The Last Supper, Tintoretto, Size: 12 ft X 18.8 ft, Date: 1592-1594, Museum: San Giorgio Maggiore, Venice.
The Last Supper shows us Christ and his disciples sit at a table to eat the bread that Christ breaks and gives them to eat. There are angels above the disciples and servants watching down on top of them, in a swirling motion. The Last Supper shows us a painting of the standard theme of Christian sacrament of communion. There are servants who are filling the food on the table, the bread and all Christ disciples are watching in excitement. Tintoretto uses an array of diagonal lines in the way the disciples are sitting at the table and in the way the servants are diagonally placed on the left of the picture. The diagonal lines are leading up to Christ, who has an very brilliant array of light above his head, leading to the center of the painting, the main point or emphasis of the painting. A lantern or light of burning flames positions itself above the opposite end of Christ to give off light, to show the miracle taking place. All of Christ disciples have a shine or glow above their heads who are waiting impatiently to be saved or blessed from Christ. Tintoretto uses colors, red, blue, yellow, green and the arrangement of the shine and glow as a way to provide emotion, or movement to the picture.
Tintoretto places the viewer in the bottom left hand corner of the picture, with our eyes drawn to the disciples glowing heads and then to the emphasis or Christ, with a brilliant light above his head putting off light, showing him breaking bread and giving it to his disciples through communion. The Christian sacrament of communion has been a holy part of worship in Christian religion for many years. Religion places a vital role in communion in remembering what Christ did for us, in his life, death and resurrection. The importance of Christ being the emphasis of the picture places an importance in the meaning of Christian sacrament of communion.
Tintoretto surely intended the ambiguity, for he wanted his paintings to embody the most important events of The Last Supper
Title: Tintoretto’s paintings for the Banco del Sacramento in S. Margherita.
Author: Thomas Worthen
Source: The Art Bulletin, Vol. 78, No. 4 (Dec 1996), pp. 707-732.
