The Last Supper

Christ is highlighted by a radiant, multi-rayed halo while his disciples react with various expressions to the events of the meal. In the foreground, an apostle pours wine from a jug while Judas stands with his back to the viewer, clutching a money bag. A parrot perches on a rod in the background architecture, a complex symbol in Northern art representing either the fall of man or the 'Ave' of the Annunciation.

This print emerges from the Haarlem school, where technical mastery of engraving was often intertwined with the Spiritualist and Neoplatonist philosophy of Dirk Volckertszoon Coornhert. The focused use of light and the 'inner word' reflected in the apostles' faces aligns with the Dutch intellectual preference for internal spiritual transformation over external ritual.