Supper at Emmaus

Supper at Emmaus is an 1525 oil on canvas by Pontormo, signed and dated on the scroll left abandoned in the foreground, a habit the painter repeated in his work. It shows the Gospel episode in which Christ, already risen and still unrecognised by his disciples, blesses the bread and then vanishes before them. The scene is set in an interior lit from a high source, a strong light later linked by painters such as Caravaggio, Velázquez and Zurbarán to this work. It was commissioned for the refectory or dispensary of the Certosa del Galluzzo near Florence, places meant for welcoming and feeding guests, which explains the subject. The composition draws on an Albrecht Dürer print from his Small Passion series. Above, an eye within a triangle alludes to the Trinity, and it was probably added later by Empoli to hide a three-faced symbol of the Trinity, banned after the Counter Reformation. In the background appear portraits of Carthusian monks, among them the prior Buonafede.

Painter

Pontormo

Date

1525

Medium

oil paint, canvas

Dimensions

230 × 173 cm

Museum

Uffizi Gallery, Florence

Genre

religious art

Depicts

Supper at Emmaus, Jesus Christ

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