SUPPER AT EMMAUS / Caravaggio
Caravaggio. Supper at Emmaus (1601). National Gallery, London
Caravaggio’s painting “Supper at Emmaus” belongs to early Italian Baroque, which main features can be referred as theatricality and melodrama. It is characterized with extreme naturalism and intense value contrasts; new techniques like tenebrism were developed. Painters used broad and creamy brushstrokes, creating impasto effect. Baroque illustrated mostly Catholic dogma under the patronage of Catholic Church, depicting religious objects and events.
The Supper at Emmaus represents the story, when two apostles of Christ (Peter and Cleophas), after the Crucifixion, have invited an encountered person to share a meal with them and, at the moment when he blessed and broke the bread, they realized that it was the resurrected Jesus. The painting has “frozen” the moment of the astonishment and shock of the two disciples, while the servant expresses interest yet confusion and incomprehension. For him, the stranger looks as a normal human, but the apostles have just realized that they’ve been witnessing an incredible, absolutely astonishing miracle. We can see it in their gestures and poses; one has shoved back his chair, holding it with tension caused by the shock, and the other has stretched his arms wide with complete astonishment.
We do not know exactly who commissioned this work, but obviously, it was someone of clergy. Caravaggio painted it in Rome, in 1602.
He depicted the moment of the revelation in a very natural way. This naturalism corresponds with a requirement of the church at that time to present religious events and objects with particular clarity, to create a direct message to the faithful. However, the artist probably has gone further, making a challenge to traditional standards. Unlike many religious images, the scene is located not in an extensive picture space, but the figures are gathered towards each other, against a dark wall. The whole emphasize on the figures gives us a feeling of their presence, as if they would exist out of the canvas. Caravaggio skilfully uses foreshortening and light to convey the dramatic and emotional effect of the moment. The captured motions of arms and the shadows convey certain depth and thereby volume in the painting, making it incredibly realistic. Christ is depicted as a young man, without beard which he had at the age of crucifixion, the apostles have torn clothes making them look like labourers – all this caused hard critic and disapproval from clergy at that time.
This is a medium-sized work, 138 x 194 cm, painted with oil on canvas. The figures are nearly life-size. Caravaggio paid a lot of attention to the details, not only to face and gestures of the figures, endowing them with a lot of expression and drama, but also to the exquisite still life on the table: glasses, poultry, apples, grape, and even leaves are depicted with startling naturalism. It seems like the artist was trying to offset the transience of this fleeting moment with the immobility of this still life. There was also critic at that time that the fruits in the basket were “out of season” because the painter has chosen autumn fruits, although the Easter is celebrated in spring. But maybe Caravaggio tried to use them as symbols? Like rotten apples as a symbolical meaning of Temptation or a Fall of Man, or grapes being a source of wine, symbolize Blood of Christ embodying his sacrifice. Pomegranates can be associated with the church. The bread can be recognized as a Body of Christ, its Incarnation, and, finally, the light descending into the centre of the scene, symbolizes the coming of Christ. The lighting has a significant role here, not being simply an illumination, but presenting the figures and objects in a special way and emphasizing the magic of this instant revelation.
Supper at Emmaus is a powerful work and one of the most important paintings of Caravaggio, a great master of Italian Baroque art. The artist used combination of values and contrasts, linear and aerial perspective, perfectly balanced position of figures in the space, he painted this work with extreme naturalism in his typical high-edged style, capturing the transient moment of a wonder with a purpose to give us time to feel the intense drama and to admire it.