Last Supper

Christ's last meal with His disciples before His arrest and trial; the rite of communion is based on this. One of most famous depictions of the event is a fresco painted by Leonardo da Vinci.

League of Cambrai

Alliance against Venice lasting from 1508 until 1510 between Pope Julius II (1443-1513), Emperor Maximilian I (1459- 1519), Ferdinand of Aragon (1452-1516), Louis XII of France (1462-1515) and some Italian states.

lectern

A reading stand or desk, especially one at which the Bible is read.

Legenda Aurea (Lat. "golden legend")

A collection of saints' legends, published in Latin in the 13th century by the Dominican Jacobus da Voragine, Archbishop of Genoa. These were particularly important as a source for Christian art from the Middle Ages onwards.

Leipzig Disputation

A debate held in Leipzig in 1519 between Martin Luther and the theologian Johann Eck. The central themes were Luther's condemnation of the sale of indulgences, and his challenge to the doctrinal authority of the Pope and Church Councils.

liberal arts

These represented the subject matter of the secular 'arts' syllabus of the Middle Ages; first the preparatory trivium - grammar, rhetoric and dialectic, then the basis of a philosophical training, the quadrivium, comprising arithmetic, geometry, astronomy and music. By the 13th century each had been given a pictorial identity, together with identifying attributes (e.g. a measuring rod for geometry) and exemplars (e.g. Pythagoras for arithmetic, Tubal for music).While treated with a stylistic variety that reflected current pictorial concerns, whether with iconographic completeness (Andrea da Firenze in the Spanish Chapel at S. Maria Novella in Florence), or with narrative (Pinturicchio in the Vatican) or with the nude (Pollaiuolo's tomb of Sixtus IV in St Peter's), the theme was left remarkably intact by artists whose own activity (save through the mathematics of perspective) was excluded from it as manual rather than liberal.

loggetta

Small loggia: open arcaded walkway supported by columns or pillars.

loggia (It.)

A gallery or room open on one or more sides, its roof supported by columns. Loggias in Italian Renaissance buildings were generally on the upper levels. Renaissance loggias were also separate structure, often standing in markets and town squares, that could be used for public ceremonies.

love knot

A painted or sculpted knot interlaced with initials, commemorating a marriage.

Luminism

The American landscape painting style of the 1850s-1870s, characterized by effects of light in landscapes, poetic atmosphere, often sublime, through the use of aerial perspective, and a hiding of visible brushstrokes. It is related to, and sometimes refers to Impressionism. Leading American luminists were Fitz Hugh Lane (1804-1865), John F. Kensett (1816-1872), Martin J. Heade (1819-1904), Jasper Francis Cropsey (1823-1900), and Frederick E. Church (1826-1900).

lunette (Fr. "little moon")

In architecture, a semicircular space, such as that over a door or window or in a vaulted roof, that may contain a window, painting or sculptural decoration.