The “Leonardo in Milan” tour is part of the “Milan and Leonardo” programme, a series of initiatives organised to celebrate the fifth centenary of the death of Leonardo da Vinci. Together with The Last Supper in Santa Maria delle Grazie and the Sala delle Asse in the Castello Sforzesco, the Ambrosiana has the most important legacy of works by Leonardo that remain in the city.
The itinerary can follow two paths. The first variant will include a visit to The Last Supper; the second will take in a visit to the Sala delle Asse in the Castello Sforzesco, exceptionally reopened to the public from 2 May 2019 to 12 January 2020. Both will only visit the section of the Ambrosiana Gallery devoted to Leonardo da Vinci.
VARIANT N. 1
The route starts from the refectory of Santa Maria delle Grazie, where Leonardo worked from 1495 to 1498 on his mural painting of the Last Supper, giving an exemplary testimony of his research into the “motions of the soul”.
Passing by the Vigna di Leonardo visitors will have the opportunity to observe the historical-artistic context of the Duchy of Milan, with particular regard to the figure of Ludovico il Moro. We continue in the direction of the 15th-century Palazzo Carmagnola, which in 1497 Ludovico il Moro gave to his mistress Cecilia Gallerani, immortalised by Leonardo in the famous portrait known as the Lady with an Ermine, one of the summits of Leonardo’s portraiture, together with La Belle Ferronnière and the Portrait of a Musician, in the Ambrosiana Gallery, where the itinerary continues.
The collections of the Pinacoteca Ambrosiana, in addition to possessing the famous male portrait probably of Leonardo’s musician friend Atalante Migliorotti, contains the Codex Atlanticus, donated to the Biblioteca Ambrosiana by Galeazzo Arconati in 1637.
The breadth of Leonardo’s interests documented in the drawings and notes contained in the Codex Atlanticus will offer individual opportunities for further study in the thematic exhibitions scheduled from December 2018 to January 2020: “The Mysteries of the Codex Atlanticus. Leonardo at the Ambrosiana” (December 2018 – March 2019 and March 2019 – June 2019); “Drawings of the Codex Atlanticus from the French Period” (June – September 2019) “Leonardo and his Legacy, Artists and Techniques” (December 2019 – January 2020).
The conclusion of the itinerary in Piazza della Scala, with the Leonardo Monument completed by Pietro Magni in 1872, will enable us to retrace briefly the history of the critical reception of Leonardo and his work. There was a resurgence of interest above all during the Risorgimento, as part of the exaltation of national glories intended to create a sense of unity.
At left, detail, Portrait of a Musician, Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519), 1485-1490, tempera and oil on panel, 40 × 30 cm; at right, Monument to Leonardo da Vinci, Pietro Magni (1816-1877), 1872, Piazza della Scala (Milan)
VARIANT N. 2
The itinerary proposes the same route as variant no.1, but replaces the entrance to the Last Supper with a visit to the Sala delle Asse in the Castello Sforzesco, reopened to the public from 2 May 2019.
The room decorated by Leonardo with interlacing branches, ribbons, fruits and roots, which reveal all his skill as a scientific painter, his studies of optics and botanical studies, is at the centre of two exhibitions presented in the same spaces in the Castle.
The multimedia path “Virtual Museum of the Leonardo’ Milan” will describe the places and monuments of Milan as they appeared to Leonardo’s eyes during his stays in the city, while the exhibition “Leonardo and the Sala delle Asse between Nature, Art and Science” will make a comparison between Leonardo’s original drawings and those of his contemporaries, in an important reflection on the artistic ties between the Tuscan master and Tuscan, Lombard and North-European artists in the representation of nature.
