''Supper at Emmaus'' (1606) is a painting by the Italian master

Caravaggio Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio (also Michele Angelo Merigi or Amerighi da Caravaggio; 29 September 1571 – 18 July 1610), known mononymously as Caravaggio, was an Italian painter active in Rome for most of his artistic life. During the fina ...

, housed in the

Pinacoteca di Brera The Pinacoteca di Brera ("Brera Art Gallery") is the main public gallery for paintings in Milan, Italy. It contains one of the foremost collections of Italian paintings from the 13th to the 20th century, an outgrowth of the cultural program of ...

Milan Milan ( , , ; ) is a city in northern Italy, regional capital of Lombardy, the largest city in Italy by urban area and the List of cities in Italy, second-most-populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of nea ...

. In the collection of Marchese Patrizi by 1624 and possibly commissioned by him, references by Caravaggio's early biographers

Giulio Mancini Giulio Mancini (21 February 1559 – 22 August 1630) was a seicento physician, art collector, art dealer and writer on a range of subjects. His writings on contemporary artists like Caravaggio and Annibale Carracci remain one of our earliest sourc ...

and

Giovanni Bellori Giovanni Pietro Bellori (15 January 1613 – 19 February 1696), also known as Giovan Pietro Bellori or Gian Pietro Bellori, was an Italian art theorist, painter and antiquarian, who is best known for his work ''Lives of the Artists'', considered t ...

suggest it was painted in the few months after May 1606 when the artist was in hiding on the estates of Prince Marzio Colonna as a fugitive from the law after killing a local thug, Ranuccio Tomassoni, during a tennis match. However, it may also have been painted in Rome earlier in the year – the innkeeper's wife seems to be the same as the model for Saint Anne in '' Madonna and Child with St. Anne'' of 1605. However, given the almost complete echoing of pose and lighting, she may have been done from memory. The painting inevitably invites comparison with the

National Gallery The National Gallery is an art museum in Trafalgar Square in the City of Westminster, in Central London, England. Founded in 1824, it houses a collection of more than 2,300 paintings dating from the mid-13th century to 1900. The current di ...

version of the same subject: the expansive theatrical gestures have become understated and natural, the shadows are darkened, and the colours muted although still saturated. The effect emphasizes presence more than drama. Some details – the ear of the disciple on the right, the right hand of the innkeeper's wife – remain badly drawn, but there is a fluidity in the handling of the paint which was to increase in Caravaggio's post-Roman work as his brushwork became increasingly calligraphic. The artist may have had problems working out his composition – the innkeeper's wife looks like a last-minute addition. Neither she nor the innkeeper are mentioned in the

Gospel of Luke The Gospel of Luke is the third of the New Testament's four canonical Gospels. It tells of the origins, Nativity of Jesus, birth, Ministry of Jesus, ministry, Crucifixion of Jesus, death, Resurrection of Jesus, resurrection, and Ascension of ...

24:28-32, but had been introduced by Renaissance painters to act as a foil to the amazement of the two disciples as they recognise the resurrected

Christ Jesus ( AD 30 or 33), also referred to as Jesus Christ, Jesus of Nazareth, and many other names and titles, was a 1st-century Jewish preacher and religious leader. He is the Jesus in Christianity, central figure of Christianity, the M ...

Major loans

From 5 June to 31 August 2013, ''Supper at Emmaus'' was exhibited in The Museum of Arts and Crafts in Zagreb, as a welcoming present of the Italian government for Croatia's joining the EU on 1 June 2013. In March 2014, ''Supper at Emmaus'' was loaned to

Hong Kong Hong Kong)., Legally Hong Kong, China in international treaties and organizations. is a special administrative region of China. With 7.5 million residents in a territory, Hong Kong is the fourth most densely populated region in the wor ...

's The Asia Society for an exhibition called "Light and Shadows – Caravaggio • The Italian Baroque Master". The society also arranged other artworks and activities to promote the exhibition in Park Court, Pacific Place, which ran from 12 March until 13 April 2014.

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External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Supper At Emmaus (Caravaggio), Milan 1606 paintings Paintings by Caravaggio Paintings in the Pinacoteca di Brera

fr:Le Souper à Emmaüs (1606)

Major loans

See also

References

Notes

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External links