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Supper at Emmaus

Artist: Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio (1571–1610)
Date: 1601
Dimensions: 141 x 196.2 cm
Medium: Oil and tempera on canvas
Location: National Gallery, London, United Kingdom

Caravaggio’s Supper at Emmaus shows two disciples who, after the Resurrection, have unknowingly walked with Christ and invited him to dinner. At the moment he blesses the bread, they suddenly recognise him.

A closer look

One disciple grips the arms of his chair as if about to leap up; the other flings his arms wide, one hand seeming to burst out of the canvas towards us. The innkeeper, still standing, has no idea what is happening. Christ is shown young and beardless, which was unusual. On the table, a basket of fruit teeters on the edge, casting a shadow in the shape of a fish, an early Christian symbol. A strong light from the left carves the figures out of the darkness.

History of the painting

Caravaggio painted the picture in 1601 for the Roman nobleman Ciriaco Mattei, and it soon passed to Cardinal Scipione Borghese, the most passionate collector of his work. In the 19th century it came to England, and in 1839 the politician George Vernon gave it to the National Gallery, where it is one of the most admired paintings by Caravaggio outside Italy. A later, darker version of the subject, painted in 1606, is in the Pinacoteca di Brera in Milan.

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