Our second day in Milan had a much less packed schedule, but it was raining all that much more.
We ventured out in the morning to Cenacolo Vinciano where we got to see The Last Supper by Leonardo da Vinci. Yes, we saw the real painting (well it was restored technically, but still) on the real wall of the church. It wasn't much of an architectural venture, but it was still really beautiful and amazing to see. Plus, Rachel and I had fun using our new skills from our Italian Art class to figure out who was who in the painting.
After our reserved time at the Cenacolo Vinciano, we headed over to the Castello Sforzesco, which was a medeival castle that was restored by BBPR into an Ancient Art museum. (Note: the Sforzesco family are the ones who comissioned da Vinci to paint The Last Supper.) It was very interesting because though parts of the Castle were restored, and it's not even as large as it was in it's prime, the building its self becomes a piece in the exhibit, while also housing historical pieces. The way that BBPR chose to display the pieces was also very interesting to see. I very much enjoyed the blending of the ancient art within it's original context while being displayed in very modern fashions.
This tapestry display is a great example. It would have been hung up against a wall originally, but BBPR created this stand to hang it in the middle of the room, out of it's context but still within it's context. It certain grabs your eye and allows you to really get to see all of it.
I also really enjoyed their intertwining of modern pathways through the structure.
Those two places were our only scheduled visits, but we also decided to collectively got to Santa Maria presso S. Satiro, a church well known to us architecture majors. What makes this church so special is the fact that Bramante was able to take such a small space and make it seem so much larger with his illusion that makes the t-shaped church appear to be a latin-cross church.
As you enter, you can see the fake archway, and it admittedly looks very convincing, even when you know that it's not real.
But if you go off of the central axis that illusion is shattered.
Once we were finished at the church we were on our own to explore Milan however we wanted for that day. I chose to go with a few people to the Andy Warhol exhibit. It's a showing of a private collection, and since my friend from home is absolutely in love with Andy Warhol, I decided it justified going. I think some of his work is hilarious anyways, even if it isn't meant to be funny (that's my prerogative anyways).
After standing in the freezing cold and pouring rain for at least a half an hour and having to pay €9.90 to get in, I would almost say that this awesome umbrella stand makes up for it. Plus is was free. Along with the headseats we got to use (seen below) to take us through the whole exhibit.
I only got away with taking two shots in the exhibit before I got yelled at. One was the one you see here of Rachel and I, and the other one I'm keeping to myself (who knows if it'll come up on Google and I'll get sued. Eh, I'm not risking it) (I also got scolded quite a few times on this trip for taking pictures in places I'm not supposed to, but they don't put up clear enough signs, so I'm not apologizing for it. It's all because of who owns the rights to the works anyways.)
We spent a significant amount of time going through this super large collection of Andy Warhol works, and in the last room was his silk-screens and personal renditions of The Last Supper. I thought that was a fitting way to wrap up the day.
So we trudged back to our hotel to dry off and warm up.
Here's just a little fun picture to allow you to see how much it rained there that day. The tram lines even flooded.
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