The Last Supper

A couple of weeks ago I saw The Last Supper by da Vinci, which sits inside the refectory (dining hall) of the Santa Maria delle Grazie in Milan.

The painting has gone through hell in the last 500 years and so is now extremely fragile. da Vinci didn't use the usual fresco technique of painting on wet plaster because he wanted time to contemplate the piece (it took 5 years to complete). Due to this, the painting started to flake and crack with the wall even during his lifetime. The painting got so dark that it was not recognisable and at this time, the stupid monks cut off Jesus's feet when they made the doorway under the painting taller. Several restoration attempts in the 1700s made the situation worse. Subsequently it was used as an armory, a barn and a prison. A few more restoration attempts were done in the early 1900s before the refectory was struck by a bomb in WWII. Finally, in 1977, Pinin Brambilla Barcilon began a 22 year restoration to bring it to its current state. She cleaned the whole painting and then used watercolour to touch up parts of it.

They have a whole bunch of 'airlocks' on the way in and on the way out to help protect it. Only 25 people are allowed in at any one time and only for 15 minutes. The hall is quite long with The Last Supper on one end and the crucifixion is on the other end (painted by Giovanni Donato da Montorfano), which, unfortunately, nobody looks at much.

There are a lot of details in the painting. Jesus's blue cloak represents the resurrection and the red robe represents death/blood. Peter's knife is to do with his reaction to Jesus's arrest. Judas's arm is knocking over salt, which represents his betrayal of Jesus. He also has a bag of money. There is a fish on the table, bread, glasses (no cup!) and there is an orange, which I think the guide said represents redemption. There are hooks on the tops of the tapestries in the background. Thomas's finger points up as it is referring to him doubting Jesus's resurrection and putting his finger in the holes. There is embroidery on the tablecloth. Jesus's robe was painted with 70% lapis lazuli, the really expensive blue paint whereas Judas's robe was painted using cheaper copper based blue.
The painting has light coming from the windows in the background but also from the left side as you face it. This is so that it looks like the painting is part of the room as there used to be windows to the left of the painting and natural sunlight would shine on it.

The guide was an art historian. She said, contrary to what Da Vinci Code says, John is on Jesus's right side. :) He's supposed to be 16, which is why he looks like a girl. She got a bit pissed off later when some of the tourists asked why people knew it wasn't a woman. I can't believe people have been so influenced by one book (a work of fiction, no less!). Where do people think that John went if that really was Mary?

In other news, I went to Dr Johnson's House yesterday. This was the house that Samuel Johnson lived in while he produced the dictionary. I don't recommend a visit. There were only 2 redeeming features of the house that almost made the £4.50 entry fee worth it.

The house is symmetrical with a staircase in the middle, a big landing on each floor and 2 rooms on either side of the landing. On the first floor, there are 2 walls on hinges, with 2 doors built into each of them. These 2 walls can be swung into position to make 2 rooms and the landing or can be swung back to create one big room. The doors in one wall then match the stairs from the ground floor and the stairs leading to the second floor. The other wall then shuts in a tiny little alcove at the window. Cool feature no. 1. I might put something like that in my house.

Cool feature no. 2: the front door. It is no longer used (you come in through a door at the side of the house). There are spikes across the glass above the door to prevent thieves from boosting little children in, a la Oliver. Then, there is the chain. It is enormous. It swings right across the door with each chain link about 5cm wide and 10cm long. The end is latched onto a big corkscrew. The reason for the corkscrew is so that thieves can't lower a hook to pull the chain off; you need the dexterity of 2 hands to release the chain.