Christ with the Eucharist and Saints Bartholomew and Roch

Christ with the Eucharist and Saints Bartholomew and Roch by Moretto da Brescia combines Christ presenting the Eucharist with two saints whose significance is simultaneously theological and practical: Bartholomew as apostle-martyr and Roch as protector against plague. The Eucharistic subject — Christ offering the chalice or host — was a direct response to Protestant challenges to the Catholic doctrine of transubstantiation, making it one of the most charged subjects of Counter-Reformation devotion. Moretto's Brescia, close to Protestant territories in Switzerland and the German states, was particularly alert to the theological arguments surrounding the Eucharist, and his paintings on this theme served an apologetic as well as devotional function.

Moretto centers the composition on the eucharistic elements with characteristic devotional restraint, his cool tonality and precise rendering of liturgical objects emphasizing the sacrament's solemnity.