The Last Supper (pair) (c. 1500): Art, History and Details

The Last Supper (pair) (c. 1500) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection. The museum's creator attribution is Lucantonio degli Uberti (Italian); Perugino (Italian, c. 1450/55–1523).

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

Because large prints were often displayed on a wall, they were susceptible to damage and often have not survived. This large print of the Last Supper, however, is in excellent condition. It was engraved on two plates and printed on two separate sheets of paper. The composition is believed to be a fairly close copy of a fresco by Perugino in the convent of San Onofrio in Florence, around 1495. The scene is set within an arched interior embellished by a frieze of eagles and by half pilasters with floral decorations and putti. Fluffy clouds are visible beyond the archways. Christ and the apostles are on a bench arranged behind the table. Judas, instead, sits on a stool in the middle of the room, looking over his shoulder towards the viewer. The engraver included two reliefs at both ends of the bench. The panel on the right shows Judas with four soldiers, while the one on the left features a knight, a squire, and a banner. On it, the letters LVC . . . TNO have been interpreted as the artist's signature.

Object facts

• Title: The Last Supper (pair)
• Date: c. 1500
• Creator attribution: Lucantonio degli Uberti (Italian); Perugino (Italian, c. 1450/55–1523)
• Culture: Italy
• Type: Print
• Technique: engraving on two sheets printed from two plates
• Collection: PR - Engraving
• Department: Prints
• Accession number: 1940.473

A detail from the museum

This print is the only known impression of the entire composition. A copy with only the right side is preserved today at the British Museum in London.

Collection credit

Dudley P. Allen Fund

Further reading listed by the museum

• Prasse, Leona. "'The Last Supper' by Lucantonio Degli Uberti." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 30, no. 1 (January 1943): 5-6.
• The Cleveland Museum of Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art Handbook. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1958.
• The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1966. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1966.

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.