San Salvi (Cenacolo di Andrea del Sarto)

In the old refectory of the Vallombrosan Abbey on the outskirts of Florence, Andrea del Sarto painted the life-like Last Supper, his most spectacular masterpiece and one of the most beautiful paintings in the world. The Last Supper was begun in 1519 and was finished between 1526 and 1527 and he painted it in so good a style that his work was held to be, as it certainly is, the most smooth, the most vivacious in colouring and drawing that he ever did, or rather that anyone could do. For apart from all the rest, he gave such infinite grace, grandeur, and majesty to all the figures that I do not know how to praise his Last Supper without saying too little, it being so fine that whoever sees it is stupefied.Giorgio Vasari

In its day this was one of the most celebrated works in Florence. During the 1529 siege of the city, when it was brand new, the Imperial and Spanish troops levelled vast swathes of the Florence suburbs, but they spared this refectory and its beloved fresco.