The Last Supper

The Last Supper, dated 1540 and now in the National Galleries of Scotland, presents the final meal of Christ and his disciples before the Passion, as narrated across all four Gospels but most elaborated in John. The Last Supper was among the most institutionally significant subjects in Venetian religious painting, closely associated with refectories — dining halls of convents and monasteries — where the scene's eucharistic resonances aligned directly with the space's function. Venetian painters from Giovanni Bellini onward had developed a distinctive approach to the subject, and by 1540 Bonifazio Veronese was working in the tradition already massively shaped by Leonardo da Vinci's Milan fresco (completed 1498), which had defined the horizontal banquet table format with Christ at centre as the nearly universal compositional standard. Bonifazio's version adapts this format to Venetian painting's characteristic warmth of colour and atmospheric handling. The National Galleries of Scotland hold a distinguished collection of Italian Renaissance work, and this painting represents Bonifazio's contribution to one of the period's most heavily painted subjects.

Oil on canvas, the horizontal composition — necessitated by the long table format — requires careful management of the disciples' varied poses and expressions across the picture plane. Bonifazio groups figures in interlocking clusters to avoid a mechanical repetition, and uses warm light emanating from the central Christ figure to create a radial chiaroscuro across the table. The architectural setting opens depth behind the figures.