Leonardo and Milan's Santa Maria delle Grazie
Unraveling the Code in Da Vinci's Last Supper
When the film version of Dan Brown’s The Da Vinci Code opened in 2006, there was a huge rush to visit places that played roles in the novel. Organized tours to Paris that highlight places like the Louvre and the Church of St. Sulpice were organized, and travelers began taking a second look at other historical landmarks in the film, like London’s Westminster Abbey, the twelfth century Temple Church, built by the Knights Templar, and Rosslyn Church in Scotland, all of which make cameo appearances.
While people have been trying to unravel the secret behind Mona Lisa’s smile for centuries (the likeness appears on both the cover of the novel and in trailers for the film), they must take a look at Da Vinci’s other masterpiece, The Last Supper.
Secret Message in Da Vinci Code?
Since more than 25 million people have read Brown’s 2003 novel, it’s hardly a secret that it hinges on the life of Jesus Christ and the theory that he was married to Mary Magdalene and fathered a daughter, whose bloodline survived into present-day Europe.
Although Brown’s foreword claims that “all descriptions of artwork, architecture, documents, and secret rituals are accurate,” reader have been desperate for a more directed view of the painting in which Brown implies that the androgynous person seated next to Jesus—who could either be female, or a young, beardless, and rather effeminate looking male—was indeed Mary Magdalene, and not St. John, as art and religious historians have generally claimed.
The painting illustrates one of the most highly intense emotional moments from the New Testament with an unprecedented physiognomic approach and luminous outcome. While The Last Supper is a typical subject chosen for the decoration of many refectories, Da Vinci chose to capture the moment immediately after Christ's announcement that one of his apostles would betray him. In that instant, the apostles look at one another in astonishment as Peter tells John, seated at Christ's right hand, to ask him to whom he refers.
Convent of Santa Maria delle Grazie
The refectory of the fifteenth century Church and Dominican Convent of Santa Maria delle Grazie (Piazza Santa Marie delle Grazie), which is a typical example of late Gothic Lombard art, is where you can view The Last Supper. Count Ludovico Sforza (“Il Moro”) chose the site for Da Vinci’s painting after he decided to make the church his family mausoleum.
Sforza concentrated all his attentions on it and called to his court the greatest artists to decorate it, including Bramante, Cristoforo Solari, and Donato Montorfano. While the latter was completing his Crucifixion for the southern wall of the refectory, Da Vinci was commissioned to decorate the facing wall with a "last supper."
Last Supper Housed in Il Cenacolo
Da Vinci actually produced fewer than ten works of art while living in Milan, one of which was what Italians call Il Cenacolo. While the religious nature of The Last Supper is not an unusual subject for Renaissance art, its technique was. Painted between 1494 and 1498, Da Vinci abandoned the traditional method of fresco painting and depicted the scene a secco (tempera on a gesso base instead of the usual buon fresco method) as a mural on the wall of the refectory, as if it had been a great tablet.
He aimed to get the same flexibility that oil paints allowed by painting directly on to dry plaster and by using a method similar to tempera painting on panel. And while the immediate result was satisfying, it proved a fleeting success. Upon completion, it appeared that this technique, along with environmental factors, contributed to the eventual deterioration of the fresco, which has undergone numerous restorations.
Restorations of The Last Supper
The biggest one took place in 1977, and the most recent one in 1999 employed various scientific methods to restore the original colors. Wherever possible, traces of paint applied from previous restoration attempts were removed. The last one succeeded in recuperating original parts of the painting, so while the fresco on the whole is fragmentary, it is finally possible to grasp its true beauty.
Viewing of The Last Supper
Extensive measures—including a sophisticated air filtering system—have been implemented to protect the fresco from further exposure from dust, vapors, and moisture. The refectory is kept at constant room temperature, and visitor viewing is restricted to groups of 25 people, who are only admitted at 15 minute intervals.
After even a brief viewing time and much concentration on the figure at Christ’s right hand, many observers are completely taken in by Brown’s theory. Art critics of the painting, however, are not so easily convinced. According to one, “The Mary Magdalene notion makes a great novel, but not much of a study in art history.” Anyone who visits Milan should definitely see for themselves.
Advance booking is essential, although sightseeing bus tours include Il Cenacolo as a stop. Reservations can be made online. Read more on travel to Milan.
Last Supper is Housed in Santa Maria delle Grazie
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