Jacopo Bassano’s Last Supper (1542)
NOTE THAT THE ESSAY REFERS TO THE ABOVE PHOTO
Jacopo Bassano’s painting version of the The Last Supper presents an alternative approach to
those of his contemporaries, while simultaneously incorporating various elements popular among
the Venetian movement of his age. Though inspired from the older and more well-known
masterpiece rendering of The Last Supper by Leonardo Da Vinci, and despite the fact that
Bassano himself was part of the Venetian School, his painting in a matter of speaking both steals
and lets lie many aspects popular in this movement of artists.
The Last Supper was painted as a typical oil painting with the same materials as the rest
of the Venetian artists and painters of the 1800s; a small note may be made concerning the fact
that Venice offered a moisture factor and thus required durable materials. An interesting note
about the reaction to the colors of his masterpiece by 19th century artists may be mentioned to
shed light concerning the materials and coloring of this piece. Thus, they painted over these
original colorings with colors more suited to their 19th century aesthetic tastes. It wasn’t until a
more recent restoration that Bassano’s shadings and lightings became apparent. This is important
because lighting was a principle of the Venetian School, of which Bassano contradicted by
molding his works to a heavier style of Mannerism.
Many details are striking about this painting, especially in light of the painting, which
inspired Leonardo’s version of this point in Christ’s life. In contrast to the linear, smooth lining
and organization of the twelve apostles present in the masterpiece of Da Vinci, the artwork of
Bassano expresses a more disorganized scene. It is a scene that can be argued in many aspects to
conform more to the realistic approach of the fishermen’s gathering. However, as far as the
realism of this painting, that was not by even the slightest degree to be the complete purpose of
this work. Culturally speaking, this painting obviously does not accurately express the true
appearance of the historic scene. The authentic chair and table are not reflective of Jewish culture
in the 1800s, so it can be accurately stated that Bassano aimed for a slightly more symbolic
meaning than a realistic portrait of this time in these thirteen men’s lives. Keith Christianson
surmised this by saying “Bassano’s works can be called a prelude to the revolution of realism
championed by Caravaggio… At the same time, Bassano is acutely aware of the expectations of
style and his figures are always carefully posed.”
To overview the disciples and Jesus from left to right, it is observable that two of the
disciples in the top left corner of the painting are conversing between each other, the one farthest
to the left wears a sort of iridescent pink and the other an emerald green. These two colors are
commonly used throughout this painting. Both of these two illustrate the implied movement
throughout this painting with their heavy gesturing motions. The two disciples below them are
separated from each other. The bottom one who wears a pink top similar to one of the
aforementioned characters converses not with the disciple in black above him, but discusses with
the man in the slightly darker green top directly across the table. The pink shirted man’s stare
and hand gestures are serious and somewhat bewildered, a theme common to the majority of the
people in this scene. The man in the black above him, however, he speaks to no one. He sips
from a cup of red wine without a glance at anything but the table. It is almost certain that this
darker clothed man who stares downward into his drink is the betrayer himself, the disciple Judas
Iscariot. An old man in tan clothing may be grouped in the same vicinity as these two, though he
is set apart in some regards by his somewhat odd posture and by the knife held in his right hand.
The next two, Jesus and the redheaded disciple seem to form the center of the painting.
However, how Jacopo Bassano depicts this differs in manner of portrayal from his
contemporaries, in that Jesus is behind someone and almost in the background, yet at the same
time presenting great meaning and being part of the central focus point of the painting.
Intriguingly, Jesus wears the same color of outer garment as Judas on top of his pink
undergarment. The darkness of Christ’s hair highlights the heavenly light illustrated behind his
head, a symbolic touch referring to his Divinity popular at the time. He stares surreally forward
and fingers a platter with a lamb’s head on it, a symbolism of his being a sacrifice as the “lamb
of God” for humanity. Now the redheaded disciple is interesting here. Staring down sorrowfully
at the table, we see a less fisherman looking man without a beard, a striking standout from the
rest of the men in this room. This is most likely the disciple John who was nearly always
portrayed in a manner similar to this painting by other artists as a beardless, perhaps more boyish
figure. Art critic, Lisa Shea, speculates that it is possible for this disciple to be a woman;
however, this claim is practically false considering the background of the artist as well as the
historical context of this scene depicted.
Further to the right, the three next disciples are older looking, with one staring towards
the left end of the picture. The other two seem to be conversing minimally while staring sadly off
in contemplative gazes. One stares downward towards the ground. The other gazes somewhat in
the direction of the viewer with the same sorrowful eyes. The other two farthest to the right of
the painting display similar postures, with one staring downward and another who is obscured by
him stares forward almost directly at the viewer, and as aforementioned, the bottom right disciple
discusses with the one directly opposite to his person across at the table’s end. Some
miscellaneous details include the water jar and basin at the feet of the disciples. These objects are
references to Jesus washing the feet of his followers. The wine glass is shimmered through
producing a red tint on the white tablecloth.
As a quick comparison between Leonardo Da Vinci’s Last Supper and Jacopo Bassano’s
Last Supper, it is observable how the settings are different in these two works. Da Vinci paints
the scene with the setting of an open building during the day. Bassano used nocturnal settings for
many of his paintings, and for his version of The Last Supper, he employed the same aspect.
Even though the room is presumably closed, the dark lighting gives a nocturnal feeling to the
scene and also contributes to the mood of this image. The darker lighting highlights, in a manner
of speaking, the dark time at this moment when Jesus foretells and declares that one of his
disciples present at the table will betray him to the death for which he came to earth.
Overall, the painting represents a Mannerist phase in Bassano’s life. However, the
question to be asked may be what the Mannerist movement in Renaissance art was, as opposed
to the current techniques in Venetian naturalism. Mannerism, according to artistic writer Shelley
Esaak, is a term referring to the years ranging between the death of Raphael and the beginning of
the Baroque period, which commenced around 1600. Ross Finnochio, a member of the
Department of European Paintings in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, states that Mannerism
was dubbed with such a name due to the fact that the characters in such paintings were
“mannered” to emphasize “complexity and virtuosity” which opposes it to Naturalism. The much
later works of Michelangelo actually took on this artistic style, and the Venetian school also had
what has been described by Shelley Esaak as a, “brief fling with Mannerism.” However, Ross
Finnochio has referenced Andrea del Sarto as essentially the beginning of the movement, calling
him the “first generation of Mannerist painters in Florence.” Yet, the Mannerist movement soon
moved far beyond Florence. Approximated around the midpoint of the century is the time that it
hit an upward trend in European artistic fashion. Ross Finnochio also names two painters and
appoints them as representatives for much of the movement; he names Jacopo Tintoretto and
Parmigianino as perhaps the main artists of this style.
The Venetian school began approximately during halfway through the 15th century, thus
around a half century before Mannerism. There were two families that were the overall pioneers
of the movement. These families were the Bellini and the Vivarini. During these grand
Renaissance times, Venice and Florence were both major cities in the art industry. As kings in
their fields, these two cities reigned tremendous influence over the rest of European art. Thus, the
Venetian School was by no means a small, un-influential sect of artists. Once these two families
commenced this school, other artists began rolling in the dough so to speak, most especially with
the arrival of their first extremely big name in the person of Giorgione, who himself ushered in
Venetian painting in this century as well as inspiring many others, the likes of which include
Titian, Lotto, and Tintoretto. According to Shelley Esaak, the Venetian school played a greater
role than any other group of artists in their use of oil paintings as a medium for their prolific and
popular works.
Simply and pithily put, the main focus of the Venetian school was light. Lighting and
shading held the attention of this group of artists. Despite the intriguing truth that Impressionism
itself had in the realm of four hundred years until its arrival on the European arts scene, the
interest of Venetian school had already been supremely invested in the ways lighting was to be
used in their masterpieces. Thus, when they eased a little into Mannerism, instead of focusing on
contortedly positioned figures as was popular in the rest of the Mannerist movement, they
employed light for their purposes to give greater complexity to their pieces.
Bassano differed from even the Venetian school in his style of the Mannerist movement.
We see the Mannerism in The Last Supper by the mood, intricate poses and gestures, and as well
as in the lighting, yet he still differed from his Venetian contemporaries. His fellow artists in the
Venetian school employed less Mannerism than Bassano and employed greater pomp than he did.
His coloring contrasts are sharper and lighted smoothly in alternate ways.
So we see that Bassano, with his mix of Mannerism and influence from his Venetian
partners, produced a unique style of art which may be partly witnessed in his version of the last
supper of Jesus Christ. With this in mind, it seems very unusual that his fame has not equaled
that of his contemporaries.
Works Cited
Esaak, Shelley. The Renaissance in Venice - Art History 101 Basics. About.com/Arthistory.
http://arthistory.about.com/cs/arthistory10one/a/ven_ren.htm. Shelley Esaak gives a
background and an overview concerning the Venetian school. The history as well as the
artists and their characteristics are overviewed in this article.
Christiansen, Keith. "Jacopo dal Ponte, called Bassano (ca. 1510–1592)". In Heilbrunn Timeline
of Art History. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2000
http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/bass/hd_bass.htm (March 2009). Keith Christiansen
overviews the artist Jacopo Bassano. He reviews his works and life.
Finocchio, Ross. "Mannerism: Bronzino (1503–1572) and his Contemporaries". In Heilbrunn
Timeline of Art History. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2000–.
http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/zino/hd_zino.htm (October 2003). The Mannerism
movement is discussed in this article.
Shearman, John. Only Connect: Art and the Spectator in the Italian Renaissance. Princeton:
Princeton University Press, 1992. From John Sherman’s work, some of the information in
this essay concerning Mannerism was gained.
Fahy, Everett. "Florentine Paintings in the Metropolitan Museum: An Exhibition and a
Catalogue." The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin, v. 29, no. 10 (June, 1971). From
this article, information was gained on the artfulness expressed in the city of Florence.