The Last Supper Vinciano-and more!
Those visiting the Milanese capital for the first time can hardly miss the Da Vinci’s Last Supper among the major works of art visible in Milan. The Last Supper painted by Leonardo da Vinci, a masterpiece of Western art history and a cornerstone of the Italian Renaissance, is, however, only one of the many treasures kept in the city, in cultural sites and museums that have nothing to envy to other Italian and European centers in terms of richness of works of art and variety of collections… in short, a weekend in Milan dedicated to a full immersion among great masterpieces is not only possible, but a must!
The Cenacolo Vinciano, listed in the heritage of theUNESCO since 1980 along with the Santa Maria delle Grazie complex at which it is preserved, certainly owes its fame to the name of the artist who created it, decorating roughly between 1495 and 1497 the north wall of the refectory of the Dominican convent. The mural painting recounts the incredible artistic parabola of Leonardo da Vinci at the Sforza court and also reveals to the modern visitor the genius of an unprecedented composition, capable of renewing the traditional iconography of theLast Supper and revolutionizing the perspective and narrative canons of the early Renaissance. The great masterpiece, executed by the Tuscan artist employing an experimental tempera-on-wall technique, shows on its surface severe traces of deterioration, signs of a complex, startifying and in its own way fascinating conservation history…
For fans of Leonardo andRenaissance art, however, the treasures to be discovered in the city are not limited to the Last Supper alone: within walking distance of the beautiful basilica of Santa Maria delle Grazie, other important works, by Leonardo and others, are preserved in Milan at the Brera Picture Gallery, the Pinacoteca Ambrosiana or the Sforza Castle. Here, in the majestic fortress where Leonardo da Vinci himself worked for Duke Ludovico il Moro on the decoration of the Sala delle Asse, another celebrated masterpiece of Italian art is housed, not to be missed on a visit to Milan. It is the Pietà Rondanini sculpted in Rome by a now elderly Michelangelo Buonarroti, purchased by the City of Milan in 1952 and since 2015 moved from the famous Sala degli Scarlioni to find a home in the new Pieta Museum, set up by architect Michele De Lucchi at the Ospedale degli Spagnoli in the Castle.
The treasures of Milan’s picture galleries: where to admire major works of art in Milan
Continuing an all-Milan journey through art, history and beauty, another must-see stop is the city’s two most important picture galleries, the Pinacoteca di Brera and the Pinacoteca Ambrosiana. Both hold many of the major works of art in Milan, canvases and painted panels famous throughout the world for the iconic images they represent or for the undoubted fame of the artists to whom their creation and history is linked. Admiring the masterpieces collected in the two Milan collections is truly equivalent to “leafing through” an art history book, no less than at the National Gallery in London, the Louvre in Paris or the Metropolitan in New York!
To name but a few, in the renovated halls of the Brera Picture Gallery you can come across Andrea Mantegna’s majestic Dead Christ, Piero delle Francesca‘s harmonious Montefeltro Altarpiece, Raphael Sanzio’s sentimental Marriage of the Virgin or Caravaggio‘s far more dramatic Supper at Emmaus… not to mention the rich collection of paintings ofLombard art, from the 15th century onward, channeled from the early 19th century into the nascent Milanese picture gallery, an institution formed in the midst of the Napoleonic climate. Among the museum’s icons is the Kiss by Francesco Hayez, the artistic manifesto of Italian Romanticism and today a favorite work of art for couples in love walking hand in hand among the works in the Braidense collection: known in three versions, Hayez ‘s painting is perhaps among the most beloved and photographed works in the picture gallery today.
La Pinacoteca Ambrosiana, which grew out of Federico Borromeo ‘s 17th-century collection in the shadow of the Biblioteca Ambrosiana, is worth a visit for three main masterpieces alone: Caravaggio’s splendid Basket of Fruit; Raphael’s cartoon of the School of Athens, preparatory for the fresco of the same name in the Vatican Stanze; and, finally, Leonardo da Vinci’sMusico, one of the few portraits of the Tuscan master that has survived to us along with the Lady with an Ermine from Krakow, the Mona Lisa and the Belle Ferroniére from the Louvre Museum. The Biblioteca Ambrosiana, in its immense collection of graphic and book materials, also preserves the famous Codex Atlanticus by Leonardo da Vinci. To date, the Codex Atlanticus is the largest collection of Leonardo’s drawings, notes and writings, reflecting the many artistic and scientific interests cultivated by the Tuscan genius throughout his entire existence and, in a special way, also during the years of his stay in Milan at the Sforza court .
The main works of contemporary art in Milan
If the Renaissance and the art of the so-called “old masters” seem to dominate the Milanese museum collections mentioned so far, important twentieth-century and contemporary works make a fine showing at other cultural sites in the city. Respectively displayed at the GAM and at the Museum of the Twentieth Century, Pellizza da Volpedo’sFourth Estate and Boccioni ‘s sculpture Unique Forms of Continuity in Space-an icon of the 20 cents coined in Italy and a symbol of the avant-garde of the Futurists. It is precisely to the Futurist movement that an entire section of the museum is dedicated, recently renovated and an exhibition venue for numerous masterpieces by the main protagonists of the current: not only Boccioni, but also Giacomo Balla or Carlo Carrà.
Finally, if you are a lover of site-specific contemporary art installations, it may be worth moving from the historic center to two exceptional exhibition hubs in Milan to admire the major works of art: Pirelli Hangar Bicocca and Fondazione Prada. German artist Anselm Kiefer ‘s Seven Heavenly Palaces in Hangar Bicocca consists of seven imposing concrete and lead towers, symbolic allusions to the tradition of the Jewish religion and the destruction of World War II, well placed in the Hangar’s spaces. L’Haunted House by Prada Foundation on the other hand, is installed in one of the buildings belonging to the old distillery in which the foundation is now based: made unmistakable by a precious gold leaf covering, the small building has been preserved in its original structure to house, in the intimacy of its small rooms, the evocative creations of the two artists Robert Gober and Louise Bourgeois.
