Christ shares his last meal with the Apostles and institutes the Eucharist
THE LAST SUPPER
Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519)
1498
Convent of Santa Maria delle Grazie, Milan, Italy
This is Leonardo da Vinci’s most famous work of the 1490s. The scene was painted directly onto the wall of the convent of Santa Maria delle Grazie in Milan and shows Christ’s last supper with his disciples before his arrest and execution. It shows the exact moment when Jesus declares: “one of you will betray me”. Da Vinci conveys the twelve disciples’ consternation at this news.
The writer Mathieu Bandello observed Leonardo at work and wrote that, some days, he would paint from dawn to dusk without a pause – even for meals – and then would stop work completely for three or four days in a row. According to Vasari, this work pattern angered the Prior, who hassled the painter until da Vinci asked the Duke of Milan, Ludovic Sforza, to step in. Vasari also describes how da Vinci doubted his ability to paint the faces of Jesus and Judas, telling the Duke that he may have used the monk as a model.
When the painting was finished, it was lauded as a masterpiece of conceptualisation and characterisation, later even winning the admiration of Peter Paul Rubens and Rembrandt. The work has been restored continually as the paint peels away from its plaster support. The painting deteriorated rapidly, and even before its hundredth birthday it was described as “totally devastated” by a visitor. Instead of using the tried-and-tested fresco technique, Leonardo da Vinci had used the ‘tempera technique’, a painting process using egg yolks to bind pigments; as the plaster support was mainly made of ‘gesso’, a type of calcium carbonate chalk, the surface is prone to dampness and crumbling. Despite these setbacks, the painting remains one of the world’s most reproduced works of art.
Suggestion: Johann Sebastian Bach, Mass in B minor BWV 232, Agnus Dei, Aria for alto in G minor with violin obbligato (1747-1749)
14th CENTURY to 18th CENTURY
SCENES FROM THE LIFE OF CHRIST: N° 29. LAST SUPPER Giotto di Bondone, 1304/06 - Fresco (after restor.), Cappella Scrovegni, Padua, Italy
LAST SUPPER (Scene 3) Duccio di Buoninsegna, 1308/11 - Museo dell'Opera del Duomo, Siena, Italy
THE LAST SUPPER Ugolino da Siena (Ugolino di Nerio) ca. 1325/30 - The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New Ypork
LAST SUPPER, TREE OF LIFE AND FOUR MIRACLE SCENES Taddeo Gaddi, ca. 1360, Fresco (detail) - Refectory, Santa Croce, Florence, Italy
LAST SUPPER, Predella, Virgin and Child altarpiece (detail) Jaume Serra ca. 1377/81 - Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya, Barcelona, Spain
LAST SUPPER (SANT SOPAR) Jaume Huguet 1463-1470/75 - Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya, Barcelona, Spain
THE LAST SUPPER Jaume Baço (Jacomart) 1450s - Cathedral Museum, Segorbe, Castellón Province, Spain
COMMUNION OF THE APOSTLES CELLA 35 Fra Angelico, 1439/43 - San Marco Convent, Florence, Italy
THE LAST SUPPER Dirk Bouts, 1464/67 - Saint-Pieterskerk, Leuven, Belgium / 9
LAST SUPPER Domenico Ghirlandaio, 1480 - Chiesa di Ognissanti, Florence
THE LAST SUPPER Maestro de la Virgo inter Virgines (follower of) ca. 1485 - Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid, Spain
THE LAST SUPPER Cosimo Rosselli, 1481/82 - Cappella Sistina, Rome, Vatican
CHRIST'S PASSION, THE LAST SUPPER (central altar predella) Hans Holbein the Elder, 1501 - Städel Museum, Frankfurt, Germany
CHRIST'S PASSION, THE LAST SUPPER, central altar predella (detail) Hans Holbein the Elder, 1501 - Städel Museum, Frankfurt, Germany
THE LAST SUPPER Hans Holbein the Younger ca. 1524/25 - Kunstmuseum, Basel, Switzerland / 12
THE LAST SUPPER Jacopo Bassano, ca. 1546 - Galleria Borghese, Rome, Italy
LAST SUPPER Lucas Cranach the Elder 1530/35 (consecrated in 1547) - Stadtkirche, Wittenberg, Germany / 17
THE LAST SUPPER Lucas Cranach the Younger, 1565 - Schlosskirche, Dessau, Germany / 18
FEAST IN THE HOUSE OF LEVI Paolo Veronese, 1573 - Gallerie dell'Accademia, Venice / 19
THE LAST SUPPER Juan de Juanes, 1555/62 - Museo del Prado, Madrid, Saoin
THE LAST SUPPER El Greco, ca. 1568 - Pinacoteca Nazionale, Bologna, Italy / 21
THE LAST SUPPER Tintoretto, 1559 - St François-Xavier Church, Paris / 22
THE LAST SUPPER Tintoretto, 1578/81 - Scuola Grande di San Rocco, Venice, Italy
THE LAST SUPPER Tintoretto, 1592/94 - San Giorgio Maggiore, Venice, Italy / 24
THE LAST SUPPER Frans Pourbus the Younger, 1618 - Musée du Louvre, Paris
LAST SUPPER Rubens, 1631/32 - Pinacoteca di Brera, Milan, Italy
THE SEVEN SACRAMENTS II: EUCHARIST (LE SACREMENT DE LA SAINTE EUCHARISTIE) N. Poussin, 1647 - New Galleries of Scotland, Edinburgh / 27
THE LAST SUPPER Philippe de Champaigne, ca. 1652 - Musée du Louvre, Paris
THE LAST SUPPER Gerbrand van den Eeckhout, 1664 - Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
THE LAST SUPPER Giovanni B. Tiepolo, 1745/47 - Musée du Louvre, Paris
THE LAST SUPPER (sketch) Franz Anton, 1754 - Residenzgalerie, Salzburg, Austria / 31
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The Biblical origin of the Eucharist can be placed in the context of Passover, the Jewish festival commemorating the Hebrews’ escape from Egypt (Book of Exodus). This celebration usually took place over seven days. It was during this festival that Jesus instituted the Eucharist: “Now on the first day of Unleavened Bread, when they killed the Passover lamb, His disciples said to Him, `Where do you want us to go and prepare, that you may eat the Passover'” (Mark 14:12, Matthew 26:7)
In his World Atlas of Wine, Hugh Johnson highlights the fact that many accounts confirm the influence of the cult of Bacchus: “Bacchus-Dionysus was already considered a saviour – to rise from the dead was normal for the old gods, while to eat a god’s body and drink his blood (represented by wine) was a familiar concept to the Ancient Greeks who believed in the myth of Orpheus. The grape, to the Ancient Greeks an attribute of Dionysus, was to become a symbol of the blood of Christ for the Eucharist.”
There is an incalculable number of depictions of the Last Supper. Will they end up seeming banal to us? We have chosen to comment on several works which stand out from the rest.
9. Bouts has chosen the moment where Christ blesses the bread and wine. By this gesture, he institutes the Eucharist. The traitor Judas, in the foreground on the left, is treated as an unremarkable silent witness – something fairly rare in representations of this character.
15. Only nine of the twelve apostles are present. This is likely due to the vandalism to which the wooden panel of this painting fell victim during the iconoclastic riots of the Reformation in Basel; Christ's head was also sawn off.
17. With Luther among the Apostles.
18. The son of Lucas Cranach the Elder here depicts various Reformation figures as apostles at the Last Supper – Luther is in the back left-hand corner, while his disciple Philip Melanchthon is shown to the right, by Christ's side.
19. This famous work by Veronese is an immense canvas measuring 13 meters in length. It represents Christ surrounded by a group of individuals who are not mentioned in the Gospels. The Last Supper takes place not in a Palestinian inn, as in the Bible, but in a rich palace with Classical architecture, probably inspired by one of those designed by Palladio. As in The Marriage at Cana, Veronese stays true to his mocking, bawdy and pagan artistic identity. The painting’s basic theme is that of ‘The Last Supper’. Veronese painted this scene at the request of the Dominican monks of Santi Giovanni e Paoli. However, his very particular approach to the subject aroused the suspicions of the Prior of the monastery, who reported Veronese to the Inquisition. He was accused of impiety by the Tribunal of the Holy Office for having placed The Last Supper in a setting where drinkers, dwarves, black people and animals circulate – an atmosphere deemed ‘profane’. The artist responded to the judges, who questioned the bustling scene and numerous characters represented: “if there is space on the canvas, I’ll fill it with as many figures as my patrons, and my imagination, want.” Ordered to alter the work to fit the religious ‘good taste’ of the Inquisition, Veronese pointedly did nothing, merely changing the title of the painting. The Last Supper became the Feast in the House of Levi – the new title drawn from an episode in the Gospel according to Luke (Luke 5: 29-32), in which Levi (the Hebrew name of the apostle Matthew) gave a great feast in his house. Levi’s guests were invited to partake of the celebration in good company, for the love of God. An ingenious way for the artist to mock his censors!
21. El Greco was born in Crete, which was under Venetian rule at the time. This Last Supper was produced during the artist's youth – during his Italian period, shortly after his arrival in the Republic. He would come to Spain eight years later, aged 35. His experience of the Venetian school of Titian and Tintoretto would prove decisive for the artist, who became a fervent partisan of this type of colour-based painting. This is El Greco's only Last Supper scene. His work was fundamentally religious, adapted to the world of the Counter-Reformation: holy scenes, series depicting saints and apostles, and a persistent predilection for pathos (see below: Wine as a Eucharistic symbol, and the lives of saints). mock his censors!
22. The church of Saint-François-Xavier in Paris, consecrated in 1894, is home to a magnificent but little-known work by Tintoretto: The Last Supper, painted in 1559. It was commissioned by the Scuola du Saint-Sacrement of the Church of Saint Felix, in Venice. Stolen during the Napoleonic era, it was sold in France. The Baroness of Teil donated it to the Parish of Saint-François-Xavier. In the image, Jesus has just announced that one of his disciples is about to betray him. The disciples stare at each other, shocked and suspicious, wondering who will be the culprit. Tintoretto places Judas in the foreground, opposite Christ. He hides behind his back the payment given to him by Jesus’ soon-to-be captors.
See 24, The Last Supper, also by Tintoretto, finished 35 years later, two weeks before his death.
27. Poussin was one of few painters to combine in a single work the two most important moments of the Last Supper: the announcement of the treason of one of the disciples, and Christ’s institution of the Eucharist. Judas seems to be shown slipping away from the supper unnoticed; in the Gospels, it is not clear if he stayed until the end of the Passover meal. Saint Augustin, of whom Poussin was a follower, supported the Gospel according to John above the three other versions of the story; in this version, Judas indeed leaves the room. Poussin demonstrates a certain contextual rigor by presenting the disciples lying down on divans in the semisdraiati position (normal feasting behavior in the Roman period), rather than in a more contemporary setting and position, as was usually the case for biblical (and mythological) scenes.
31. The apostles are grouped round a table, agitated and turbulent, some leaning back, some forwards. The scene appears agitated and turbulent. Alarm over the predicted betrayal is evident. Only John, beside Jesus, sleeps through the turmoil. Opposite them sits Judas, looking out of the picture with a challenge in his eyes, as he hides the bag with the thirty pieces of silver behind his back.
20th CENTURY
THE BLIND MAN'S MEAL Pablo Picasso, 1903 - The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City / 1
THE LAST SUPPER Emil Nolde, 1909 - National Gallery, Copenhagen, Denmark / 2
THE LAST SUPPER (LA DERNIÈRE CÈNE) André Derain, 1911 - Art Institute of Chicago / 3
THE SACRAMENT OF LAST SUPPER Salvador Dali, 1955 - NGA, Washington DC / 4
THE LAST SUPPER Bernard Buffet, 1961 - Musée du Vatican, Rome / 5
THE LAST SUPPER Andy Warhol, 1986 - Private collection / 6
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1. Picasso described the painting in a letter to his friend the French poet Max Jacob: "I am painting a blind man at the table. He holds a piece of bread in his left hand and with his right hand reaches for a jug of wine" (Source : The Metropolitan Museum of Art). Cette toile de la période bleue de Picasso n'est pas seulement la description d'un aveugle prenant un repas frugal, elle est aussi et surtout a remarkable restatement of the Christian sacrament-the ritual of tasting bread and wine to evoke the flesh and blood of Christ in contemporary terms (chez les catholiques et les orthodoxes).
2. With Emil Nolde, a Danish-born German painter, colours are strong and brushwork vigorous. A decade earlier, during his time in Paris. He had discovered the work of Gaugin and Van Gogh, whose influence is clearly visible here.
3. Derain's name usually evokes the Fauvist movement that he helped to establish. Fauvism promoted the use of colour over form (the latter usually prioritised in mainstream art). The movement was characterised by its daring treatment of chromatic contrasts. Here, colour doesn't seek to imitate nature; instead, it's used as a vehicle for artistic interpretation of the subject. From 1906, Derain would turn away from Fauvism. By 1911, he had returned to more traditional brushwork and a gradual readoption of perspective and chiaoscuro (light and dark).
4. Its Christian subject matter, simple arrangement and total absence of shock value sets The Sacrament of the Last Supper apart from most of Dalí's work. This 1955 painting is both religious and realistic: the background contains an accurate depiction of the view from Dalí's house in Port Lligat, on the Catalan coast of North-East Spain. At the end of the 1940s, Dalí's return to Christian imagery and traditional values was shaped by three key factors: the devastation of the Spanish Civil War and WW2, a renewed enthusiasm for classical art and his re-thinking of Freudian psychology after an encounter with the psychoanalyst. This Last Supper scene does not attempt to recreate the meal, but is a symbolic depiction of the ritual of the Eucharist. The men at the table are not specific apostles, but idealised participants. Christ is not physically present; his body is translucent. The most tangible allusions to Christ's physical presence are the bread and wine, both highly symbolic (Source: National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C.).
5. Bernard Buffet's Last Supper is part of a collection of paintings retracing episodes from the life of Jesus. Painted in 1951 to decorate the chapel of his home, Chateau l'Arc, near Aix-en-Provence, the painter donated the pieces to the Vatican Museum in 1971. In this painting, the meal is forgotten as we witness the judgment of Judas. The protagonists are all seated behind the trestle table; Judas is alone, facing them. He stands out through his notable lack of a halo. Traditionally, where Jesus and the apostles are shown with haloes, Judas either has none or it is black. Between the faithful apostles surrounding Christ and Judas the traitor, the table is draped with a white cloth whose vertical folds resemble bars, reinforcing the idea of a separation between good and bad. This Last Supper lacks human warmth. It's Judas' trial: his Final Judgement (Source: Martine Grenier, Evangile et Liberté, avril 2007).
6. Throughout 1986, Andy Warhol exhibited a series of works on the theme of Da Vinci's Last Supper. For this collection – “The Last Supper Cycle” – Warhol revisited the Last Supper in no fewer than 100 different ways, going above and beyond the brief of his commission. The series is composed of numerous variations on the theme, all based on a single source: a black-and-white photo of the Last Supper by Matteo Giovannetti. In total, there are 93 paintings and 7 prints in the collection.
Andy Warhol began by photocopying and enlarging the image. He then applied paint to the surface using a sponge, lending a characteristic grainy effect to the piece. The paintings are all different, but they share certain elements. For example, Warhol often uses bright colours and highlights certain details, such as the nails in Christ's hands or the bread sitting on the table. He sometimes replaces Judas with another character, like Mary Magdalene or John the Baptist. Warhol's Last Supper is nothing like Da Vinci's solemn, sombre painting. It's light, almost playful; the colours and texture lend it a certain dynamism.
Bible text: New Testament, Luke 22:14-20
"When the hour had come, He sat down, and the twelve apostles with Him. Then He said to them, ‘With fervent desire I have desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer; for I say to you, I will no longer eat of it until it is fulfilled in the kingdom of God.’ Then He took the cup, and gave thanks, and said, ‘Take this and divide it among yourselves; for I say to you, I will not drink of the fruit of the vine until the kingdom of God comes.’ And He took bread, gave thanks and broke it, and gave it to them, saying, ‘This is My body which is given for you; do this in remembrance of Me.’ Likewise He also took the cup after supper, saying, ‘This cup is the new covenant in My blood, which is shed for you."
THE MEETING OF ABRAHAM AND MELCHIZEDEK: IS IT A PREFIGURATION OF THE EUCHARIST IN THE OLD TESTAMENT?
ALTARPIECE OF THE HOLY SACRAMENT, Meeting of Abraham and Melchizedek, Dieric Bouts the Elder, 1464/67 - Sint-Pieterskerk, Leuven, Belgium / 1
MEETING OF ABRAHAM AND MELCHIZEDEK, (inner, left wing of a triptych), anonymous, c. 1510/20 - Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, The Netherlands / 2
THE MEETING OF ABRAHAM AND MELCHIZEDEK Pierre Paul Rubens, c. 1626 - The National Gallery of Art, Washington / 3
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1. This story from Genesis tells of the gifts of bread and wine that Abraham received from the Priest-King of Salem [The name refers to the royal city of Melchizedek and is traditionally identified with Jerusalem], Melchizedek, after returning in triumph from a battle with the kings of the east, who had attacked Sodom and Gomorrah and kidnapped his nephew Lot. Catholic theologians viewed Melchizedek’s offering of bread and wine as a prefiguration of the Last Supper, and even saw Melchizedek, whose name means “king of Justice,” as a prefiguration of Christ.
2. This panel shows the patriarch Abraham with his army on the left. Outside the gates of Salem, Abraham is kneeling before the king and high priest Melchizedek, who is offering him bread and wine and is blessing him.
3. Around 1625, Peter Paul Rubens received an important commission from the Infanta Isabel Clara Eugenia, Governess of the Southern Netherlands (1566-1633) to design a tapestry series of The Triumph of the Eucharist for the royal convent of the Poor Clares in Madrid. The tapestries were to be hung during the feast days of Good Friday and Corpus Christi, which celebrate Christ’s presence in the Eucharist. The subject had profound meaning for the Poor Clares, who were particularly devoted to the Eucharist—the bread and wine of the Mass that Catholics believe miraculously transubstantiates into the body and blood of Christ when consecrated by a priest.
The Meeting of Abraham and Melchizedek is a highly finished modello, or sketch, for one of the Old Testament prefigurations of the Eucharist. The scene unfolds on an illusionistically painted tapestry held aloft by putti before an architectural framework. Abraham, in armor standing at the head of his band of soldiers, appears in the center, gratefully receiving loaves of bread from Melchizedek and wine. As the two men lean toward one another, they lock eyes as though they have a premonition, unshared by the others, that the bread and wine have significance beyond bodily sustenance. The Rubens’ exuberant style, vivid colors, rich textures, and expressive brush imbue the scene with a feeling of grandeur. In this way Rubens both signals the importance of the prefigured Eucharist in the Old Testament and suggests its continued centrality to the Catholic Faith in his own time (Source: The National Gallery of Art, Washington).
Bible text: New Testament, Luke 22:14-20
"When the hour had come, He sat down, and the twelve apostles with Him. Then He said to them, ‘With fervent desire I have desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer; for I say to you, I will no longer eat of it until it is fulfilled in the kingdom of God.’ Then He took the cup, and gave thanks, and said, ‘Take this and divide it among yourselves; for I say to you, I will not drink of the fruit of the vine until the kingdom of God comes.’ And He took bread, gave thanks and broke it, and gave it to them, saying, ‘This is My body which is given for you; do this in remembrance of Me.’ Likewise He also took the cup after supper, saying, ‘This cup is the new covenant in My blood, which is shed for you."
LE VIN, SYMBÔLE EUCHARISTIQUE, ET LA VIE DES SAINTS
APOSTLE St JOHN THE EVANGELIST El Greco, c. 1608/14 - Museo del Greco, Toledo, Spain / 1
SAINT BENEDICT AND THE POISONED CUP OF WINE Niccolò di Pietro, c. 1415/20 - Uffizy Gallery, Florence
SAINT BENEDICT (Sanctus Benedictus) Francisco de Zurbarán, c. 1640/45 - The Met, NYC / 3
LIFE OF ST BENEDICT, Ph. de Champaigne and studio 1643/48 - Hermitage, St Petersburg, Russia
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1. John, one of the twelve apostles and four evangelists, holds a golden chalice containing a winged serpent and a dragon. According to The Golden Legend, by Jacobus de Voragine, the priest Aristodemus meant to kill him by forcing him to drink poisoned wine. Despite drinking the whole chalice, the saint didn't die, thus proving the priest wrong.
3. With his depiction of Saint Benedict, produced while Spain was a bastion of Catholicism, Francisco de Zurbarán takes up the legend of the poisoned wine. His style is very severe, with an almost exaggerated spirituality. The glass of wine is replaced by a jug which will break when blessed by the saint. Benedict is also shown praying in the rocky background scenery.
THE LAST SUPPER IN MEDIEVAL ILLUMINATIONS
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A pictorial technique similar to that of frescoes or miniatures, illuminations were very popular during the Middle Ages. Done by hand, illuminations decorated or illustrated texts, usually on handwritten manuscripts. Until the 12th century, manuscripts were copied out in religious settings, such as abbeys, where they were used to support prayer and meditation. From the 13th century, private artisans began to produce literature for the secular market. This was due to the greater literacy that had resulted from the growing university and administrative sectors.
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WINE AND THE ARTS: SCULPTURE AND STAINED GLASSES
SCENES OF THE LIFE OF CHRIST: THE LAST SUPPER, Pierre de Chelles, 1300/18 - North choir closing, Notre-Dame de Paris / THE INSTITUTION OF EUCHARIST, 16th cent. - Saint-Sulpice Church, Breteuil-sur-Iton, Eure, France
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The ‘Muses’ companion’, wine is present across the artistic spectrum, be it in literature, music, decorative or fine arts. Wine is an essential witness to our social and cultural history. Although the Virtual Wine Museum is mainly concerned with painting at present, some examples drawn from other artistic formats permit us to illustrate the universal role of wine, to ‘bear witness’ to it. A few examples of non-painted works on the same theme as this painting gallery.
GALLERIES THE BLOOD OF CHRIST IN THE NEW TESTAMENT AND CHRISTIAN ICONOGRAPHY
