Museum
Leonardo’s Last Supper
Milan · Lombardy
QUICK INFORMATION
- CATEGORY
- Museum
- COUNTRY
- Italy
- REGION
- Milan · Lombardy
- DURATION
- 1–2 days
ABOUT THIS ATTRACTION
Leonardo’s Last Supper is the wall painting in the refectory of the Dominican convent of Santa Maria delle Grazie, painted by Leonardo da Vinci between 1495 and 1498 for Duke Ludovico Sforza. It shows the moment Christ announces that one of the apostles will betray him, and the wave of reaction that runs through the twelve figures grouped in threes along the table. Leonardo painted it in tempera and oil on dry plaster rather than true fresco, which let him work slowly and revise but doomed the painting to flake almost from the start; after centuries of restoration, only fragments of his surface survive, and the work has been through a 20-year restoration that ended in 1999. It is nonetheless one of the most influential images in Western art, and one of the most tightly controlled visits in Italy.
HISTORY & BACKGROUND
The story behind it
Ludovico Sforza, Duke of Milan, commissioned Leonardo to paint the refectory wall of the convent he had chosen as his family’s mausoleum, around 1495. Leonardo worked slowly, experimenting with a technique of his own — tempera and oil on two layers of gesso on dry plaster — that allowed him to retouch and shade as he could not in true fresco. The result was beautiful but unstable: the paint began to flake within decades, and the wall survived a 1652 door cut through Christ’s feet, a Napoleonic stable, an Allied bombing in 1943 that left it standing in a ruined building, and a series of restorations before the definitive 1977–1999 treatment that stripped away all later overpainting to reveal what remains of Leonardo’s hand.
WHAT TO SEE
What to see here
The composition — Christ at the centre, calm, as the twelve apostles react in groups of three to his words of betrayal.
The perspective — the vanishing point at Christ’s temple, the room receding to windows that frame his head.
The convent of Santa Maria delle Grazie — the church beside the refectory, with its Bramante tribune, itself a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
The condition — the faintness of the surviving paint, a reminder of the painting’s near-loss and the fragility of Leonardo’s experimental technique.
WHY IT MATTERS
Why it matters
The Last Supper is the painting that fixed the image of the scene in the Western imagination, and the one that most clearly shows Leonardo’s thinking about human reaction — the psychology of twelve individuals responding to a single sentence. Its near-destruction and the long fight to save it are part of its meaning now: what you see is a ghost of what Leonardo painted, recovered by patient restoration, and that fragility is part of why access is so restricted.
PRACTICAL INFORMATION
Before you go
MAP & LOCATION
Leonardo’s Last Supper
Leonardo’s Last Supper, Milan, Lombardy, Italy
45.4661, 9.1716
MORE ATTRACTIONS
More to see in Milan
THINGS TO DO
Things to do nearby
FOOD & DRINK
Where to eat nearby
Trattoria Milanese — a historic trattoria for the classic risotto alla Milanese and ossobuco, since 1933
Marchesi 1824 — one of Milan’s oldest pasticcerie, for breakfast pastries and coffee in the Brera quarter
Ristorante Cracco — Carlo Cracco’s celebrated modern Milanese restaurant in the Galleria, book well ahead
Luini — the famous panzerotto fry-shop near the Duomo, a Milanese street-food institution since 1888
Trattoria del Nuovo Macello — a buzzy modern trattoria near Porta Romana, honest cooking and a great wine list
HOTELS & STAYS
Where to stay nearby
Bulgari Hotel Milano — a luxury hotel in a quiet quarter near La Scala, with a garden and a spa
Armani Hotel Milano — Giorgio Armani’s design hotel in the fashion quadrilateral, with a rooftop restaurant
Hotel Spadari al Duomo — a design hotel a short walk from the Duomo, good value for a central base
Room Mate Giulia — a stylish hotel beside the Duomo, designed by Patricia Urquiola
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