Ultima Cena

Jaume Serra's Ultima Cena (Last Supper), dating to around 1370 and now in the Palazzo Abatellis in Palermo, demonstrates the wide geographic reach of Catalan Gothic painting across the medieval Mediterranean. The Serra brothers' workshop in Barcelona produced altarpieces that circulated throughout the Crown of Aragon's territories, including Sicily. This eucharistic scene would have formed part of a larger Passion cycle within a retable altarpiece, serving as both liturgical decoration and devotional instruction.

Executed in egg tempera on panel with gold ground, the Last Supper arranges Christ and the apostles around a table in the conventional Gothic frontal composition, rendered with Jaume Serra's characteristic flat decorative patterning and warm Italianate palette.