The famous scene of the Last Supper depicts the final meal that Christ had with His disciples before His betrayal by Judas Iscariot. It was at this meal that Christ broke bread and handed it to His disciples. "While they were eating, Jesus took a piece of bread, gave a prayer of thanks, broke it, and gave it to his disciples. ‘Take and eat it,’ he said; ‘this is my body.’" (Matthew 26: 26).
This ceremony, as instituted by Christ, in anticipation of His death, is the basis for the Christian rite of Communion. It was the occasion where all the apostles were together with Christ before the Passion.
From the start, representations of the Last Supper clearly show the desire to illustrate simultaneously the two main ideas handed down in the Gospel texts: a reference to the Passion in the announcement of the betrayal, and the inauguration of the sacrifice of the New Covenant. As part of a Passion cycle, the Last Supper establishes the identification of the traitor Judas by specific gestures described in the Gospels.
Christ gives Judas a piece of bread: "Jesus answered, ‘I will dip some bread in the sauce and give it to him; he is the man.’ So he took a piece of bread, dipped it, and gave it to Judas, the son of Simon Iscariot" (John 13: 26). Judas puts his hand in the dish: "Jesus answered, ‘One who dips his bread in the dish with me will betray me" (Matthew 26: 23). Sometimes the evil spirit is shown entering into Judas in the form of a bird or monster: "As soon as Judas took the bread, Satan entered into him. Jesus said to him, ‘Hurry and do what you must!" (John 13: 27). In contrast – as a sort of counter-motif to this indication of the betrayal – we find the tender group consisting of John reclining his head against the breast of the Lord: "One of the disciples, the one whom Jesus loved, was sitting next to Jesus." (John 13: 23). This gives the composition a center of tension both in form and content.
As a religious icon, the representations done of the Last Supper are only exceeded in number, importance, and distribution by those of the Crucifixion. The historical development of its iconography explains the variety of interpretations done by artists through the ages.
Unexpectedly, the earliest illustrations are not found in the Roman catacombs. During this underground movement, depictions of the subject favored that of the Eucharistic banquet, inspired by scenes showing the agape or "love feast." The earliest representation of this kind can be found in the Catacomb of Calixtus of the early 3rd century, featuring seven figures. It seems clear that for the Early Christians the whole imagery of the Passion seems to be of subjects, which they preferred to avoid.
A 6th-century mosaic in Sant’ Apollinare Nuovo in Ravenna, Italy, accounts for the earliest depiction of Christ with 11 Apostles, reclining on classical triclinia with some fish on the table before them. The illustration in the Rossano Gospels, later in the 6th century, is more factual, since there are 12 Apostles, and on the table in the centre of the triclinia is a large bowl, closer to the text.
Among the Italian examples, it was customary to depict the Last Supper on the monastery refectory walls, as straightforward treatments of the subject. In Florence alone, there are quite a number of examples of this kind, including those done by Andrea del Castagno and Domenico Ghirlandaio. Titian painted two as altarpieces, one now in Urbino Palace, 1522/4, and another now in the Escorial, of 1564 (version in Milan, Brera). Tintoretto painted many, all for churches: Sta. Marcuola, 1547; San Simeone Grande, 1560s; San Polo, late 1560s; San Trovaso, c.1560; Sto. Stefano, c.1580; San Giorgio Maggiore, 1594. There is also one in Lucca Cathedral, c.1592.
Of these, the most outstanding is the one at San Giorgio Maggiore in Venice due to the complex artistic problems of interpretation it exploited. Paolo Veronese was at his best in grand banqueting scenes, and one, intended as a Last Supper for the refectory of the monastery of San Giorgio Maggiore, was, because of the strictures of the Inquisition, converted into a "Feast in the House of Levi" (1573: Venice, Accad.) The others were all feasts mentioned in the Gospels, but none was intended for a Last Supper.
The most celebrated painting of the Last Supper is, without doubt, the one by Leonardo da Vinci, in the refectory of Sta. Maria delle Grazie, Milan, commissioned about 1495, and abandoned in 1499 when the artist left Milan. Supreme in its interpretation of the moment when Christ says He is to be betrayed, it is also catastrophic in its defective technique. It nevertheless remains, even in its mutilated restored condition, the touchstone by which all other representations of the subject are judged, and justly is the most admired for its penetrating psychological insight into the effect His statement had upon the Apostles, and the outward simplicity with which this effect is achieved.
As the doyen of Leonardo studies, Prof. Ludwig H. Heydenreich in his book Leonardo: The Last Supper, concludes: "Thus Leonardo’s Last Supper is one of the very few pictures of a Christian subject – perhaps the only one – that has become identified with its theme throughout the world. No other version, from Giotto through Raphael, Tintoretto, Rubens and down to Tiepolo, has been able to affect the absolute pre-eminence of Leonardo’s achievement. His work has remained untouched by interdenominational strife and has maintained its effect unimpaired right down to the present."