Leonardo da Vinci
Leonardo da Vinci embodied the Renaissance man. He was a painter, sculptor, architect, musician, writer, engineer, inventor… the list goes on. Some of his images remain our most iconic even today: Mona Lisa, The Last Supper, Vitruvian Man. Although born just outside Florence in the town of Vinci and trained in a studio in Florence, he spent his early working life in Milan, under the patronage of Ludovico Sforza, Duke of Milan, from 1482-1499.
It was during this time that he painted The Last Supper in the dining hall of the monastery of Santa Maria delle Grazie, at that time intended to be the Sforza family mausoleum. This huge painting is reason enough to visit Milan. Leonardo completed only fifteen paintings because his active mind tended to jump from project to project. He also had a tendency for experimentation that meant many of his paintings did not last well.
In The Last Supper he did not use traditional wall fresco techniques and experimented with mixing his paints, hence the deterioration we see in the painting today had begun only a few years after Leonardo finished it. To protect the painting there are now strict controls on the number of people allowed in the hall at one time and it’s necessary to pass through glass doors and dehumidifying chambers on the way in: the engineering mind of Leonardo would have loved it. There are also two permanent exhibitions of Leonardo’s more technical work in Milan at the Museo d’Arte e Scienza, "Treatise on Painting" and "Leonardo: Citizen of Milan."
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A great guided tour. Wish we would have known we were looking for a BUS rather than a building at the meeting point. We thought we were supposed to meet at the travel agency and it was a bus parked at the intersection. We found it in time. The tour was informative and enjoyable. The radios and headsets worked good enough. We could have used maybe 10 minutes more free time after seeing the Last Supper.....but we had a great time anyway! Incredible history! Still can't believe i was in the presence of a MASTERPIECE! Surreal...
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Excellent guide, very knowledgeable and informative ... made great sense. Would recommend.
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Very informative. Guide kept our interest with things we never heard of or considered. The tour kept moving to see many things in the city that helped us decide what to see on our own the following days.
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3 Days in Milan: Suggested Itineraries Written by Viator
3 Days in Milan: Suggested Itineraries Written by Viator
Leonardo da Vinci Written by Viator
