In a nutshell – Expect this here
An exact replica of Leonardo Da Vinci’s Last Supper is hidden in Vienna’s First District, let’s find out where exactly and how it got there.
Where can you find this place?
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The full story of The Last Supper in Vienna.
The story starts with Napoleon Bonaparte, who in 1805 gave orders to take the whole of Da Vinci painting in Milano and bring it to Paris. But this didn’t really work out so he decided to commission a mosaic copy to a local Italian artist, Giacomo Raffaelli.
And here starts the issue. The work was completed in 1814 when Napoleon had abdicated the throne and was in exile on the Island of Elba, therefore, and very conveniently, the work was inherited by Holy Roman Emperor Franz II who decided to bring it to Austria.
He wanted the copy of The Last Supper to be placed at the Belvedere Palace in Vienna, however, this was also an issue as the work was too big ( it measures 4.47 x 9.18 meters and is made of twelve different sections each of them containing 10.000 pieces). A rather challenging jigsaw.
So he decided then to offer the work to the community of the Minimes who run the “Italian National Church of Mary of the Snow” in Vienna, also known as the Minoriten church, as to have some sort of connexion from the place where the original painting was from.
And the mosaic is still there. It is placed in a back wall (to appreciate it you need to turn on the light) and it is truly amazing. Experts have analyzed the work and agreed that the colors of the mosaic are the closest to the original from Da Vinci could be. What is the main difference with the original in Milan? well … in Vienna, Jesus managed to keep his feet.
Forage for further odd places in Vienna
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