The Last Supper

Tintoretto's painting is anything but symmetrical as even the table itself is set at a sharp angel receding into the dark background of the picture plane. This effectively divides the canvas into two scenes, contrasting the spirituality of the scene on one side of the table with the secular world on the other. In a central position, Jesus Christ stands surrounded by his disciples, all on the far side of the table. Eleven disciples and two women stand on the same side of the table as Christ, one of the women wears blue, the other is in red, symbolic colors associated with The Madonna and Mary Magdalene, respectively. Also behind Christ on the left side of the canvas, the hanging lamp casts out an illusionary glow, a golden circle of light casting rays across the scene accented with trails of smoke that morph into sketchy, translucent-like angels who bear witness to the event. Across the table, and in one way that Tintoretto follows tradition, is Judas, the betrayer, who sits among the servants and staff of the earthly realm, who appear to be serving the Last Supper to the heavenly gathering. 

While steeped in Renaissance techniques, works such as this one result in Tintoretto's association by later scholars with the 16th-century tradition of Italian Mannerism. The extremely dark composition, accented with sharp contrasts of bright light to highlight Christ and the celestial angelic figures above, not only sets him apart from the highly saturated use of color usually associated with the School of Venice, but foreshadows the dramatic use of tenebrism employed by Caravaggio and his followers. The strategy of extreme dark and light, paired with a strong diagonal compositional structure, will also become the trademark of Romantic painters.

Painted for the Church of San Giorgio Maggiore, this late version of the Last Supper is perhaps the most unusual and dramatic staging of a scene often depicted by the artist. his is an important late painting by Tintoretto featuring a subject he created often throughout his career. This is, arguably one of the most interesting examples in which he depicted a religious subject, popular among patrons and artists, and rendered it in a way that is uniquely his own. Traditionally the iconic subject of Christ's last meal with his disciples depicts the event in a formal hierarchy, with Christ as the focal point sitting among his followers in the center of the canvas, and they are the sole occupants of the scene. Here, Tintoretto offers an almost shockingly different interpretation. Christ stands far back in the compositional space created by the artist, behind the mass of secondary servant figures who crowd the chaotic scene. Most notably Christ does not represent the vanishing point, an approach most famously employed by Leonardo da Vinci.

This painting is oil on canvas and is housed in the Collection of Church of San Giorgio Maggiore, in Venice, Italy.