Milan Apartments: MARIA GRAZIE CHURCH        Budget Milan apartments

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SANTA MARIA DELLE GRAZIE CHURCH IN MILAN
 

The Church and Convent of Santa Maria delle Grazie were built between 1465 and 1482 to designs by Guiniforte Solari. The church's original architectonic layout, now only visible in the form of the nave and aisles, was a typical example of Late Gothic Lombard art of which Solari was a well-known exponent. The nave and two-aisle interior with side chapels was in line with the traditional composition although there are several innovative elements of clear Renaissance taste such as the columns that replace pilasters and the pictorial decoration of the nave itself. From 1490 onwards Ludovico Sforza, Lord of Milan, imposed important architectonic transformations as he had decided to make the church his family mausoleum. The Duke thus concentrated his attentions on Santa Maria delle Grazie and called to his court the greatest artists: Bramante was entrusted with building a new apse to replace Solari's presbytery, Leonardo was commissioned to paint the last Supper, whilst Cristoforo Solari was ordered to sculpt the cover of the sepulchre for Ludovico and his wife Beatrice, to be set in the center of the choir stalls. Ludovico Sforza's vast program, which also envisaged the replacement of the façade and part of the nave and aisles, was never concluded for the sudden death of Beatrice in 1497 and the fall of the Sforza regime in 1499 interrupted work, although the apse, the sacristy and the Last Supper appear to have been finished. Today they are still considered extremely important works and are significant examples of Renaissance Milan despite the transformation and damage caused by bombing on August 16, 1943, which destroyed the library and the cloister of the dead.

Despite the lack of documentation indicating the author of the design work for the opus, purely stylistic considerations lead experts and critics to speak of a Bramantesque structure. Many of the elements both inside and outside the apse, including the round arches and the rayed rosettes are the unmistakable trademarks of the Maestro of Urbino. The great space of the tribune, which seems even more extensive compared to the skimpiness of the nave and aisles, appears as a massive cube outlined by four full-center arch buttresses that support the cupola. The decoration has been given a most important role and it covers the entire Bramante structure: the fine chiaroscuro contrast achieved with the graffiti application creates pleasing and extremely refined color vibrations. The construction of this apse made it necessary to add other works in order to achieve a functional alignment of the convent complex. In fact, a new sacristy was added, as well as the small cloister in front - a square base structure cadenced by five inter-columns on each side, with Corinthian columns and cross vaults. These items are also attributed to Bramante.
 

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