Communion of the Apostles

Fra Angelico's Communion of the Apostles, painted around 1450 for the Museum of San Marco, depicts the institution of the Eucharist at the Last Supper with Dominican theological emphasis on the sacrament. The subject held central importance for the order, which was deeply invested in Eucharistic theology and devotion. Fra Angelico — born Guido di Pietro, known in religion as Fra Giovanni da Fiesole — was a Dominican friar whose painting practice was inseparable from his spiritual vocation. Working primarily for his own order and for Florentine civic and private patrons, he created some of the most luminous and spiritually powerful images in the history of European art.

The scene is set within a simply articulated refectory rendered in one-point perspective, with the apostles arranged around Christ in a symmetrical composition painted in Fra Angelico's characteristic luminous pastel tones.