It is a scene immortalized in the Gospels: Jesus — knowing he is about to be betrayed, arrested and executed — sits down to eat with his Twelve Apostles. At this meal he has longed to share with them, he institutes the Eucharist, changing the Passover bread and wine into his very body and blood.
Matthew, Mark, Luke and John each tells the story in his own way, presenting his own impression of the events that took place on that Holy Thursday night.
Since that time, where the evangelists relied on words, great artists have used color and shape, shadow and light, to present their own interpretation of that fateful meal. They have frozen the scene in a single image, filled with nuance and symbolism.
With artistic license and genius, they have challenged others — including us — to reexamine and reconsider what happened that evening.
Leonardo da Vinci (Santa Maria delle Grazie, Milan; between 1495-1498)
Any discussion of Last Supper paintings must begin with Leonardo da Vinci’s famous rendition, a masterpiece of the Italian High Renaissance.
Da Vinci, who painted his well-known work for the dining hall of a Dominican church, didn’t want to work quickly, as must be done with the al fresco method. (To paint al fresco means to apply fresh plaster, then quickly sketch and paint on the wet surface.) Instead, the artist took his time, using a dry wall and tempera paint.
Unfortunately, this led to disastrous results: Bubbles and scales began to appear on the surface of the painting as time passed. Then the overpainting and inept restorations that followed in subsequent centuries added to the mess. From 1977 to 1999, the wall was painstakingly restored, inch by inch.
Even without restoration, da Vinci’s painting is the definitive interpretation of the Last Supper. Subsequent artists were inevitably influenced by his version.
The Italian master paints Jesus and the Twelve Apostles all seated on the same side of a long table. Christ is the center in a mathematically ordered room. The only curved architectural element is a rounded pediment over Jesus’ head, which serves as a halo.
The apostles are positioned in groups of three, all responding in different ways to Jesus’ startling statement, “One of you is about to betray me” (Mt 26:21).
They are aghast and agitated at what their Lord has just told them, asking one another, “Surely, it is not I?” Three persons to the left of Jesus is Judas, his face cast in shadow. While one hand clutches a money purse, the other reaches forward to fulfill Jesus’ description: “The man who has dipped his hand into the dish with me is the one who will hand me over” (Mt 26:23).
Da Vinci broke with the tradition of placing Judas on the opposite side of the table from Jesus and the other apostles. He also veered from the custom of depicting the moment Jesus breaks the bread, instituting the Eucharistic sacrament. Rather, he chooses a more complex and psychological moment, when Christ prophesizes the ugly truth about the apostle who will betray him.
The result is a highly charged moment: Jesus at the calm center of the painting, flanked by his agitated followers.
Titian (Galleria Nazionale delle Marche; Urbino, Italy; 1544)
Titian’s version of the Last Supper draws in part from da Vinci’s, but the perspective — the “camera angle,” in modern terms — has changed.
Titian paints a vertical painting; the table is on a slant and not all the apostles are clearly visible. Those who can be seen are responding to Jesus’ startling prophecy of betrayal. but we don’t see how each and every one reacts. Again, Judas is cast in shadow — he is the disciple beneath the pyramid viewed through the window.
There is something slightly off-center about this Last Supper. Unlike da Vinci, Titian paints Jesus a little to the right. The pyramid and rotunda viewed through the window also lend a certain asymmetry to the work, reflecting the agitated response of the apostles.
Even so, there is also a closeness in this scene with Jesus and his chosen followers. We can imagine him telling the Twelve, “I have greatly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer” (Lk 22:15). And, only a short time later, “The hand of my betrayer is with me at this table” (Lk 22:21).
Titian is known as a supreme colorist, and here he uses warm reds, yellows and peaches. His version includes a dog, a traditional symbol of fidelity, to highlight the fact that Jesus, at this moment, knows the trust between Judas and himself will be broken within hours.
Titian’s Last Supper shows an intimate moment, but one that also conveys an agitated foreboding of what is to come once this meal is over.
Tintoretto (San Giorgio Maggiore Church, Venice; 1592-1594)
Jacopo Robusti, known as Tintoretto, painted a remarkable Last Supper in the final two years of his life.
It’s interesting to compare this work with “The Gathering of Manna” (1592- 1594), a companion piece he did for the same church. “Manna” shows Moses leading a group of Israelites collecting the bread Yahweh has sent to relieve their physical hunger. The Last Supper also shows a group gathered for a meal but this time, there is the Bread of Life given to them by Jesus for their spiritual hunger.
Tintoretto’s Last Supper is markedly different from da Vinci’s. Jesus is actively standing up, giving Communion to one of his apostles. The table is on a diagonal.
There is movement and action in this banquet hall — the Twelve talk and gesture as servants offer platters of food. This Last Supper is a dramatic stage play. With the swirl of angels and the fire from the oil lamp, it is a ghostly drama.
Tintoretto relies on chiaroscuro (the Italian term for a dramatic use of light and dark), drama and movement to recreate his unique scene. The focus is on Jesus, with a bright halo emanating from his body, even as the busy banquet takes place all around him. The painting’s emphasis is on the one who gives the bread that truly satisfies our deepest hunger.
Salvador Dali (National Gallery of Art; Washington, D.C.; 1955)
In some ways, “The Sacrament of the Last Supper” by 20th-century Spanish painter Salvador Dali is literal and straightforward, unlike much of his earlier surrealistic paintings, which explored the subconscious and dream worlds.
In the 1950s, Dali departed from his previously espoused atheism and began to examine religious subjects.
In this Last Supper, Dali paints a limpid background of blue sky, mountain cliffs and a setting sun. A physical but also translucent Jesus is at the table with his Twelve Apostles, all wearing priests’ robes and in attitudes of deep prayer and contemplation.
Judas is likely two people to the right of Jesus because that figure is the only one wearing yellow, the color of treason. But Judas’ betrayal is not central in Dali’s Last Supper.
Instead, the focus is on the institution of the Eucharist.
Dali doesn’t paint a dinner table but an altar. He doesn’t depict an everyday meal, but rather “the bread and wine which will be given up for you.” Dali’s Jesus underscores the significance of this moment by gesturing to himself and pointing to the image that hovers above this scene: Jesus’ chest and arms. Clearly, “This is my body to be given for you” (Lk 22:19).
In this version of the Last Supper, Dali paints a transcendent, eucharistic moment.
As with the work of da Vinci, Titian and Tintoretto, this is not meant to be a snapshot of an event, but the artist’s interpretation of it. It is meant to challenge as well as comfort, to confront as well as console.
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