There’s a 550-year-old church in the heart of Milan known as Santa Maria delle Grazie. We’re here with a tour group to see Leonardo da Vinci’s painting of The Last Supper. This is the same painting that Ludovico Sforza hired Leonardo to do so he could get in good with church leaders. (Perhaps you will recall their conversation). Here we go…
You’d think that one of the most famous paintings in the world would be housed in a big, fancy building, but the refectory of the convent at Santa Maria delle Grazie, where the painting is located, is a nondescript addition on the side of the church.
Leonardo’s painting of The Last Supper has been through a lot over the years. He started working on it in 1495 and finished three years later. Inventor that he was, Leonardo was always messing around with new materials and new ways of doing things, including making frescoes.
A fresco is a special kind of painting on a plaster wall. The artist applies paint along with wet plaster, so when the plaster dries, the painting is embedded in the wall. That’s great, because it lasts a long time, but it’s tough on the painter, because when a section of plaster dries, he’s stuck with what he’s got. There’s no going back.
Leonardo devised a way to paint on a plaster wall so it would be permanent like a fresco, but still allow for changes and touch-ups. He tried it for the first time on his painting of The Last Supper. The “allowing for changes” part worked like a charm. The “permanent like a fresco” part, not so much.
Povero Leonardo!
Frescoes are meant to last hundreds of years, but The Last Supper started fading and flaking after only fifty years or so. After another fifty years, some parts of the painting were hardly recognizable. The painting’s custodians hung a curtain in front of the wall to protect it from the elements, but it trapped moisture inside, making the rate of decay even faster.
In 1726, a restoration project was attempted. A team of artists tried to repaint some parts of the painting with oil paint. Then they applied a layer of varnish for protection. Upon completion of the project, the consensus was that they had made everything quite a bit worse.
Another group of artists eventually started another restoration project, but it was mostly just to fix the problems created by the “oil and varnish” guys. By that time the thing was just a mess. Poor Leonardo.
To add insult to injury, shortly after the last restoration project, the French army moved in to use the refectory as their barracks. After the French left, it was used as a prison. Those knuckleheads knocked whole pieces off the painted wall during their respective stays.
In 1901, a new restoration project was started. For the next eight years they concentrated solely on cleaning the poor painting. That was a step in the right direction. In the 1920’s, another team did more cleaning and attached more broken-off pieces. The painting was getting better slowly.
In World War II, bombs obliterated parts of Santa Maria delle Grazie, but the wall with the Last Supper on it remained standing. Needless to say, another serious cleaning project was necessary.
One Last Restoration Project
In 1978, a new team started another major restoration effort. The work continued for the next 20 years. They used all manner of science and technology to determine what the original painting must have looked like. The goal was then to recreate that look.
The newly restored painting was unveiled in 1999. That’s the one we’re going to see. Today the refectory is a sealed, tightly controlled environment. Only 25 people are allowed in at a time. Groups are ushered in and out at 15-minute intervals. Before a group can go in, they have to stand in a decontamination chamber for a while. It feels like you’re getting ready to go on a space walk.
Ora di Entrare
We stood there in the air-locked pre-chamber, decontaminating. Then all of a sudden, the glass doors on the refectory side of the room slid open with a whoosh. We ventured in. Ooooooo… it was neat.
The refectory is a big, empty room. The windows have been bricked up to keep out sunlight. The only sounds were those of peoples’ shoes echoing on the concrete floor.
A huge painting covers the entire wall on one end of the room, and on the other, not covering the whole wall, but stretching from one side to the other is The Last Supper. It’s much bigger than we expected it to be — it’s almost thirty feet wide. I could tell everyone was getting all tingly like I was.
It was instantly clear that this was no ordinary painting. As with some other works of Leonardo da Vinci’s, there’s just something about it. A lot of people think Leonardo, in addition to being brilliant, was quite a rascal, so one can’t help but wonder about the hidden messages said to be contained within. There’s certainly no shortage of theories about them.
To be continued…
Just for fun…
Povero Leonardo – Poor Leonardo
Cenacolo Vinciano – Last Supper (Of course!) Pronounced “chen-AH-co-lo veen-chee-AH-no
Viaggia e Scopri – Travel and Discover
Ora di Entrare – Time to Enter
