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The Church and Convent of Santa Maria delle Grazie, the home of Leonardo's Last Supper, has been listed as part of UNESCO's Worldwide Heritage since 1980 and is an exceptional masterpiece of human creativity and genius.
Bramante's complex and architecture in the church and the Leonardo's Last Supper in the Refectory are symbolic of Milan's Humanistic and Renaissance past, constituting a great opus whose spatial and compositive definition announced a new era in the history of art.
The Last Supper was painted in the ambit of the extensive artistic and cultural revival that from 1490 involved Milan, under the patronage of Ludovico Sforza - "il Moro". The Convent of Santa Maria delle Grazie was fully involved and in 1495, when Donato Montorfano was completing his Crucifixion for the Refectory, Leonardo was commissioned by the Duke to decorate the facing wall with a Last Supper. The commission is documented by the coats of arms that appear within plant garlands in the four lunettes above the "Supper" and are a reminder of the names of Ludovico, Beatrice and their children.
The Last Supper was quite slow in evolving despite the urgings of Ludovico Sforza and the prior. It actually took Leonardo about four years (1494-1498) with the dry or tempera technique he had decided to use, as if it had been a great tablet (4.60x8.80m). First of all he decided not to apply the consolidated fresco technique, which offered assurances for conservation, but was time-consuming to spread. What Leonardo required was the utmost freedom during the executive stage in order to correct, modify and achieve special color effects. Moreover, the fresco technique was irreconcilable with his bizarre temperament that led him to alternate periods of intense activity with others of total rest, as related by Matteo Bandello, who was a guest of the convent fathers and often saw Leonardo at work.
Although The Last Supper was a traditional theme used to decorate convent refectories, especially in Florence (memorable are those by Taddeo Gaddi, Beato Angelico, Andrea del Castagno and Ghirlandaio), Leonardo presented the subject in a completely innovative form. Not only did he make drastic modifications to the layout of the scene, but also the true novelty was the astounding realism with which he recounted this episode from the Gospels.