A Visit to “The Last Supper” in Milan, and Italy’s Still Italy

Greetings from Milan. I’m not beyond doing things on impulse, but it’s very, very rare. I haven’t been to the Biennale in Venice yet. It closes in late November, but in the spirit of carpe diem I used miles to get a free flight — only $54 in taxes — and got to Milan on Thursday morning.

I can go on adrenaline for a long time so visited The Last Supper. Leonardo da Vinci’s (1452–1519) slow-motion movie of a wall mural, painted between 1495 and 1498, is in the old refectory — the dining hall — of Santa Maria delle Grazie, still a church and home to a dozen monks but then a Dominican convent. Topping the church is an impressive dome designed by Bramante, from Urbino and the visionary who designed the Tempietto in Rome and introduced Raphael to Pope Julius II.

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Brian T. Allen

Brian T. Allen is National Review’s art critic.

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Greetings from Milan. I’m not beyond doing things on impulse, but it’s very, very rare. I haven’t been to the Biennale in Venice yet. It closes in late November, but in the spirit of carpe diem I used miles to get a free flight — only $54 in taxes — and got to Milan on Thursday morning.

I can go on adrenaline for a long time so visited The Last Supper. Leonardo da Vinci’s (1452–1519) slow-motion movie of a wall mural, painted between 1495 and 1498, is in the old refectory — the dining hall — of Santa Maria delle Grazie, still a church and home to a dozen monks but then a Dominican convent. Topping the church is an impressive dome designed by Bramante, from Urbino and the visionary who designed the Tempietto in Rome and introduced Raphael to Pope Julius II.