Duke of MilanFrancesco I Sforza ordered the construction of aDominicanconvent and church at the site of a prior chapel dedicated to the Marian devotion of St Mary of the Graces. The main architect,Guiniforte Solari, designed the convent (theGothicnave),[2] which was completed by 1469. Construction of the church took decades. DukeLudovico Sforza decided to have the church serve as theSforza family burial site, and rebuilt the cloister and theapse, both completed after 1490. Ludovico's wifeBeatrice was buried in the church in 1497.
The design of the apse of the church has been attributed toDonato Bramante,[a] as his name is inscribed in a piece of marble in the church vaults delivered in 1494.[citation needed] However, some dispute that he worked on the church at all.[3] According to one source, in 1492–1497 Bramante worked on the crossing and the dome as well the transept apses and the coir with apse; this source also attributes a plan and section of the building to Bramante.[4] Some documents mention the name Amadeo, likelyGiovanni Antonio Amadeo. There are similarities between this church and Amadeo's design forSanta Maria alla Fontana.[citation needed]
In 1543, theTitian altarpiecedepicting Christ receiving the crown of thorns was installed in the Chapel of the Holy Crown, located on the right of the nave. The painting, looted by French troops in 1797, is now in theLouvre. This chapel is frescoed withStories of the Passion byGaudenzio Ferrari. In the small cloister adjacent to the tribune near the door that leads to the sacristy is a fresco byBramantino.[5] The church also contained frescoes depicting theResurrection and Passion byBernardo Zenale.[6]
DuringWorld War II, on the night of 15 August 1943, an alliedaerial bombardment hit the church and the convent. Much of the refectory was destroyed, but some walls survived, including the one that holdsThe Last Supper, which had been sand-bagged in order to protect it. Some preservation works are done to maintain it for the future. Previously distorted by attempts at restoration carried out over the centuries, Leonardo’s original painting has now emerged as a result of the work begun in 1978 and completed in 1999. This involved addressing complex problems as regards not only the painting itself but also the environment of the refectory in order to protect the work from the dust, fumes and humidity identified as the primary causes of its constant deterioration.[8] It is believed that the current and future preservation works will keep the painting safe for many centuries to come.
Nowadays theSacrestia vecchia, or the Old Sacristy, designed and constructed by Donato Bramante, is the seat of a Dominican Cultural Centre (Centro Culturale alle Grazie), in which the brethren organize and host conferences on various themes pertaining to spirituality, philosophy, art, literature and sociology, in addition to musical concerts and artistic exhibitions.
