ABSTRACT
In this chapter the author recollects the memories of his life. Milan had a generous share of 1930s modernity. The masterpieces to be found there were familiar from art history: a Raphael Cartoon in the Ambrosiana, Michelangelo's Rondanini Pieta in the Castle – and Leonardo's Last Supper, sombre and enigmatic, but not yet cleaned to its present ghostly pallor. The author knew that it had been done in the refectory of the Dominican convent of Sta Maria delle Grazie. But nothing prepared him for the luminous harmony of its church, the chancel of which – as he was distractedly aware – had been attached to the low Gothic nave of the older priory. Giovanni Muzio was proud of his library, but the author was as impressed by his books as by his bookplate, an etching by the sculptor Giacomo Manzu.
