The Supper at Emmaus (c. 1720): Art, History and Details

The Supper at Emmaus (c. 1720) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection. The museum's creator attribution is Giovanni Battista Piazzetta (Italian, 1682–1754).

The work and its context

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

This painting depicts the biblical story of the Supper at Emmaus, when the disguised, resurrected Christ suddenly reveals himself to two astonished disciples as they all sit down to dinner. The artist has painted the figures’ hands and the objects on the table meticulously, but leaves other details vague, including the background drapery, in order to heighten the unfolding drama.

Object facts

• Title: The Supper at Emmaus
• Date: c. 1720
• Creator attribution: Giovanni Battista Piazzetta (Italian, 1682–1754)
• Culture: Italy
• Type: Painting
• Technique: oil on canvas
• Dimensions: Framed: 133.4 x 167 x 9.5 cm (52 1/2 x 65 3/4 x 3 3/4 in.); Unframed: 108 x 140.6 cm (42 1/2 x 55 3/8 in.)
• Collection: P - Italian 18th Century
• Department: European Painting and Sculpture
• Accession number: 1931.245

Collection credit

Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund

Further reading listed by the museum

• H. S. F. “‘The Supper at Emmaus’ by Piazzetta.” The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 18, no. 10 (December 1931): 186, 188–190.
• Paintings in the Cleveland Museum of Art. [Cleveland]: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1945.
• Francis, Henry Sayles. Venetian Tradition: Catalogue of the Exhibition. [Cleveland, Ohio]: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1956.

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.