Description
The Cenacolo is Leonardo da Vinci's Last Supper, painted on the wall of the refectory of the convent of Santa Maria delle Grazie in Milan, beside the church of the same name. It is the most famous depiction of the Last Supper: it measures about 4.6 by 8.8 meters and, together with the church, is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Leonardo painted it between 1494 and 1498 for Ludovico il Moro. The moment is the one when Jesus announces that one of the twelve will betray him: the apostles react, some stunned, some in disbelief. Judas clutches the bag of money and, in the commotion, knocks over the salt cellar.
On the opposite wall is Donato Montorfano's Crucifixion, from 1495, traditional in layout: a useful comparison for seeing how new the Last Supper was. Above the scene run three lunettes with the Sforza coats of arms among garlands of fruit and leaves.
The church deserves a visit. Ludovico il Moro wanted to make it the Sforza mausoleum and had the tribune built, a large cube with a hemispherical dome, traditionally attributed to Bramante.
Inside it is all black circles on white plaster; outside it ends in a sixteen-sided drum. In 1497 his wife Beatrice d'Este, who died at twenty-two, was buried here.
Beside the tribune is the Cloister of the Frogs, small and perfectly square, with five terracotta arches on each side. The name comes from the little bronze frogs on the fountain in the center.
August 1943: bombs rip open the friars' refectory. The vault collapses, the east wall comes down. Standing, behind a wall of sandbags, is only the wall with the Last Supper.
The masterpiece had survived far worse. Leonardo did not like fresco, too quick for someone who kept changing his mind. So he painted on the wall as if on a panel, dry. It was a brilliant idea, and also his undoing.
Damp began crumbling the paint right away. Vasari, in 1566, already saw only "a dazzled blur". Then came the retouching of restorers, and a restoration lasting more than twenty years, finished in 1999, gave back what remained. Among the discoveries, the nail hole near Christ's head: there Leonardo had fixed the strings to trace the perspective.
Don't miss
• The Last Supper.
• Montorfano's Crucifixion.
• The Renaissance tribune.
• The Cloister of the Frogs.
Did you know?
• The nail hole is the vanishing point of the whole perspective of the painting.
• In 1993 the church was raised to the rank of minor basilica.
Leonardo painted it between 1494 and 1498 for Ludovico il Moro. The moment is the one when Jesus announces that one of the twelve will betray him: the apostles react, some stunned, some in disbelief. Judas clutches the bag of money and, in the commotion, knocks over the salt cellar.
On the opposite wall is Donato Montorfano's Crucifixion, from 1495, traditional in layout: a useful comparison for seeing how new the Last Supper was. Above the scene run three lunettes with the Sforza coats of arms among garlands of fruit and leaves.
The church deserves a visit. Ludovico il Moro wanted to make it the Sforza mausoleum and had the tribune built, a large cube with a hemispherical dome, traditionally attributed to Bramante.
Inside it is all black circles on white plaster; outside it ends in a sixteen-sided drum. In 1497 his wife Beatrice d'Este, who died at twenty-two, was buried here.
Beside the tribune is the Cloister of the Frogs, small and perfectly square, with five terracotta arches on each side. The name comes from the little bronze frogs on the fountain in the center.
August 1943: bombs rip open the friars' refectory. The vault collapses, the east wall comes down. Standing, behind a wall of sandbags, is only the wall with the Last Supper.
The masterpiece had survived far worse. Leonardo did not like fresco, too quick for someone who kept changing his mind. So he painted on the wall as if on a panel, dry. It was a brilliant idea, and also his undoing.
Damp began crumbling the paint right away. Vasari, in 1566, already saw only "a dazzled blur". Then came the retouching of restorers, and a restoration lasting more than twenty years, finished in 1999, gave back what remained. Among the discoveries, the nail hole near Christ's head: there Leonardo had fixed the strings to trace the perspective.
Don't miss
• The Last Supper.
• Montorfano's Crucifixion.
• The Renaissance tribune.
• The Cloister of the Frogs.
Did you know?
• The nail hole is the vanishing point of the whole perspective of the painting.
• In 1993 the church was raised to the rank of minor basilica.