A Great Painter's Picture of the Last Supper

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Wow! I like the angle, I’m so used to seeing it from the front. It’s interesting to see the spiritual realm represented in the painting, it’s not something I’ve seen much of in Last Supper paintings before.
 
mdgspencer said:
This portrayal of the Last Supper is by Tintoretto, a leading painter of the Italian Renaissance. This painting shows not only the physical Last Supper, but also openly represents the role of the spiritual realm during the Last Supper as well. The painting is shown after several paragraphs about it.
see hum120.wordpress.com/2011/04/14/tintoretto%E2%80%99s-the-last-supper/
Click to expand...
Very nice painting! Not too much a fan of Renaissance art as a whole but Tintoretto could be one of the exceptions. 😛

For the record, there was another Last Supper painting that got retitled as ‘The Feast in the House of Levi’. 😉
 
As a professional Artist (a painter) I appreciate all of the “Last Suppers” painted by the various Old Masters. My one criticism of them is that they are historically inaccurate. All of them depict Christ and the Appostles sitting at a table, whereas it was more common for Jews to dine in a semi-reclined position at the time of Christ. And, no where in the New Testament does it say otherwise.
 
Good point, George Stegmeir. My family has a newer Last Supper by James Seward. What do you think of it?

http://gallery4collectors.com/images/JamesSewardThisIsMyBody.jpg

I love the Tintoretto Last Supper that the OP found, but to me the perspective is odd not because the audience doesn’t face the Apostles and Christ at the table directly, but because around half of the painting on the right seems to picture servants of no real import to the painting. Is that Judas looking down at the woman? Or just a random man?
 
Simply beautiful!!

:bowdown::hypno::getholy::nun1::heaven:
 
NovusAugustus said:
Good point, George Stegmeir. My family has a newer Last Supper by James Seward. What do you think of it?

http://gallery4collectors.com/images/JamesSewardThisIsMyBody.jpg

I love the Tintoretto Last Supper that the OP found, but to me the perspective is odd not because the audience doesn’t face the Apostles and Christ at the table directly, but because around half of the painting on the right seems to picture servants of no real import to the painting. Is that Judas looking down at the woman? Or just a random man?
Click to expand...
WOW!!! I love this!! I really do…love your signature pic, too. I want it…🙂
 
mdgspencer said:
This portrayal of the Last Supper is by Tintoretto, a leading painter of the Italian Renaissance. This painting shows not only the physical Last Supper, but also openly represents the role of the spiritual realm during the Last Supper as well. The painting is shown after several paragraphs about it.
see hum120.wordpress.com/2011/04/14/tintoretto%E2%80%99s-the-last-supper/
Click to expand...
A much more intimate setting, as I have always thought it to be. This is great!

also at:
artbible.info/art/large/353.html
 
NovusAugustus said:
Good point, George Stegmeir. My family has a newer Last Supper by James Seward. What do you think of it?

http://gallery4collectors.com/images/JamesSewardThisIsMyBody.jpg

I love the Tintoretto Last Supper that the OP found, but to me the perspective is odd not because the audience doesn’t face the Apostles and Christ at the table directly, but because around half of the painting on the right seems to picture servants of no real import to the painting. Is that Judas looking down at the woman? Or just a random man?
Click to expand...
I like it very much. Unfortunately, although an excellent historical rendering, it is more of a modern illustration and does not rise to the artistic level of the Renaissance masters. But it still is an excellent painting.
 
George_Stegmeir said:
As a professional Artist (a painter) I appreciate all of the “Last Suppers” painted by the various Old Masters. My one criticism of them is that they are historically inaccurate. All of them depict Christ and the Appostles sitting at a table, whereas it was more common for Jews to dine in a semi-reclined position at the time of Christ. And, no where in the New Testament does it say otherwise.
Click to expand...
Actually, the Greek word anakeimai does mean “to recline at table” (ana ‘up’, ‘among’ + keimai ‘to lie down’, ‘to recline’). Of course, this gets obscured in most translations today since they translate it as “to sit.”

Early Christian portrayals of a banquet (either a symbol of the Eucharist or a representation of an agape meal) show the participants eating triclinium-style, reclining on a semicircular (U-shaped) couch and eating off a low table/tables laden with bread, wine and/or fish.

http://www.osservatoreromano.va/orp...news/vaticano/2011/147q11-angelus/147q01a.jpg

http://img145.imageshack.us/img145/6382/image024az.jpg

(Please Note: This uploaded content is no longer available.)

(Please Note: This uploaded content is no longer available.)

http://www.the-goldenrule.name/Dion...us_AgapeSigmaCouch_--_MORE_files/image012.jpg

This apparently influenced portrayals of the Last Supper (which was one of those events from the life of Jesus that was never explicitly portrayed in art until some time had passed), where we can see Jesus and disciples reclining on semicircular couches and eating fish off a table. The two picture below are that an early 6th century mosaic from Sant’Apollinare Nuovo in Ravenna in Italy, and a manuscript illustration from the Rossano Gospels written at around the same time period. These two are the oldest surviving depictions we have of the Last Supper.

http://www.sacred-destinations.com/italy/images/ravenna/san-apollinare-nuovo/resized/xti_6926p.jpg

http://lib.haifa.ac.il/collections/art/med/8_5d_last_supper.gif

Byzantine art continued to show everyone reclining around a table, but around the 9th century, the depiction of reclining seems to have been gradually abandoned in favor of sitting. Even so, in some icons Jesus is still shown as reclining on a couch - even if everyone else around him sits. I think a change in dining habits may have contributed to this shift.
 
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