VERONESE, Paolo
(b. 1528, Verona, d. 1588, Venezia)

Last Supper

c. 1585
Oil on canvas, 220 x 523 cm
Pinacoteca di Brera, Milan

In the eighties Paolo returned once again to the theme of the Lord's Supper in the canvas painted around 1585 for the Venetian church of Santa Sofia, where it was until 1811 and now is in Brera. Here too the painter substantially modified the compositional structure he had adopted in the past for similar pictures. In particular, he changed the location of Christ, who no longer dominates the centre of the scene but is placed on the left-hand edge of the canvas, while the long table is now set diagonally instead of being viewed from the front. In addition, the triumphant architectural setting of the feasts he painted in the sixties and seventies has vanished completely and the event now takes place in modest surroundings, emphasizing Christ's message of humility and poverty.