The Institution of the Eucharist

The Institution of the Eucharist, in the National Gallery London, depicts the Last Supper moment when Christ takes the bread and wine and gives them to his disciples, establishing the sacrament at the heart of Christian liturgical practice. Ercole de' Roberti's rendering would likely have formed part of the same predella series as The Israelites Gathering Manna, the two subjects paired according to typological logic—the Old Testament prefiguration alongside its New Testament fulfillment.

The twelve disciples are arranged around Christ in the compact, spatially compressed format of a predella panel, each figure given individual character through facial expression and the angle of their bodies toward the central action. Roberti's treatment of the table and its objects—bread, cups, and cloth—shows his attention to material specificity even within the constraints of the small-panel format.