The story
In 1529 Florence was preparing for a siege by the army of Emperor Charles V, and the city's own men were pulling down buildings outside the walls so the enemy would find no cover. The Vallombrosan monastery of San Salvi stood in their path. According to the historian Benedetto Varchi, who lived through the siege, the demolition stopped at the monks' refectory because of the painting on its end wall.
That painting is still there, and it is the reason to come. It is the Last Supper by Andrea del Sarto, one of the leading Florentine painters of his day, who finished it around 1526, years after the monks first hired him to decorate the room. It looks back to the version Leonardo da Vinci had painted in Milan, and del Sarto added an idea of his own, two onlookers leaning from a balcony above the table to watch the scene.
The rooms of the former monastery around it now form a small state museum of 16th century Florentine painting. There are more works by Andrea del Sarto, among them an early Noli me tangere, and by painters of his circle such as Pontormo and Franciabigio. There are also paintings by Plautilla Nelli, a Dominican nun from Florence and one of the few women artists Vasari wrote about.
