A dining hall in a monastery where meal-taking is permeated with the spirit of prayer and meditation. In the Renaissance, the religious nature of the refectory was often emphasized by the paintings that decorated the walls. These usually depicted scenes from the Bible or the lives of the saints that related to the act of meal-taking. Examples are the Last Supper by Taddeo Gaddi (c. 1340) at Santa Croce, Andrea del Castagno's (1447) in the Monastery of Sant'Apollonia (both in Florence), and Leonardo da Vinci's (1497-1498) at Santa Maria della Grazie in Milan. Tintoretto painted the Marriage at Cana in the refectory of the Monastery of San Giorgio Maggiore in 1563 and Paolo Veronese rendered the Feast in the House of Levi (Venice, Galleria dell' Accademia) for the refectory of the Dominican Monastery of Santi Giovanni e Paolo in 1573, both in Venice.
Historical dictionary of Renaissance art. Lilian H. Zirpolo. 2008.