Santa Maria delle Grazie

The story begins on September 10, 1463, with a ground-breaking ceremony.

Or maybe even a little earlier that same year, when one Gaspare Vimercati, a captain in Francesco Sforza’s army, donated a plot of land outside the walls of the city of Milan, Italy, to the Dominican order of monks. The land contained a chapel with a fresco of the Virgin Mary, known as the Madonna delle Grazie. The monks decided to use the land to build themselves a monastery, and commissioned Guiniforte Soalri, a leading architect of that time, to do so. It was on September 10 that the ground was broken for the project, which, centuries later, the UNESCO was to proclaim a world heritage site.

The Santa Maria delle Grazie complex, including the church and the adjacent monastery, is today protected by the world body not only for its architectural splendor, but also for a priceless jewel within its walls. Or rather, on its walls – the Last Supper or Il Cenacolo – that masterpiece by Leonardo da Vinci which ranks, along with the Mona Lisa, as his best-known work.

Solari combined simple yet elegant Tuscan architectural forms with ornate Lombard motifs, and built a church in the magnificent Gothic style, yet with enough touches of the Renaissance to show the shape of things to come.

The nave and aisles, the only remnants of the original layout, typify the Late Gothic Lombard art, for which Solari was renowned. The pointed arches in the nave are austerely Gothic, and there is a general feeling of spaciousness.

The actual work of construction began in 1466 and went on till 1490. When the church was almost ready, the new ruler of Milan, Duke Ludovico il Moro, also of the Sforza line, decided to turn it into a mausoleum for his family. The Duke invited the finest artistes of the region to turn his grandiose plan into reality.

Ludovico Sforza's plan was not destined to be completed. His wife Beatrice died suddenly in 1497 and was buried in the church. Two years later, the Sforza regime fell.

But before these unforeseen events, the presbytery and the apse were torn down, and, in 1492, Donato Bramante, Renaissance architect par excellence, began to restructure it. The apse, as Bramante designed it, is unusually high, and the tribune is a benchmark in Renaissance architecture.

The whole effect is one of grandeur, created by harmony and space. A double-column arcade girds the top of the dome and rectangular windows alternate with pilasters at the lower level. The inside of the tribune is richly decorated with elaborate motifs, setting off the austerity and simplicity of the geometric division of space. The circle, the square and the wheel are the only three shapes used, but they are employed in repetitive pattern to achieve maximum harmony.

While Bramante was entrusted with the task of reconstructing the church, the services of another genius were enlisted for a different purpose. He was the illegitimate son of a lawyer in the small town of Vinci in the region of Tuscany in Italy. There was nothing apparent in his genealogy to prepare the world for the dramatic impact he was to have on the life of men who came after him. A man of great physical beauty, he was also mathematician, scientist and engineer. He was blessed with a wonderful singing voice, an insatiable curiosity and an extraordinary talent in art. He was Leonardo da Vinci.

Leonardo spent a total of 18 years at the court of il Moro. The Duke, after enlarging the church, decided to expand the refectory of the monastery, and, as it was common practice to provide some work of art for the monks to contemplate while they had their meals largely in silence, in accordance with rules, il Moro commissioned Leonardo da Vinci to paint a mural on one of the walls.

Originally, the rectangular room was perfectly symmetrical, with 16 windows, eight per wall. Presumably, Leonardo was responsible for the rearrangement of the windows so that he could paint on the northern wall. He worked on the piece from 1494 to ‘98.

Appropriately enough, considering the location, the artist chose as his subject the most famous meal in the Bible, and set it at that specific moment which immediately followed Christ’s revelation to his disciples that there was a traitor among them. The background of the painting is a dining room, and Leonardo painted it in such a way that the monks at the Italian refectory could have imagined themselves as witnesses to that momentous occasion in Jerusalem.

The painting depicts a range of human emotions when faced with a dramatic revelation – shock, anger, consternation, they are all there. Some of the characters are easily identifiable; others are not so obvious. The controversial fictional work, the da Vinci Code, by Dan Brown, set off a wave of speculation about the identity of the figure on the right of Christ. Is it man or woman? John, or Mary Magdalene? The debate continues. Small and dark, Judas is easy to spot, reaching out for the bread, seemingly unconcerned. Christ Himself remains isolated in a cocoon of calmness.

Although the scene depicts a spontaneous moment of confusion, it is executed with mathematical precision. There is an unobtrusive use of groups of three -- in the windows, in the grouping of the figures and in their placement. Then again, the dynamics of the actual room are used cleverly to reinforce those of the artificial scene, standing testimony to the extraordinary skill of the artist. The eye is drawn irresistibly to the central figure in the drama – Jesus Christ.

The composition and the depiction of the subject were outstanding. But, unfortunately, the execution was not. Leonardo da Vinci chose to overlook the traditional fresco technique of dividing the wall into small squares and painting them rapidly, one at a time, while the plaster was still moist, so that paint and the plaster would dry together. He chose instead a technique similar to the one used to paint on canvas or wood. This experimental technique, relying on oil and egg tempera, allowed him to paint more than once over the same surface, so that he could retouch details. The result was exquisite in terms of the painting itself, but disastrous in terms of the passage of time. The pigment did not really meld with the dry gesso foundation. Add to this the ravages caused by nature and time -- the humidity of the room and the crack-prone fabric of the wall itself – and deterioration was a foregone conclusion Over the years, the colors faded, spotted and flaked off. Dust and grime gathered on the painting, and when the monks felt the need for an additional door, they decided to cut it right into da Vinci’s picture! The World War took its toll too – Santa Maria delle Grazie was severely damaged in bombing. The library and the cloister of the dead were destroyed, but the Last Supper was undamaged.

The painting was touched up time and again over the years, detracting from its merit as a da Vinci. Efforts to restore it ended in 1999. The most advanced scientific methods were employed to clean it and remove the traces of color that had been added on. Leonardo’s work now stands revealed in all its original luminosity.

Leondardo’s was not the only work of art to grace the refectory. Another artist, Donato Montorfano, was commissioned to paint on the facing wall, and he chose to depict the crucifixion. The two great scenes are linked by a painted frieze of garlands and quotations from the Bible.

Today the Santa Maria delle Grazie and its exquisite contents are considered extremely important examples of Renaissance Milan despite the havoc caused by time and war. The constraints of preserving this heritage site has necessitated the strict regulation of admission of visitors. Only groups of twenty can enter at a time, and they are allowed a maximum of only 15 minutes. The tour is booked out months in advance, so reservation is a must. The site is closed on Mondays, Christmas Day, New Year’s Day and May 1.

The visiting hours are: Tuesday to Sunday, 8 am to 7.30 pm.

The ticket counter closes 45 minutes before the first admission.

Audioguides are available in English, French, German, Spanish, Japanese and Italian, and are highly recommended.