Christ Washing the Apostles' Feet

Simon Bening's Christ Washing the Apostles' Feet is a companion miniature from the same devotional manuscript as the Peter's Denial, demonstrating the narrative cohesion of Bening's Gospel cycle at the Getty Center. The Mandatum — Christ's washing of the disciples' feet at the Last Supper — was read as the supreme act of humble service and the institution of the commandment of love. Bening rendered this intimate scene with the emotional depth and compositional sophistication that placed his miniatures on a par with full-scale panel paintings of the period. These Getty miniatures are among the finest surviving examples of the last flowering of Flemish manuscript illumination.

The intimate domestic scene is organized around Christ's kneeling figure before Peter, with the remaining apostles observing from behind. Bening's characteristic warm, ambient light fills the interior space. Despite the miniature scale, spatial recession, textile textures, and psychological differentiation of individual apostles are all rendered with extraordinary finesse.