13. Milano - The Last Supper

This is the ancient Dominican church and convent of Santa Maria della Grazie.  It was commissioned by Francesco I Sforza, Duke of Milan around 1490 as a resting place for his family. In 1494, Leonardo da Vinci was commissioned to paint a fresco on the north wall of the refectory of the convent, to the left of this view of the church. 

He began in 1494 and finished four years later. The Last Supper was the result of a long study of the iconography of the betrayal, begun by Leonardo around 1490.  Unlike his previous paintings in which the moment of identification of the treacherous Judas was depicted, Leonardo chose here to represent the preceding moment " ..... one of you will betray me." This allowed Leonardo to focus his attention on the passions that are unleashed in the group of apostles, the expressions on their faces, their postures and emotions.

Unlike traditional fresco, which requires speedy execution of paint while the plaster wall remains damp, Leonardo experimented with a similar but 'dry' technique which better enhanced light and shade and the blending of tones. This choice made the painting extremely fragile, deterioration being evident after only a few years. Numerous restorations were required from the 1700's onwards.  The most recent one was completed in 1999 after 20 years of work. This effort removed thick layers of dirt and materials associated with numerous previous restoration work, allowing the very bright colours of the original paintwork to emerge.

The church and refectory suffered from heavy Allied bombing in 1943, but sandbagging saved the face of the wall with the painting.  The refectory and church are now on the World Heritage register.

Paul and I are not pre-bookers, preferring to 'get a feel for things' at the actual venue before deciding what to do.  This was possibly the only occasion that we have missed out on something because we didn't pre-book. So few visitors are admitted to the the refectory each day that even though we had 5 days available in Milan, we could not secure tickets.
No doubt, if we had booked at premium cost through a tour group that have access to a daily ticket allocation ,we could have got in. But, on this occasion we missed out.

Santa Marie della Grazie is built in the same red brick style that has characterised buildings in the Lombardy region for centuries.

This is the original covered market place of Milan, with the courts of justice above.

A friendly neighbourhood church near our apartment.

A large residential building in the city centre.

An elegant residential building near us.

The bicycle rack servicing our immediate area (we are just behind the tree).  We walked past again an hour later and there were only 4 bikes left.