Home Destinations Europe Italy Milan, Lombardy and the Lakes Sights Santa Maria delle Grazie

Santa Maria delle Grazie Review

Read our Milan, Lombardy and the Lakes sights reviews. Or post your own.

Santa Maria delle Grazie

Address: Piazza Santa Maria delle Grazie 2, off Corso Magenta, Sant'Ambrogio, Milan, 20123 | Map It
Phone: 02/89421146
www.cenacolovinciano.it

Category: Museums/Galleries, Religious Sites
Location: Milan

Write a review

Fodor's Review:

Leonardo da Vinci's The Last Supper, housed in the church and former Dominican monastery of Santa Maria delle Grazie, 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, including, if one 19th-century source is to be believed, being whitewashed over by monks. Well-meant but disastrous attempts at restoration have done little to rectify the problem of the work's placement: it was executed on a wall unusually vulnerable to climatic dampness. Yet 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. Novelist Aldous Huxley (1894-1963) called it "the saddest work of art in the world." After years of restorers' patiently shifting from one square centimeter to 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.

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. But 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, offers an elegantly terse explanation for why the composition works: it combines "dramatic confusion" with "mathematical order." Certainly, the amazingly skillful and unobtrusive repetition of threes—in the windows, in the grouping of the figures, and in their placement—adds a mystical aspect to what at first seems simply the perfect observation of spontaneous human gesture.

Reservations are required to view the work. Viewings are in 15-minute, timed slots, and visitors must arrive 15 minutes before their assigned time if they are not to lose their slot. Reservations can be made via phone (02/89421146) or online (www.cenacolovinciano.it); it is best to call because more tickets are set aside for phone reservations. Call about three weeks ahead to be sure of getting the Saturday slot you want; two weeks before for a weekday slot. The telephone reservation office is open 9 AM-6 PM weekdays and 9 AM-2 PM on Saturday. Operators do speak English, though not fluently, and to reach one, you must wait for the Italian introduction to finish and then press "2." However, you can sometimes get tickets from one day to the next. Some city bus tours include a visit in their regular circuit, which may be a good option.

The painting was executed in what was the order's refectory, which is now referred to as the Cenacolo Vinciano. Take a moment to visit Santa Maria delle Grazie itself. It's a handsome church, with a fine dome, which Bramante added along with a cloister about the time that Leonardo was commissioned to paint The Last Supper. If you're wondering how two such giants came to be employed decorating and remodeling the refectory and church of a comparatively modest religious order, and not, say, the Duomo, the answer lies in the ambitious but largely unrealized plan to turn Santa Maria delle Grazie into a magnificent Sforza family mausoleum. Though Ludovico il Moro Sforza (1452-1508), seventh duke of Milan, was but one generation away from the founding of the Sforza dynasty, he was its last ruler. Two years after Leonardo finished The Last Supper, Ludovico was defeated by Louis XII and spent the remaining eight years of his life in a French dungeon.

Cost: Last Supper, EUR 6.50 plus EUR 1.50 reservation fee; church free
Open: Last Supper, weekdays 9-6, Sat. 9-2; church weekdays 7-noon and 3-7, Sun. 7:30-12:15 and 3:30-9
Metro: Cadorna

Find more sights in Milan, Lombardy and the Lakes »