The Last Supper
Visit the Santa Maria delle Grazie Monastery
The church Santa Maria delle Grazie with the adjoining cloister dates from the fifteenth century and was built on the spot where a chapel in honor of Saint Mary had previously stood. Well-known architects and artists contributed to the construction, such as Solaria, Bramante, Montorfano and Amadeo. A striking piece of history is the bombing of the church in World War II. Most of the church in Milan was then destroyed and many works were lost, except for the painting for which the Santa Maria delle Grazie is now known: The Last Supper (or Il Cenacolo in Italian).
Da Vinci’s Last Supper
This immense mural measuring almost five by nine meters is made by Leonardo da Vinci. At the time when the important Sforza family held sway in Milan, Duke Sforza decided to commission Da Vinci to make this mural. Da Vinci did not work on it continuously, but it was completed in a span of almost four years. After the aforementioned bombardments, the painting has undergone several restorations, but unfortunately this has not always had the desired effect. Since The Last Supper was a mural and therefore could not be removed from the wall like a normal painting, it could not be placed anywhere else. As a result, this painting has never been outside the walls of the monastery.
Leonardo da Vinci
In addition to The Last Supper, you probably know Da Vinci as an architect, visual artist, writer, inventor, mathematician and anatomist. When he was working on the mural, he was also busy studying light, sound, movement and human emotions. It is therefore that this painting is so different from what people were used to at the time. Leonardo Da Vinci applied his newly discovered knowledge in The Last Supper. You will see this clearly from the expressions on the faces of Jesus and the apostles, the gestures used and the body postures depicted.
What is The Last Supper about?
The painting itself is not unique to the dining room of a monastery, as such decorations were quite common for the time. The mural shows Jesus and his apostles at a large table, with everyone sitting on one side. The moment, which is extensively described in the Bible, is about Jesus telling his apostles about the traitor who is among them. Due to the painting technique used by Leonardo da Vinci – which was different from a real fresco – the painting started to suffer from the climatic conditions in the dining room soon after it was finished. The attempts that various restorers have made afterwards to restore it to its original state have also not always been successful.
