Milan: Last Supper Introduction & Skip-the-Line Entry Ticket

Admire one of the most famous paintings in the world. The timeless masterpiece by Leonardo Da Vinci, the Last Supper. Explore the inside part of Last Supper by yourself and benefit from having a host provide you an introduction from the outside of The Last Supper. Our charming & professional host will meet you in Piazza Santa Maria delle Grazie and will provide you the tickets with a brief explanation of The Last Supper from the outside. After that, you will explore by yourself this masterpiece, learning many surprising facts about the the composition, perspective and the technique used, as well as the history of the site. The painting was commissioned in 1495 and completed in 1497 on the dining room wall of this former Dominican monastery. The representation by Leonardo da Vinci depicted the moment immediately after Christ said, “One of you will betray me”. It is an enormous painting, 4,6mt high and 8,8mt long, realized with tempera and oil on a chalk preparation, different from the technique used at the time. The church of Santa Maria delle Grazie is only in 20 minutes walking distance from Piazza Duomo. The Last Supper is undisputedly one of the world’s masterpieces of painting. Its unique value, which over the centuries has had immense influence in the field of figurative art, is inseparable from the architectural complex in which it was created. This work has highly influenced not only the development of one iconographic theme, but also the entire development of painting. Heydenreich wrote about the “superdimension” of its painted bodies in relation to space. It is one of the first classic paintings that focuses on a precise and very short moment of time, instead of a long one. After five centuries, the Last Supper is one of most reproduced and copied paintings. Despite the damages that occurred during the Second World War, the complex has preserved both its original architectural structure and the internal relation between its components, including the famous fresco. The site was badly damaged by bombing in 1943, but subsequently completely restored and renovated. The Last Supper, which miraculously survived the Allied bombing, suffers from other conservation problems which are due, above all, to Leonardo’s experimental technique, and which have long been evident. One of the most important and difficult aspects of the conservation of the fresco is related to the pollution caused by the great number of visitors. Continual monitoring is performed to guarantee optimum atmospheric conditions inside the refectory and thus avoid the danger posed by air pollution and elevated visitor numbers. A sophisticated monitoring device ensures that the air composition and the light and humidity levels remain within the established limits. A limited number of visitors are admitted at any one time. UNESCO World Heritage since 1980.