Overshadowed Tintoretto

Tintoretto was a late Renaissance painter who painted The Last Supper.  It may not be anyone’s first thought when you hear “the last supper” but it definitely is the most expressionistic.  Tintoretto uses heavy light contrasts and allusion in his painting creates the perfect example of drama.  This painting is a great production of the biblical story of Jesus and his disciples’ last meal together. 

First thing that you will notice is the man in the middle of the table is Jesus.  We can tell because his aura is the biggest and brightest.  After further examination we can determine that only twelve people have the holy aura around their heads, as opposed to thirteen, Jesus plus his twelve disciples.  This would make sense as Judas would not have one as he just sold out his lord and master for a bag of silver.  The weirdest thing about this is theoretically had Judas not done so then there would not have been the death of Christ nor a rebirth.  Judas got the worst punishment, Hell’s fire for eternity, for being the catalyst for all Christian salvation.

In this rendition of the last supper the setting of this event is in a public tavern or restaurant and there are many people.  This painting seems more realistic and very expressive, then the Leonardo da Vinci version.  Tintoretto uses an extreme contrast of dark and light to cause the almost over dramatic effects seen in this artwork.  Above the people, near the ceiling, there are angels flying around.  The angels are seen in this painting as foggy white ghostly images only seen because of the light from the ceiling candles.  The flames of the candles seem to be burning extremely high and appear to be the origin or destination of the angels. 

            In this painting, Tintoretto used a side perspective view to give the scene a more dramatic and personal feel.  This makes you feel like you are really in the room when it happened.  Everything in this painting is dramatic.  An example of this is the exaggerated stance of the man in blue in the far right foreground.  This man is standing on his left toe and stretching to the left while trying to pick up something with his right arm.  This position is very odd indeed, as it is not conductive to pick up anything as you balance is out of order and your back is strained.  Even the woman he is looking at is stretched out.  She is reaching out to the man in blue with a bowl full of something, with one hand, and putting away dirty dishes, with the other.

            Almost a hundred years after da Vinci painted The Last Supper, Tintoretto gave it a go.  The story of the last supper is so wide spread that is not a shock that more people illustrate the event, then just a one great person.  Tintoretto, who’s real name was Jacopo Comin, did an amazing job of capturing the spirit of the meaning of the last supper of Jesus Christ.