Last Supper

Grão Vasco's Last Supper from 1535 is one of the masterworks of Portuguese painting, created for the cathedral of Viseu where the artist spent most of his career. Vasco Fernandes, known as Grão Vasco (Great Vasco), synthesized Flemish pictorial influence absorbed through Portugal's extensive commercial and cultural ties with the Netherlands with Italian Renaissance elements arriving through prints and direct contact. The Last Supper shows his distinctive synthesis: the spatial organization and figure types reflect Flemish models while the emotional intensity and rich color reflect his personal vision. As the leading painter of central Portugal in the early sixteenth century, his influence on subsequent Portuguese painting was enormous, and he is considered the founding figure of the national school.

The composition combines Northern Netherlandish precision in still-life details and costume with an Italian-influenced spatial arrangement, reflecting the dual artistic influences on Portuguese Renaissance painting.