At the convent of Leonardo’s ‘Last Supper,’ Dominican friars still live, pray, and welcome visitors
The Rev. Paolo Venturelli never gets too close when he visits Leonardo da Vinci’s “The Last Supper.” The Dominican friar prefers to stand away from the wall where it was painted, on the opposite side of the room once used by members of his order for meals.
“From there, the painting looks as though it were painted in the middle of the refectory,” said Venturelli of the masterpiece depicting the Gospel story of Jesus’ final meal with his apostles. “It unleashes all kinds of human and spiritual reactions.”
He lives in Santa Maria delle Grazie, a convent and basilica in Milan where Leonardo worked in the 1490s at the request of Ludovico Sforza, then ruler of the city.
“The Last Supper,” which illustrates the biblical account of Jesus announcing that one of his apostles will betray him, is located in the convent’s original refectory. Such rooms still serve as dining spaces where monastic communities gather for food, prayer, and reading. Yet at Santa Maria delle Grazie it is no longer part of the friars’ daily life.
Today it is known as the Cenacolo Vinciano and is managed by Italy’s Regional Directorate of Museums of Lombardy.
Living beside “The Last Supper”
A dozen priests and nine novices make up Santa Maria delle Grazie’s current Dominican community. Dressed in the iconic white robes associated with their order—or brown hooded capes in winter—friars are regularly seen walking inside the basilica.
Not all tourists visiting the Cenacolo make a stop at its adjacent church. But among those who do, some look at Venturelli and the other friars with curiosity.
“We just came from the cloister and saw one of the friars taking care of the garden,” said Maria Teresa Bruzzi, who traveled from Genoa with her husband in mid-February.
According to Venturelli, visitors to the sanctuary are often blown away by its architecture.
Tickets for the Cenacolo are often sold out and the museum is closed on Mondays, preventing last-minute visitors to Milan from seeing the painting. The basilica, in contrast, opens daily and welcomes those wishing to attend Mass or go to confession.
“Confessions are very much sought after, and we maintain this service for the citizens of Milan but also for all visitors,” said the Rev. Llewellyn Muscat, prior of the Dominican community at Santa Maria delle Grazie.
Venturelli offers confessions to Italian-language speakers. Muscat can support those speaking English, Italian, and Maltese, his mother tongue. And while other friars offer their services in French and German, the prior said they all make an effort to understand everyone.
A life of study and prayer
Dominicans arrived at Santa Maria delle Grazie as the complex was being built in the 15th century. However, the order had established an earlier presence in Milan.
Their intellectual legacy is evident inside the convent itself. A few steps away from the steady flow of tourists, dozens of shelves filled with books stand in the halls.
“Reading is part of our identity,” Muscat said.
A bond beyond art
The fact that Leonardo was commissioned to paint “The Last Supper” inside a Dominican convent was no accident. Venturelli said most of his order’s refectories have this scene depicted on their walls. And according to Muscat, it echoes Dominican principles.
“For us, it does not awaken an emotion about something that belongs to the past,” he said. “It is like a continuation in which we eat together with Jesus and his apostles, as though his words are also spoken to us.”
Muscat, like any other visitor who stands in front of Leonardo’s mural, feels deeply moved by it.
“‘The Last Supper’ is a call to my personal conscience and a call to the conscience of the order,” Muscat said. “Because here in the Grazie there are no individuals, but a community that works and welcomes.”
