Cenacolo di Sant'Apollonia: Castagno's Last Supper
Why is it significant?
Walk into the long, hushed refectory and the whole far wall becomes a room painted inside the room. Twelve apostles and Christ sit along a white table in a hall of coloured marble, and one dark-bearded man sits alone on your side of it.
Key Facts
| Place | Cenacolo di Sant'Apollonia: Castagno's Last Supper |
|---|---|
| Address | Via Ventisette Aprile 1, 50129 Firenze FI, Italy |
| Geo Coordinates | 43.77870, 11.25660 |
| Part of Walk | From the Dome to David: Brunelleschi, Ghiberti and Michelangelo in Florence |
| Generated | Generated |
Walk into the long, hushed refectory and the whole far wall becomes a room painted inside the room. Twelve apostles and Christ sit along a white table in a hall of coloured marble, and one dark-bearded man sits alone on your side of it.
This was the dining hall of the Benedictine convent of Sant'Apollonia, whose nuns lived in strict enclosure. Around 1447 they commissioned Andrea del Castagno to paint the Last Supper for them to contemplate during meals. Because outsiders were not allowed in, almost nobody saw it for centuries. Only after the convent was closed in the nineteenth century did the wider world discover what had been hidden here.
Look at the marble panels behind the figures. Each one is wildly veined, and right above Judas and Christ the pattern explodes into something like a storm cloud, as though the stone itself knew what was about to happen. John has fallen asleep on the table. Judas, isolated, already holds the bread. Above the painted room, Castagno frescoed the Resurrection, the Crucifixion and the Deposition, and some of his preparatory drawings, found under the plaster, are displayed nearby.
Castagno has a terrible reputation, and it is mostly undeserved. Vasari wrote that he murdered his fellow painter Domenico Veneziano out of envy. But the archives show that Domenico outlived Castagno by four years. What is true is that in 1440 Castagno painted the effigies of hanged rebels on the wall of the Bargello, as the city did with traitors, and Florentines nicknamed him Andrea of the hanged men.
Leonardo's Last Supper in Milan came half a century later, and it is far more famous. But here you can sit on a bench in near silence and look at Castagno's version for as long as you like. When you are ready, turn left along Via San Gallo, then left again along Via degli Arazzieri, which brings you out in Piazza San Marco.