DA VINCI'S LAST SUPPER

We understood that visiting Milan meant we had to see da Vinci's Last Supper. Securing tickets for this requires some timing and patience. Tickets are released approximately 4 weeks before your intended visit date. They can be purchased directly from the Cenacolo Vinciano museum, but getting in the queue is essential. Tickets are released at noon in Italy, which is 3AM in California where we live, so I had to wake up in the middle of the night to make the purchase. You can buy up to 5 tickets online. Purchasing them directly from the website isn't difficult, but you need patience, as once you start the process, you might have to wait 15-20 minutes for your turn to complete the purchase, so be patient.

Enough with the travel tip, let's discuss the painting. The Last Supper covers the entire north wall of the refectory in the Dominican monastery of Santa Maria delle Grazie. This was the room where the friars gathered to eat, pray, and meditate during meals.

Leonardo arrived in Milan in 1482, presenting himself to the city's ruler with an extensive letter listing his skills as a painter, musician, military engineer, and architect. He stayed at Ludovico's court until 1499, working as an artist, creator of spectacular shows and set designs, as well as an engineer and sculptor.

During this period, he studied the Lombard canal systems, painted the portrait of Ludovico's favorite, Cecilia Gallerani, known as The Lady with the Ermine (now in Krakow), and worked on the Equestrian Monument to Francesco Sforza, Ludovico il Moro's father, which he couldn't complete. The decoration of the Sala delle Asse in the Castello Sforzesco also remained unfinished.

At the end of the century, Ludovico Sforza aimed to make Santa Maria delle Grazie a symbol of his power and a family mausoleum. He funded significant projects in the complex, including the church's tribune restructuring, which he assigned to Donato Bramante. He commissioned Leonardo da Vinci to decorate the refectory with a painting of Christ at the Last Supper with the twelve apostles.

Ludovico transformed Sforza Castle into a vibrant court, attracting artists, intellectuals, and musicians. Between 1478 and 1482, Donato Bramante and Leonardo da Vinci came to Milan. These two prominent Italian Renaissance artists created masterpieces for the Duke, which are still admired throughout the city today.

Leonardo da Vinci's The Last Supper is famous for its groundbreaking use of one-point perspective, its psychological depth and emotional realism in depicting the apostles' reactions, and its innovative, dramatic composition that highlights a crucial biblical moment. The painting's technical mastery, profound exploration of human emotion, and enduring cultural significance have established it as a Renaissance masterpiece.

One-point linear perspective is a method that effectively creates the illusion of depth and space. Every component of the painting directs the viewer's attention to Christ's head, the vanishing point, establishing him as the focal point. The painting also alludes to the number 3, possibly symbolizing the Holy Trinity. The disciples are arranged in groups of three, there are three windows, and Jesus is shown in a triangular form with his arms extended.

Leonardo shifted from static, symmetrical designs to a more dynamic composition by arranging the twelve apostles into four groups of three. This approach broke the monotony of a single line and enabled a more lively portrayal of individual reactions and interactions.

The painting illustrates the precise moment when Christ reveals that one of his apostles will betray him, capturing the instant psychological upheaval and diverse reactions of the disciples. Leonardo expressed the "motions of the soul," or the inner emotions, of each apostle through their unique facial expressions, gestures, and postures, highlighting his profound interest in human emotion and behavior.

Da Vinci needed time to work on the Last Supper, which fresco painting doesn't permit. In fresco painting, tempera must be applied swiftly before the plaster dries, requiring the artist to work quickly and making changes difficult. Instead, da Vinci applied tempera to already dry plaster, allowing him to work slowly, develop the shading associated with the chiaroscuro of the mural, and make necessary adjustments over time. He achieved this by coating the wall with a material that absorbs the oil paint and shields it from moisture. While this method allowed him to paint as he wished, the paint began to detach from the base coat as early as 1517, just two decades after he began. Consequently, da Vinci's Last Supper has been more affected by changes in temperature, moisture, and humidity than most frescoes.

Leonardo da Vinci’s Last Supper is particularly notable for the perspective the great artist effectively used. Every element in the painting directs attention to Christ’s head, positioned at the center of the composition. Da Vinci achieved this by driving a nail into the wall at Jesus’ temple, the painting's focal point. From the nail, he extended string in various directions to help him visualize the room’s perspective and paint the other elements in a way that led the eye back to Christ.

The downside of this arrangement was that it forced da Vinci to depict some disciples somewhat ungratefully from behind, contrary to Leonardo’s desire for expressive characterization of each of the twelve Apostles. However, a circular table would not have allowed for adequate exploitation of the scene's dramatic element.

As an engineer and inventor, Leonardo was renowned for incorporating math into all his works, including his paintings. Da Vinci’s contemporary, Luca Pacioli, once stated in De Divina Proportione (On the Divine Proportion), “Without mathematics there is no art.” In fact, da Vinci provided the illustrations for that book. Da Vinci’s drawings demonstrate that most bodily proportions use the Golden Ratio, a mathematical method for determining artistic proportion. Besides the Golden Ratio, many believe there is mathematical symbolism in the Last Supper as well.

The monastery of Santa Maria delle Grazie was bombed in 1943, but fortunately, the painting was protected by a wall of sandbags. Extensive restoration led by Pinin Brambilla Barcilon from 1978 to 1999 aimed to recover the original colors and details by removing grime and previous restorations, but also faced criticism for altering the work's appearance.