The Last Supper
The chapel already existed at the end of the fifteenth century. It was in the hall, which is now part of the Hotel Casa del Pellegrino, to the right of the Basilica.
The statues, wooden mannequins finished and painted only in the visible parts (limbs and heads), and dressed with painted fabrics, date back to the end of the 15th - 16th centuries. Their style was influenced by the Lombard sculptors Giovanni Pietro and Giovanni Ambrogio De Donati. The Mystery of the Last Supper changed several locations, initially to adapt it to the correct chronological sequence of the life of Christ, and according to the wishes of the bishop of Novara Carlo Bascapè (1593-1615).
Finally, in 1776, in the square of the Basilica, a new portico was built, where the scene of the Last Supper was set, with its statues, food and dishes. The new space was frescoed in Rococò style by Antonio Orgiazzi the Elder, who also designed the console tables and trays with food. He signed and dated them 1780. The table is laid with food made of different materials: blown wax, terracotta, raw earth, painted wood, marble and papier-mâché, made from the end of the 15th to the 19th centuries.