Leonardo da Vinci , “ The Last Supper ” 1498 , after restoration ot all murals are large , and not all large paintings are murals . Some of the frescoes found in Pompeii are quite modest in size . The famous circular portrait of a thoughtful young woman holding a stylus and a codex is less than 15 inches across . On the other hand , Tintoretto ’ s massive “ Il Paradiso ,” in the Doge ’ s Hall in Venice , is 23 feet high by 72 feet wide — slightly larger than Michelangelo ’ s “ The
Last Judgment .” But it ’ s not a mural , because it was painted on canvas rather than directly on a wall .
The English word mural comes from the Latin murus , meaning “ wall .” If the interior of a cave can be called a wall , the prehistoric cave paintings of bison and aurochs in Southern France are murals . Thousands of years later , the Egyptians , Minoans , and Etruscans were working in fresco , which
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