New Map of Milan!

The Last Supper

I am left speechless. How can I justifiably describe one of the greatest pieces ever made by Leonardo Da Vinci without missing something?  As we were walking through the city we took a turn and saw parts of the old city surrounded by modern buildings and architecture. It is something that will always amaze me how a building can tell such a strong story, especially in ancient cities.

The Last Supper, was created from 1495-1498 on an entire wall of the refectory room or dining room in the Covent of Santa Maria delle Grazie which was requested to be painted from the Duke of Milan, Ludovico Sforza. Once we entered the monestary, we had to move from a litte holding area to another holding area until the automatic doors opened into the sacred room. I looked ahead and didn’t see anything,  I was looking for a framed painting like the Mona Lisa. I looked to the right and I found it. All 15X 29 feet of it! It takes up the entire side of the wall!  This is an experience that everyone must have in Milan, the intial feeling when I first saw it, is priceless and irreplaceable! The piece was so large that when I walked to the panel, I had to tilt my head. Each expression was easily visible, the body language of each disciple were all identifiable emotions. The Last Supper depicts the evening before Christ was betrayed by one of his disciples, (Judas) where Christ gathered them together to eat, tell them he knew what was coming and wash their feet (a gesture symbolizing that all were equal under the eyes of the Lord). As they ate and drank together, Christ gave the disciples explicit instructions on how to eat and drink in the future, in remembrance of him. Just what Christian’s and Catholics do at church when receiving bread and drinking the wine.  Feet were visible under the table and twelve different reactions to the news different degrees of horror, shock and anger was brushed by Leonardo Da Vinci.

Closer image of The Last Supper

Leonardo Da Vinci
The Last Supper

Jesus 

Three Disciples

Leonardo Da Vinci, being the natural inventor that he is, decided to use dry plaster on whirl, instead of using tempera on wet plaster causing it too gradually flake off over the centuries causing people to continually attempt to restore it ever since.  His innovation and trying to create a new way of painting can be related to the ways designers try and create new fabrics, patterns or cuts for a season. It may work or may not work but the creativity and the belief is there. In my Apparel Analysis class we had to create our own garment from scratch and had no rules. The first reaction was shock because I had absolutely no idea what to do but through each step I started to create a dress that I had no clue how it would look until the end. I had to make something completely new and believe in it even if I didn’t know what the end piece would look like.

Later that night, I had another last supper but this time it was with everyone form the program. The night was filled with loud, long and crazy laughs, tears but it was all from talking about all of the memories and relationships we’ve made along the way. This program has reassured my innate aspiration for fashion. I was able to eye witness numerous areas of the industry by going to industry visits, understood the Milanese culture to the best of my ability and can now bring all that I was exposed to, trained to analyze and observe and translate it into my career.