repairs.” It even had a door cut through it. Da Vinci’s work captures the moment Jesus tells his apostles that he knows one of them has betrayed him. Time has betrayed da Vinci as have careless and callous people.
That never happens to Leaf’s art. He creates in metal.
Leaf has conjured his own masterpiece, a full-sized metallic replica of “The Last Supper” in granular detail that will not suffer the ignominies of De Vinci’s mural in the church of Santa Maria delle Grazie in Milan, Italy.
A 39-year-old self-taught renaissance man, Leaf is well known as a public artist who has created iconic pieces in San Diego County including “Powering the Arts,” “South Bay Power Plant Monument,” “LOVE,” “Zero Degrees,” “Elemental,” “Tree of Life” and “From Dusk till Dawn.”
His work crosses disciplines from pictorial pieces to abstract sculptures, site specific installations and geometric furniture.
“The Last Supper” is his magnum opus.
Measuring the exact 15′ 1″ x 29′ of the original by Da Vinci, Leaf used several inflexible materials to make the metal look soft. He employed nine types of automotive, metallic, acrylic and straight pigments to achieve the range of textures.
One of his most clever ideas was to use mirrors for the eyes of Jesus and the Apostles as a reflection of the human soul. Copper makes Jesus glow when the sun hits him. Leaf said he could feel the energy of each apostle and the frequency each gave off.
Recreating a masterpiece was like a heavy metal puzzle with 70 pieces on four levels. It required artistic vision as well as abundant science and creative engineering.
“Thank goodness I like numbers,” he said. “It’s very interesting taking a one-dimensional image and making it three dimensional with materials that are inflexible.”
Leaf’s huge project started small when he was commissioned to make a calendar-sized metal replica of “The Last Supper.” It came out well and others followed. He was soon inspired to attempt the full-size replica. He started by drawing the grid dimensions on paper, then built it out of strings and screws in the walls. Leaf took great care to capture da Vinci’s angles and proportions exactly as The Master had originally mapped out.
“Da Vinci was a great mathematician as well as inventor and artist,” Leaf said. “His mathematical talents definitely influenced his art in a profound way.”
Chula Vista’s “The Last Supper” took about 14 months to finish, Leaf said. On the day he finished he texted his wife a photo. She let him know it was Ash Wednesday, 2023. Working on the piece gave him lots of time to think about Christianity, he said, including the revolutionary person Jesus was and the role of the apostles.
“It isn’t my religious origin,” he said. “I had no understanding of what the piece represented, that’s how removed from it I was. I knew Da Vinci painted it, as I am a big fan, but I had little information biblically and artistically.”
Artist/designer Sandra Scheller, 70, founder and creator of RUTH: Remember Us The Holocaust, said she has known Leaf since his infancy. She said he was a “super child” and “the Michelangelo of Metal.”
“He is just beyond the horizon of creativity because of his ideas and what he puts out into the universe,” she said. “Michael is a really brilliant man.”
As a Jewish woman Scheller said she believes Leaf’s metallic recreation of “The Last Supper” represents hope.
“It shows that we have always struggled to accept our differences,” she said. “‘The Last Supper’ is about friendship, betrayal, courage and the faith that what comes next can eventually lead to something better.”
Bob Lehman, 59, Executive Director San Diego Museum Council and vice chair of San Diego County Art Culture Commission, said Leaf’s creation is “magnificent.”
“It was striking and beautiful and so large to see it at that scale,” he said. “It took me back to my childhood and was an amazing first impression.”
Lehman said he had seen “The Last Supper” in books of religious art books, but never imagined he would find such an ambitious representation on Main Street in Chula Vista.
Scheller said she would love to permanently display Leaf’s creation in the Holocaust Museum she is working to create in San Diego County but does not think she can afford it. Leaf said he has had an offer of $17 million to purchase the piece from a European buyer, but he politely declined.
“I want it to stay in the United States, at least in North America,” he said.
Da Vinci’s original “The Last Supper” remains in the convent at Santa Maria delle Grazie in Milan, worn by age and poor stewardship by people who did not seem to appreciate what they had.
Leaf’s sturdier replica could, with decent care, last for centuries.
“I hope so,” he said with intentional understatement. “I certainly put a lot of work into it. I hope that someday it can be displayed someplace where lots of people can see it and enjoy it. Maybe it will help them to realize how great the original is and how amazing de Vinci was.”
