The Story
The Last Supper (Russian: Тайная вечеря) is a painting by the Russian painter Nikolai Ge (1831–1894), completed in 1863. It is part of the collection of the State Russian Museum in Saint Petersburg (inv. Zh-4141). The size of the picture is 283 × 382 cm. Ge worked on the painting from 1861 to 1863 in Florence during his artistic trip abroad. After Ge brought the painting to Saint Petersburg, it was exhibited at the Academic Exhibition in 1863.
The Council of the Imperial Academy of Arts praised the artist's skill in painting, and awarded him the title of professor of history painting, and the work was purchased by Emperor Alexander II for the Museum of the Academy of Arts. The painting depicts the Last Supper, described in the New Testament, the last meal of Jesus Christ with his twelve apostles, during which he predicted that one of them—Judas Iscariot—would betray him.
Executed in Oil on wood, measuring Overall, with shaped top and engaged frame: central panel 47 x 33 3/4 in. (119.4 x 85.7 cm); left wing 47 x 16 7/8 in. (119.4 x 42.9 cm); right wing 47 1/8 x 17 in. (119.7 x 43.2 cm), the surface rewards close looking. NetherlandishPainters builds the composition through layered glazes and a tightly controlled palette, letting cool shadows recede so that the warm, lit passages step forward. The brushwork shifts from the precise to the almost dissolved — a hallmark of mature Baroque practice.
“A silence so complete it becomes its own witness.”
