Jesus sits at the centre of the table, light spreading behind him.
Bible in art · Luke
Christ at Emmaus: The Larger Plate
Rembrandt · 1654
The Cleveland Museum of Art
Signed and dated 1654, this is the larger of Rembrandt’s two etchings of the supper at Emmaus; the smaller one is twenty years older. Here the picture is almost symmetrical, with Jesus at the centre under a hanging canopy.
He breaks the bread, and light spreads behind him. The disciple at the left folds his hands, the one at the right raises a hand in surprise, and a servant comes up the steps in front.
From the text
- “Stay with us, for it is nearly evening” (Luke 24:29)
- “He took bread, spoke a blessing and broke it” (Luke 24:30)
- “Their eyes were opened and they recognized Jesus” (Luke 24:31)
The artist’s own
- A canopy hung high behind Jesus
- A servant on the steps — not in Luke’s story
Details
Breaking the bread
Hands folded
One disciple folds his hands.
Startled
The other disciple raises a hand in surprise.
The servant
A servant comes up the steps, seen from behind.
Rembrandt van Rijn (Dutch, 1606–1669). The Cleveland Museum of Art (Gift of The Print Club of Cleveland, 1922.280) · Etching, engraving and drypoint · Cleveland Museum of Art Open Access: Collection API record "share_license_status": "CC0" (Creative Commons Zero, https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/).