The Last Supper
late 1613 or early 1614
Medium
Pen and brown ink, with brush and brown wash, heightened with touches of white opaque watercolor, over traces of black chalk, on cream laid paper, incised for transfer
Dimensions
30.2 × 19.7 cm (11 15/16 × 7 13/16 in.)
Classification
drawings (visual works)
Department
Prints and Drawings
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Accession Number
202252
Rights
Public Domain
About this artwork
This important drawing is one of a group of preparatory designs for a Roman Catholic prayer book (the Breviarium Romanum) that was reissued in 1614 under the new parameters of Counter-Reformation liturgy. This scene, in which Peter Paul Rubens placed the figure of Judas—instead of Christ—as center-most in the composition, preceded prayers celebrating the feast of Corpus Christi. The layered used of media and precise placement of compositional elements reflect Rubens’s intense desire to control t...
About the Artist
Peter Paul Rubens · 1577–1640
Peter Paul Rubens (1577-1640) stands as the most influential artist of the Flemish Baroque tradition and the greatest exponent of Baroque painting's dynamism, vitality, and sensuous exuberance. Born in Siegen, Westphalia, and raised in Antwerp, Rubens received a humanist education studying Latin and classical literature before pursuing artistic training under three masters: Tobias Verhaecht, Adam ...