If there is a second thing (besides the Duomo) that you just have to see while you're in Milan, it is the painting "The Last Supper" by Leonardo da Vinci.
WARNING: buy your tickets online two to three MONTHS in advance!! If you just stop by while you're there, the chance is practically zero that you'll be able to see it. The painting is located at the Santa Maria delle Grazie, shown above. See those benches around the trees? That is where you'll sit while you wait for your time slot in the room to start.
To get in, they will take a small group of guests (about 20, I would guess) as a group through doors that open Get-Smart style. This puts you into a sealed room where they have you wait for about 5 minutes before doors open on the other side of the room to let you into the dining hall. There, on the back wall, it is. The painting we've all seen reproduced a million times. The actual Last Supper. I don't even like the painting all that much, and I even stood there in awe! Leonardo was here. He painted that in 1495 through 1497. And I'm seeing it now. Deep stuff!
It must have been in every photo I've seen of it, but I did not notice until I was standing in the room...there is a freaking
DOOR cut into the painting! See it? That's right ladies and gentlemen, some fool cut a doorway into the painting in 1652.
But wait! There's more! In 1726, Michelangelo Bellotti tried to restore the painting by using oil paint over the original and covering the whole thing with varnish. In 1770, Guiseppe Mazza stripped on Bellotti's work and repainted it again. Public uproar caused this to be halted when all but three faces had been redone. In 1821, Stefano Barezzi attempted to remove the whole painting from the wall intact so it could be stored in a safer location. He badly damaged the center section before deciding that was not such a good idea.
From 1901 to 1908, Luigi Cavenaghi studied the painting very carefully then began cleaning it. By the 1920s, the painting had been stabilized, just in time for the 1940s and World War II when sandbags were piled around it for protection. Finally, from 1978 to 1999, the painting was once again restored because it had deteriorated so badly that it was almost unrecognizable. Areas that were not restorable were painted with muted watercolors to indicate they are not the original work, but instead a restored area. Even with this highly checkered past, I would recommend taking the time to see it. They time you - you can only be in the room 15 minutes so it can't eat up much of your day. Enjoy.
If there is a second thing (besides the Duomo) that you just have to see while you're in Milan, it is the painting "The Last Supper" by Leonardo da Vinci. WARNING: buy your tickets online two to three MONTHS in advance!! If you just stop by while you're there, the chance is practically zero that you'll be able to see it. The painting is located at the Santa Maria delle Grazie, shown above. See those benches around the trees? That is where you'll sit while you wait for your time slot in the room to start.
To get in, they will take a small group of guests (about 20, I would guess) as a group through doors that open Get-Smart style. This puts you into a sealed room where they have you wait for about 5 minutes before doors open on the other side of the room to let you into the dining hall. There, on the back wall, it is. The painting we've all seen reproduced a million times. The actual Last Supper. I don't even like the painting all that much, and I even stood there in awe! Leonardo was here. He painted that in 1495 through 1497. And I'm seeing it now. Deep stuff!
It must have been in every photo I've seen of it, but I did not notice until I was standing in the room...there is a freaking DOOR cut into the painting! See it? That's right ladies and gentlemen, some fool cut a doorway into the painting in 1652.
But wait! There's more! In 1726, Michelangelo Bellotti tried to restore the painting by using oil paint over the original and covering the whole thing with varnish. In 1770, Guiseppe Mazza stripped on Bellotti's work and repainted it again. Public uproar caused this to be halted when all but three faces had been redone. In 1821, Stefano Barezzi attempted to remove the whole painting from the wall intact so it could be stored in a safer location. He badly damaged the center section before deciding that was not such a good idea.
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