Antique & Vintage Postcards

Bathed in the clear northern Italian light of a postwar afternoon, this chrome-era postcard presents the magnificent brick façade and Bramante-designed apse of Santa Maria delle Grazie in Milan — the UNESCO World Heritage church that shelters Leonardo da Vinci's immortal Last Supper on its refectory wall. The image beautifully contrasts the Gothic nave, with its marble-inlaid façade and rose window, against Donato Bramante's serene Renaissance tribune rising behind it — a perfect marriage of two architectural worlds completed between 1466 and 1490. Period automobiles parked along the cobblestone piazza — including what appears to be a Fiat 500 and a Volkswagen Beetle — ground this timeless monument firmly in the 1960s, offering a charming slice of everyday Milanese life. The blank, unused reverse carries an official stamp from the Soprintendenza all'Arte della Lombardia, Italy's regional fine arts authority, indicating this card was likely produced or distributed under institutional oversight.