Milan: The Ambrosian Library and Gallery

The Pinoteca Ambrosiana is Milan's best known art museum. It has works by a number of masters, but probably is most famous for the Codex Atlanticus, the largest collection of Leonardo's notebooks, held by the associated Biblioteca Ambrosiana. A few pages of it are on display, carefully preserved and guarded. We had visited the Ambrosiana in 2011, but it has been, what?--days!--since we were last in a museum, so I wanted to return. This on Sunday, April 28th.

Entrance to the Ambrosiana

Nice Botticelli tondo

Ditto Ghirlandiao

And a Pinturrichio

Rene Ssance, Death of St. Kermit

Detail

From 20 paces you'd swear this was a Leonardo, and you
wouldn't be far off: it's Bernardino Luini's Sacred Family
with St. Ann and St. John; Luini was a member of
Leonardo's inner circle, and his works were often attributed
to Mr. Smoky

One of the attractions of the Ambrosiana for me is this, the cartoon of Rafael's
great School of Athens, in the former papal apartments in the Vatican; in charcoal,
and, of course, the whole wall; brilliantly displayed with a small library of books
in the room to look at and help with the comparison between the plan and its
execution

Of course the big change is the addition of Michaelangelo as Heraclitus and
Rafael himself somewhere on the far right; Plato is played by Mr. Smoky himself

Another attraction of the Ambrosiana are several Brueghels, well, Jan Brueghels,
not the biggie Brueghels

Mr. Nice Guy Expulsion

Looking down into a reading room of the Biblioteca Ambrosiana; Vicki notes
the humongous card catalogs on the right

Moving right along, this is identified as a Madonna and
Bambino by the Master of San Miniato; San Miniato is/
was a monastery overlooking Florence, just above the
Michaelangelo Belvedere (look for scores of tour buses);
San Miniato himself was one of those early Christian
martyrs who was decapitated but who picked up his head
and walked off into the sunset...

Anyhow, as I look at her, I am thinking Simonetta and that this is a lost
Botticelli; it's of exactly the right age, later 1400s; think about it

In addition to all the artwork, the Ambrosiana has some nice interiors

Never miss an Avercamp winter scene, even if it's horribly lost in Milan

Courtyard

Now in the Biblioteca Ambrosiana

With its large exhibit of pages from Leonardo's notebooks; even his engineering
drawing are smoky, chiaroscuro

And, really by Leonardo, and not Luini, his Portrait of a Musician, oil on panel,
c. 1519

Interestingly, there's not all that much to the gift shoppe

Milan: The Assorted Scenes

Some assorted scenes from 3 days walking to the various Milan sights...

Fashion capital of Italy; central piazza

Pigeons showing no respect for King Victor Emmanuel

So if Dante had come to Milan, and if he had smoked
cigars (Toscanos?), this is what he would have looked like

Spring time, many beautiful tree-lined streets

In-town scene, the station where we transferred from the suburban light-rail to
the Milan metro: the red thing there is a Ferrari; we camped, as it were, at the
New Park Milano area sosta, two stops up the line, really only 3-4 miles from
the centro

Lots of attention-getting bigger buildings

We'd read there was some art nouveau in Milano and indeed saw some

Thus

One afternoon we just rode a street car for an hour or so to see some of the
everyday bits

Back downtown

Outside La Scala, which I toured in 2011

The house Verdi built

Famous municipal statue of Mr. Smoky

In the vast and beautiful Victor Emmanuel arcade...what fashion guys are wearing
in Milan 

After the Last Supper and the street-car ride, we walked over to the immense
15th century Sforza Castle

Immense but not very interesting

Helpful map...

At the Sforza, we thought we'd take in the Michaelangelo
pieta sculpture there, thus bagging both a Mr. Smoky and
a Mr. Twisty in a single day; but it was not to be: the free
viewings after 4:30 PM have been discontinued, and we
were not about to spend actual money to see a barely
worked on Mr. Twisty

Next day street market, mostly coins and stamps here

Another art nouveau; note grill-work: Guimard would have
been proud

Another biggie

Green condos

And Milan's tallest, the Unicredit building, mimicking, I think, the Burj Khalifa

New and old, fartsy and artsy

Milan: THE Last Supper

As is well known, Leonardo (Mr. Smokey (Signore Chiaroscuro)) moved around quite a bit, originally from near Pisa, learning his craft(s) in Florence, then working for whomever would pay, chiefly the nobility in Milan, and lastly, Francois Premier in France. He was good, no doubt, and multi-talented. In visual art, he experimented too much with materials and techniques (at this expense of his patrons), seldom finished anything, and left very little art to be judged by, considering his reputation among some ("that than which no greater can be conceived..."). Personally, I think he's the most over-rated of Renaissance artists, but still certainly worth a look, and his Last Supper was one of the main reasons we were in Milan. Vicki had wisely procured reservations way back in March, or even February, and so we were all set and amped up from our experience at Starbucks. (I confess that in these matters I have been heavily influenced by https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l9Aj7W3g1qo).

It's all in an adjunct to this church, way out in what would have been the burbs in
the early 16th century

In that building there, the rebuilt cenacle of the church (see Monuments Men
for some background); you'd think there would be hundreds outside hoping
for a ticket, but it's only the next group of reserved ticket-holders; only small
groups, 15-20 are allowed in at a time, and only for 15 minutes; sort of like
the Scrovegni Chapel; sort of

Well, partial timeline; there's a lot more to the story;
probably not a  molecule of what you see on the wall was
ever in the same room with Leonardo; Vasari saw it in
the 1560s and wrote that it was ruined beyond recognition;
another victim of Leonardo's experimentation with materials
and techniques; fortunately, good copies were made almost
as soon as the deterioration began; never mind the man you
see in the reflection

At last, we are in; it's not all that big, as Last Suppers go

Closer up; as you can see, someone once cut in a door-way, removing Our Lord's Feet

Extreme closer up; very difficult to do halos in chiaroscuro

Really a woman, Vicki says, citing a certain theory

Judas Bad Guy with the pointy beard and lean and hungry look

Helpful diagram #1,503

Painting at the other end of the room no one notices until they walk by it after
the guards begin shouting "time up, visit over, leave room, exit through gift
shoppe!"

Final Parthian shot; we both exited through the gift shoppe muttering that
Ghirlandaio's at the Oggnisanti was much better; in every way; but still glad
we finally got to see The Last Supper