The Last Supper by Pieter Coecke van Aelst

English: Pieter Coecke van Aelst's The Last Supper was one of the most popular images of the sixteenth century. It freely combined the compositions of Leonardo da Vinci's Last Supper in Milan (1498) and Marcantonio Raimondi's engraving after Raphael's drawing of the same subject (circa 1510-20) with the enigmatic gestures of the apostles from the popular print by Albrecht Dürer (1523). The most notable differences between the version of 1528 and most others are the simplified checkerboard pattern of the floor and the dog in the foreground that misses its playmate. It is therefore different from the Poznan version as recorded in the RKD, as that painting features a second dog and the more common tiled floor pattern. Other details exclusive to the version of 1528 include faint lines on Judas' feet, possibly sandal straps, and the stripes on the green garments of the apostle seen from behind. Small biblical scenes are depicted in the background, heightening the impact of the main theme. Through the window we see an archway (in typical Antwerp style) with the Entry in Jerusalem, an episode of the Passion that preceeds the Last Supper. In the ornamented window we can see depictions of the Fall of Man. The medals represent the stories of David and Goliath and Cain and Abel, taken directly from a print by another popular Renaissance artist, Jan Gossaert, called Mabuse (active 1503-32). The whole iconography is focused on original sin and mankind's salvation through Christ's sacrifice.

Coecke van Aelst theme was probably first a drawn model. The paintings had two standard formats: 50 x 60 cm. and 60 x 80 cm., of which the larger format seems to have been the most popular.

The present version, with all its details and similarities to Coecke's style, seems to be painted in close relation to the model of the master.Most 45 versions are dated from 1527 to 1550, six or seven versions were made 1528.

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  Pieter Coecke van Aelst, Belvoir Castle, 1527
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  Pieter Coecke van Aelst and studio, oil on panel

  medium QS:P186,Q296955;P186,Q287,P518,Q861259

  , (simplified checkerboard pattern, one dog), 1528
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  Workshop of Pieter Coecke van Aelst, Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium, 1531
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  Pieter Coecke van Aelst and workshop, dated 'ANNO 1545' (upper centre, in the stained glass)
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  Hendrik Goltzius, after Pieter Coecke van Aelst, Last Supper, 1585

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  Last Supper by Leonardo da Vinci, Santa Maria delle Grazie Church, 1494-1497
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  Marcantonio Raimondi after Raphael, Victoria and Albert Museum, 1515-1516
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  Albrecht Dürer, 1523
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