Museum complex

"THE LAST SUPPER", A FRAGMENT OF COMPOSITION

Russia
XVIII
Wood, gesso ground, carving, tempera painting
62 х 50 х 12,5 cm
Receipt: purchased on a market in1901
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The fragment presented is the left part of the composition "The Last Supper". Such carved compositions were especially popular in the XVIII Century as a decoration of the Tsar’s Gates. In this case, the plot was placed on both halves of the doors thus dividing a single composition into two parts.
Artifacts of wooden carving are an inseparable part of Russian medieval culture. In the interior of the Orthodox Church sculpture has occupied an important place since earliest times. The multi-tier iconostases were often decorated with refined carving. Statues of saints and carved icons played the same role in the decoration of the Orthodox Church as pictorial icons. Created by skillful craftsmen from various types of wood, sculptures and carved icons were gilded or painted, using a purely icon technique – tempera on the levkas (gesso, a priming made of chalk mixed on animal or fish glue with addition of linseed oil).

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In carving of composition "The Last Supper" the author used both traditional folklore and fashionable Western techniques. The apostles are depicted not in the traditional iconographic style, but rather as ordinary people. Stocky figures, large heads and hands, this certain disproportion and textures give the characters a kind of charm and energy. Particularly recognizable are John the Theologian (the third from the center, in a red chiton without a mustache and beard) and Judas (holding a bag of silver). All the apostles are depicted without halos, probably to emphasize the presence of Christ (in this version the Jesus was depicted on another, lost part of the composition).

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