Santa Maria delle Grazie & The Last Supper by da Vinci Site Features

You get fifteen minutes in the refectory. Deciding in advance what to look at is the difference between seeing the painting and photographing it.

• Stand back first. The perspective lines of the ceiling and the wall hangings converge on Christ’s right temple. The room was painted to extend the real refectory, and it only resolves from a distance — which is why the far end of the hall, not the front, is the place to begin.
• Then read the groups of three. The twelve apostles are arranged in four clusters, each reacting differently to the sentence just spoken. The picture is a moment of disturbance, not a meal.
• Look at the hands. Almost every figure is identified by what their hands are doing rather than by an attribute — Judas gripping a purse and recoiling, Peter’s knife turned awkwardly behind him.
• Find the blocked doorway. At the centre of the lower edge, where Christ’s feet were cut away in 1652.
• Turn around. Montorfano’s Crucifixion fills the wall behind you, is the same age, and is in far better condition. Most visitors leave without looking at it.

In the church, which costs nothing

The tribune under Bramante’s dome; the side chapels off Solari’s nave; and the Chiostro delle Rane, which is usually empty even when Corso Magenta is not.