HISTORY OF LEONARDO'S LAST SUPPER




Maria delle Grazie

 

     Leonardo da Vinci painted the LAST SUPPER in the refectory, (or dining room) of the MARIA DELLE GRAZIE, (Holy Mary of Grace) in Milan, Italy.  It was a church and Dominican monastery ordered by Duke Francesco Sforza.

1469 - The building was completed.  The main architect was Guiniforte Solari.

1490 - Completion of the cloister and aspe. It was ordered by Duke Ludovico Sforza, who commanded the building to be the ducal church and family mausoleum.

                                                  Duke Lodovico Sforza
1495- Leonardo da Vinci was commissioned to paint the LAST SUPPER.

1497- Lodovico's young wife, Beatrice de' Este was buried there.

Beatrice de Este

Marble tomb of Lodovico Sforza and Beatrice de Este

                                                                           
1498- Leonardo completed the LAST SUPPER and it was unveiled.

1499- The French invaded Milan.  The Maria delle Grazie was flooded.  

1517 - The damp environment caused the mural to begin to deteriorate.

1556- Georgio Vasari, the great renaissance painter and art historian recorded that it was "ruined."

1652- the monks cut a doorway in the bottom center of the mural to access the adjacent room.  In doing so they removed the feet of the three central figures.

1726- Michelangelo Bellotti filled in missing parts with oil paint and varnished the surface.

1768- the monks hung a curtain over the mural to protect it.  However, it only trapped moisture behind it and caused more damage.  Also, when the monks pulled back the curtain, it scraped off more loose flakes of paint.

1770- Girtseppe Mazza stripped off Bellotti's work and repainted all but three faces before his work was halted due to public outrage.

1776- Napolean's troops used the refectory for a stable and armory.  They also used it for a make-shift prison.  At one point, drunken soldiers threw rocks at the mural and scaled ladders to scratch out the apostle's eyes.

1821- Stefano Barezzi tried to remove the mural from the wall and badly damaged the center section.  When he saw he couldn't remove it he tried to stablize it with glue.

1901- 1908- Luigi Cavenaughi attempted to clean it.

1924- Oreste Silvertri did further cleaning.

1943- The MARIA DELLE GRAZIE was hit by allied bombs blowing off the roof and the right wall of the refectory.  Although the wall containing the mural was sand bagged, the top portion of the mural above the lunettes crumbled. The building was rebuilt after the war and the missing parts of the painting are merely covered with house paint.

1951- 1954- Maurio Pelliccioli cleaned the mural and stablized it.

1978-1999- Dr. Pinin Brambillia Barcilon undertook a major 20 year restoration.  The windows were bricked up and a controlled atmosphere was created.  She removed all paint that was not by Leonardo and painted in blank areas with water color.

      The LAST SUPPER is now a faint image of Leonardo's original.  For that reason, I was compelled to undertake the  project of re-creating it to what I believe it looked like in brilliant color and exquisite detail, before it began to ruin.


     Here is another beautiful view of the Maria delle Grazie (Holy Mother of Grace.)

Sharron Connelly