Santa Maria delle Grazie and The Last Supper, Milan
The room displaying The Last Supper. Photo: WGA.
The Last Supper by Leonardo da Vinci.
Detail of Christ from The Last Supper.
Detail of St. John from The Last Supper.
Two apostles have a discussion in The Last Supper.
Location map and aerial view of Santa Maria delle Grazie. For a larger
view, see our Milan Map or get our free Google Earth download.
Leonardo da Vinci's The Last Supper, housed in the former Dominican monastery church of Santa Maria delle Grazie in Milan, is one of the most famous paintings in the world.
The Renaissance masterpiece has enjoyed even more popular interest since the publication of the novel The Da Vinci Code, in which the painting and its artist play a major role in the central mystery.
History
Leonardo da Vinci painted The Last Supper in what was the order's refectory, now called the Cenacolo Vinciano, from 1495 to 1497.
Santa Maria delle Grazie is itself a handsome church with a fine dome. The dome was added by Bramante, along with a cloister, about the time that Leonardo was commissioned to paint The Last Supper.
How did two such giants came to be employed decorating and remodeling the refectory and church of a comparatively modest religious order, rather than, say, the Duomo? The answer lies in the ambitious but unrealized plan to turn Santa Maria delle Grazie into a magnificent Sforza family mausoleum. But two years after Leonardo finished The Last Supper, Ludovico il Moro Sforza was defeated and imprisoned in a French dungeon for the remaining eight years of his life.
For his masterpiece, Leonardo chose to work slowly and patiently in oil pigments, which demand dry plaster, instead of proceeding hastily on wet plaster according to the conventional fresco technique.
The Last Supper is an extremely complex and ambitious undertaking, so Leonardo did extensive research and created many studies and preparatory sketches before completing the painting. Twenty of these drawings have survived and are kept in the Royal Library at Windsor Castle, where they have been stored since 1600. The priceless collection is surely just a small part of the immense preparation that was carried out.
Since its completion, the magnificent painting has had an almost unbelievable history of bad luck and neglect. Its near destruction in an American bombing raid in August 1943 was only the latest chapter in a series of misadventures.
The fresco's deterioration began before the paint was even dry on the moisture-ridden walls. The fresco got a lot of well-intentioned but poorly executed "touching up" in the 18th and 19th centuries, which only caused further damage.
Napoléon's troops used the wall for target practice and Allied bombing during World War II tore off the room's roof, leaving the fresco exposed to the elements for 3 years. Novelist Aldous Huxley called it "the saddest work of art in the world."
But finally, after years of restorers patiently cleaning one square centimeter after another, Leonardo's masterpiece is free of the shroud of scaffolding and centuries of retouching, grime, and dust. Astonishing clarity and luminosity have been regained.
What to See
Although the last meal shared by Jesus and his disciples was a common theme used to decorate convent refectories, especially in Florence, Leonardo presented the subject in a completely innovative form. He made drastic modifications to the layout of the scene and, most notably, presented this episode from the Gospels with astounding realism.
Despite Leonardo's carefully preserved preparatory sketches in which the apostles are clearly labeled by name, there still remains some small debate about a few identities in the final arrangement. Most recently, novelist Dan Brown claims in The Da Vinci Code that the figure on Jesus' right is not John the Apostle, but Mary Magdalene.
Brown also notes that Peter is making a threatening gesture towards "Mary," representing a fierce battle between the two figures in the early church. Most art historians, however, point out that St. John is commonly represented with feminine features and there is no reason to think the figure is Mary.
Whatever the case, there can be no mistaking Judas, small and dark, his hand calmly reaching forward to the bread, isolated from the terrible confusion that has taken the hearts of the others. One critic, Frederick Hartt, has said the composition works because it combines "dramatic confusion" with "mathematical order."
The amazingly skillful and unobtrusive repetition of threes – in the windows, in the grouping of the figures, and in their placement – does indeed add a mystical aspect to what at first seems simply the perfect observation of spontaneous human gesture.
Across from The Last Supper on the southern wall is the large Crucifixion, painted by Donato Montorfano. The two great scenes are linked by a painted frieze of plant garlands with Bible quotations supportive of monastic life.
Quick Facts
| Address: | Piazza Santa Maria delle Grazie 2, off Corso Magenta, Sant'Ambrogio, Milan, Italy |
| Metro: | Cadorna |
| Phone: | 02/89421146 |
| Hours: | Tues.-Sun. 8-7:30, last entry 6:45 |
| Cost: | Church is free; Painting is EUR6.50 plus EUR1.50 reservation fee |
| Tip: | Be sure to take the time to book ahead to the see The Last Supper; you may not be able to get a ticket otherwise and it is well worth it. Only a small group are allowed to see the painting every fifteen minutes, allowing you to enjoy the masterpiece in peace. Contact the reservations office, your travel agent, or your hotel several days ahead for weekday visits and several weeks in advance for a weekend visit. |
Article Sources
- Fodor's Italy 2005
- Frommer's Northern Italy, 2nd edition
- Il Cenacolo – Official Website (Italian and English)
- The Last Supper – Economist.com
