Leonardo used living people to depict the figures representing the Twelve Apostles and Christ.

He started the fresco with Christ. It is reputed that he viewed hundreds and hundreds of men booking for one who most perfectly exhibited the innocence and beauty he was looking for. A face and personality unaffected by sin.

Eventually he found a young man 19 years old and for the next six months he worked on the face and demeanor of Chrsist using this young man as his model.

Over the next six years, he found appropriate people to represent each of the Apostles, with a space being left for the figure representing Judas Iscariot -which he left as the final task of the masterpiece.

For weeks, Da Vinci searched in vain for a man with a hard, callused face and a countenance marked by scars of avarice and deceit. A man who could depict the man, who would betray his best friend

After much discouragement, word came to David that a man whose appearance fully met the requirements had been found, a man who was wretched, unkempt and vicious, the perfect Judas.

By special order of the king, the man was taken to Milan, where the fresco was being painted.

When the picture was finally finished the warders came from Rome to retrieve their prisoner.

As he was leaving, the man turned to Da Vinci and said, “Don’t you recognize me”? “I’ve never seen you before in my life”, Leonardo replied.

The man broke down sobbing. “Have I sunk so low,” he said. Seven years ago, you used me as your model for Jesus”.