''The Supper at Emmaus'' is a painting by the Italian

Baroque The Baroque ( , , ) is a Western Style (visual arts), style of Baroque architecture, architecture, Baroque music, music, Baroque dance, dance, Baroque painting, painting, Baroque sculpture, sculpture, poetry, and other arts that flourished from ...

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 ...

, completed in 1601, and now in London. It depicts the Gospel story of the

resurrected Jesus The resurrection of Jesus () is Christian belief that God raised Jesus from the dead on the third day after his crucifixion, starting—or restoring—his exalted life as Christ and Lord. According to the New Testament writing, Jesus wa ...

's appearance in Emmaus. Originally this painting was commissioned and paid for by Ciriaco Mattei, brother of cardinal

Girolamo Mattei Girolamo Mattei (8 February 1547 – 8 December 1603) was an Italian Cardinal from the House of Mattei. Biography Mattei was born 8 February 1547, the son of Alessandro Mattei and Emilia Mazzatosta. He was the younger brother of Ciriaco Mattei ...

Description

The painting depicts the moment when the resurrected but incognito

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

reveals himself to two of his disciples (presumed to be

Luke Luke may refer to: People and fictional characters * Luke (given name), including a list of people and fictional characters with the name * Luke (surname), including a list of people with the name * Luke the Evangelist, author of the Gospel of Luk ...

and

Cleopas Cleopas (; Greek: Κλεόπας, romanized: ''Kleopas''), also spelled Cleophas, was a figure of early Christianity, one of the two disciples who encountered Jesus during the Road to Emmaus appearance in . Etymology Some writers claim that t ...

) in the town of

Emmaus Emmaus ( ; ; ; ) is a town mentioned in the Gospel of Luke of the New Testament. Luke reports that Jesus appeared, after his death and resurrection, before two of his disciples while they were walking on the road to Emmaus. Although its geograp ...

, only to soon vanish from their sight (

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: 30–31). Cleopas wears the scallop shell of a

pilgrim The asterisk ( ), from Late Latin , from Ancient Greek , , "little star", is a typographical symbol. It is so called because it resembles a conventional image of a heraldic star. Computer scientists and mathematicians often vocalize it as ...

. The other apostle wears torn clothes. Cleopas gesticulates in a perspectively-challenging extension of arms in and out of the frame of reference. The standing groom, forehead smooth and face in darkness, appears oblivious to the event. The painting is unusual for the life-sized figures, the dark and blank background. The table lays out a still-life meal with the basket of food teetering over the edge. In the

Gospel of Mark The Gospel of Mark is the second of the four canonical Gospels and one of the three synoptic Gospels, synoptic Gospels. It tells of the ministry of Jesus from baptism of Jesus, his baptism by John the Baptist to his death, the Burial of Jesus, ...

(16:12) Jesus is said to have appeared to them "in another form", which may be why he is depicted beardless here, as opposed to the bearded Christ in '' Calling of St Matthew'', where a group of seated money counters is interrupted by the recruiting Christ. It is also a recurring theme in Caravaggio's paintings to find the sublime interrupting the daily routine. The unexalted humanity is apt for this scene, since the human Jesus has made himself unrecognizable to his disciples, and at once confirms and surmounts his humanity. Caravaggio seems to suggest that perhaps a Jesus could enter our daily encounters. The dark background envelops the tableau.

Christian symbolism

The basket of fruit in the foreground has two stray strands of wicker that form an

ichthys The ichthys or ichthus (), from the Greek (, 1st cent. AD Koinē Greek pronunciation: , "fish") is, in its modern rendition, a symbol consisting of two intersecting arcs, the ends of the right side extending beyond the meeting point so as to ...

, the early Christian fish-symbol for Christ. The shadow of the fruit on the tablecloth forms the body of a fish and fishtail.

Milan version

Caravaggio painted another version of the ''

Supper at Emmaus According to the Gospel of Luke, the road to Emmaus appearance is one of the early post-resurrection appearances of Jesus after his crucifixion and the discovery of the empty tomb. Both the meeting on the road to Emmaus and the subsequent supper ...

'' (now in the Brera,

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 1606. By comparison, the gestures of figures are far more restrained, making presence more important than performance. The art techniques used in both versions is the

Trompe-l'œil ; ; ) is an artistic term for the highly realistic optical illusion of three-dimensional space and objects on a Two-dimensional space, two-dimensional surface. , which is most often associated with painting, tricks the viewer into perceiving p ...

style which seems to allow characters to move in their gestures, as a means to grab the attention of the observers. This difference possibly reflects the circumstances of Caravaggio's life at that point (he had fled Rome as an outlaw following the death of Ranuccio Tomassoni), or possibly, recognising the ongoing evolution of his art, in the intervening five years he had come to recognise the value of understatement.

Description

Christian symbolism

Milan version

See also

References

Further reading