DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.68668#0111
THE LAST SUPPER
69
demon on the shoulder of the betrayer,
whispering in his ear.1 Christ is blessing
the Bread and Wine, the moment gener-
ally chosen for illustration; it remained for
Leonardo to choose the more dramatic one
of the words: “ One of you shall betray
Me,” and to paint the variety of startled
expression which they called forth. Here
all sit calmly, and the heads, drawn from
the painter’s stock of ideal types, are suffi-
ciently meaningless, and lack the strong
drawing and the individualisation of the
other Florentine artists who have painted
the Last Supper. Rosselli succeeds better
when he goes to nature and brings in four
portraits standing on either side. In the
background are the three scenes of the
Agony in the Garden, the Betrayal, and
the Crucifixion.
1 It was a mediaeval superstition that the Evil Spirit
entered a man by the mouth. If he spoke too fast, the
demon endeavoured to make him yawn and then slipped
in. This was the origin of placing the hand before the
mouth when yawning, and in parts of the Tyrol the peasants
still say, “God keep you,” when any one yawns. It is
common in mediaeval paintings to see the demon coming
out of the mouth of a possessed person. It is much rarer
to see him depicted as waiting to enter.
69
demon on the shoulder of the betrayer,
whispering in his ear.1 Christ is blessing
the Bread and Wine, the moment gener-
ally chosen for illustration; it remained for
Leonardo to choose the more dramatic one
of the words: “ One of you shall betray
Me,” and to paint the variety of startled
expression which they called forth. Here
all sit calmly, and the heads, drawn from
the painter’s stock of ideal types, are suffi-
ciently meaningless, and lack the strong
drawing and the individualisation of the
other Florentine artists who have painted
the Last Supper. Rosselli succeeds better
when he goes to nature and brings in four
portraits standing on either side. In the
background are the three scenes of the
Agony in the Garden, the Betrayal, and
the Crucifixion.
1 It was a mediaeval superstition that the Evil Spirit
entered a man by the mouth. If he spoke too fast, the
demon endeavoured to make him yawn and then slipped
in. This was the origin of placing the hand before the
mouth when yawning, and in parts of the Tyrol the peasants
still say, “God keep you,” when any one yawns. It is
common in mediaeval paintings to see the demon coming
out of the mouth of a possessed person. It is much rarer
to see him depicted as waiting to enter.