Last Supper

Giorgio Vasari's Last Supper, in oil on canvas in the Basilica of Santa Croce in Florence, places one of Christianity's most theologically and artistically charged subjects in one of Italy's most prestigious religious buildings. Santa Croce was the principal Franciscan church of Florence and the burial church of the city's greatest cultural figures; any major work there would be viewed against an extraordinary background of artistic achievement. The Last Supper carried particular Eucharistic significance in Counter-Reformation theology, as the Council of Trent reaffirmed transubstantiation against Protestant challenges, making visual representations of the institution of the Eucharist theologically pointed. Vasari's engagement with the subject would necessarily invoke the shadow of Leonardo's paradigmatic version, requiring him to bring something new to the composition while maintaining doctrinal clarity.

The large canvas support and oil medium allow for the full horizontal register that the Last Supper format requires — a long table with thirteen figures arranged across its length. Vasari's compositional solution would have organised the apostles in animated groups of two and three, their varied gestures and expressions registering the announcement of betrayal that gives the scene its dramatic tension.