Photographed by Scott Wolff. Scanned from a slide. Color corrected by Pat Cagney.

The Last Supper

Artist Erastus Salisbury Field (American, 1805-1900)

Dateca. 1875-1880

MediumOil on canvas

DimensionsOverall: 35 x 46 in. (88.9 x 116.8 cm)
Overall, Frame: 40 1/2 in. (102.9 cm)

ClassificationsAmerican art

Credit LineGift of Edgar William and Bernice Chrysler Garbisch

Object number80.181.16

Terms

The Last Supper
Jesus Christ
Religion
Apostles
Tan
Blue
Purple
Yellow
Red
White
Black
Green
Brown
Folk art
American naive
Massachusetts

Collections

American Art before 1945

On View

On view

DescriptionThis is an oil on canvas painting of Christ and the twelve Apostles at the Last Supper, and is seen as a direct reference to Da Vinci's Last Supper. The layout of the room and arrangement and postures of the disciples are the same: the twelve are gathered on one side of the table in groups of three. The opposite side, where the viewer is "seated" remains empty. Christ, in the center, sits with a window behind him, illuminating his deity. The departure from Da Vinci lies most strongly in the palette and perspective: the colors are brighter and sharper, lacking Da Vinci's use of sfumato. Likewise, Field's painting lacks the use of a vanishing point.

Label TextErastus Salisbury Field American, 1805—1900 The Last Supper, ca. 1875-1880 Oil on canvas Erastus Salisbury Field enjoyed a long and varied career, working as a portraitist, photographer, and in the latter decades of his life as a painter of religious and historical subjects. Field based this depiction of the biblical tale of the Last Supper on a chromolithograph, a relatively inexpensive type of color print, of Leonardo da Vinci’s fresco in Milan, Italy. Though Field adhered to the overall composition of the Renaissance master, he included many details drawn from his own world in Connecticut such as the simple glass and pottery table settings and the rolling landscape viewed out the window, which bears a striking resemblance to the Connecticut River Valley. Gift of Edgar William and Bernice Chrysler Garbisch 80.181.16