Last Supper

Last Supper, painted by Holbein around 1524 for the Basel Town Hall, belongs to his engagement with religious monumental painting alongside his portrait work. The composition draws on the established tradition of the subject — Leonardo's version was already famous by this date — while Holbein brings his characteristic northern precision to the disciples' faces and the representation of the meal. The Basel Town Hall commission was a major civic undertaking in which Holbein painted a series of large-format religious and historical scenes for the council chamber; this Last Supper belongs to that program. The work demonstrates his ability to manage large-scale narrative composition — the orchestration of many figures in a coherent spatial and dramatic arrangement — alongside his mastery of the intimate portrait.

The composition arranges the apostles around the table with careful attention to individual characterization. Holbein's precise rendering creates a compelling narrative scene with Northern European detail.