Last Supper enshrined for 5 centuries
MILAN — In the heart of Milan, there is a gem local people sometimes call the “time machine”.
It is not a reference to any high-tech invention, as one may imagine, nor to any futuristic device. It is the Dominican Church and Convent of Santa Maria delle Grazie, lying in a small medieval square not far from the city center, where an ancient masterpiece has been enshrined and preserved for more than five centuries.
On the north wall of the convent’s refectory — protected behind a series of airtight doors — visitors can reach The Last Supper by Renaissance maestro Leonardo da Vinci.
This is the first and most relevant among Italy’s 48 cultural sites listed by UNESCO as World Heritage — included since 1980 — and one of the most famous paintings in the world.
One major goal of the experts managing the museum is to preserve The Last Supper from decay, considering that the painting — extremely fragile due to the technique used by Leonardo — started deteriorating a few years after being finished.
“In our display case (the refectory) — which somebody calls a time machine — air pollution is virtually absent, there is no fine dust,” said museum director Chiara Rostagno.
“Every day, we work in cooperation with eight universities in order to keep preserving it, and to try to pass this masterpiece to the next generation.”
Painted between 1494 and 1498, The Last Supper marked a “new era” in the history of art.
Wear and tear
Rostagno, 47, a conservation of architectural heritage and museology professor with the Politecnico University in Milan, said the painting is still in extraordinary condition, considering its great fragility.
“This is a proof of five centuries of efforts, because the first signs of wear and tear were documented in 1517,” she said.
Unlike previous paintings on this theme, Leonardo chose to represent the moment immediately after Jesus announces his betrayal by Judas.
Leonardo shows what happens immediately after Jesus says “One of you will betray me”. The painting is all about reactions of the apostles in hearing the unsettling words.
An average 470,000 people come to see The Last Supper every year and, in order to preserve it from pollution, each visitor must walk through the series of air-filtration chambers to let fine dust behind. Meanwhile, a massive flow of purified air is introduced in the refectory hall every hour.
Booking is mandatory, and visits are carried out in groups of no more than 25 people. Foreigners already represent some 50 to 70 percent of all visitors, depending on the period of the year, according to museum data.
Japan and South Korea are the top countries of origin in Asia, but Chinese are on the rise, although many of them are students and workers already living in Italy or elsewhere in Europe.