The Last Supper

Agnolo Gaddi, son of the great Taddeo Gaddi and grandson by training of Giotto's tradition, was the last major painter of the Giottesque lineage in Florence. This Last Supper, now in the Lindenau Museum in Altenburg, treats one of the most important subjects in Christian art, depicting the moment when Christ announces that one of the apostles will betray him. Agnolo was active in the final decades of the fourteenth century, a transitional period when Florentine painting was beginning to absorb International Gothic influences.

Tempera on panel, with Agnolo Gaddi's characteristic combination of Giottesque spatial organization and late Trecento decorative refinement. The twelve apostles are arranged around the table with individualized expressions and gestures, rendered in warm colors with careful attention to the play of light across draperies and the table setting.