Leonardo da Vinci’sThe Last Supperhas been one of the most august and well - know works of art in the world for more than five C . But during World War II , it almost became “ account ” in more than one sense of the word .
In August 1943 , Allied leaders bomb a phone number of Italian metropolis , including Milan . Many historical church service and construction contain piece of music by master artists were either destroyed or gravely damaged , including the Duomo , the Castello Sforzesco , the Teatro alla Scala , and Santa Maria delle Grazie .
The latter was the church where Leonardo had paintedThe Last Suppermural directly on one of the rampart in 1495 . On August 15 , a in high spirits - volatile turkey landed a mere80 feetaway from the wall painting . The edifice was nearly demolish : The ceiling caved in , the religious residence collapsed , and intact wall were blown out . you could see from the picture how much of the church was destroyed .
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Miraculously , the wall the mural was on was still standing when the dust clear . Hoping to protect Leonardo ’s work against just such an fire , officials had guard it with sandbag and scaffolding years before . The precaution was one many museum and churches across Italy had taken when warfare break out out — even sculptures such as Michelangelo’sDavidwereencasedin brick tugboat to protect them from bombs and shrapnel .
Because they did n’t want to expose the piece to the elements , Monuments Menand other official were ineffectual to assess the damage flop off . " Leonardo’sLast Suppermay be in ruin , " Monuments Man Deane Kellerwrotein 1944 . surprisingly , when the scaffolding was removed , da Vinci ’s chef-d’oeuvre was in comparatively good precondition .
It ’s in reality not the first timeThe Last Supperhas come tight to devastation . During the Napoleonic Wars , Napoleon ’s soldier bunked in Santa Maria della Grazie . When they got world-weary , they usedThe Last Supperfortarget practice , with Jesus ’s human face as the bullseye . They hit the mark at least a couple of time , but the mural has since been restored .
