Supper at Emmaus

Supper at Emmaus is a 1525 oil on canvas painting by Pontormo and now in the Uffizi in Florence. It is one of the smallest works signed and dated by the artist, in this case on the abandoned scroll in the foreground. The work's chiaroscuro, high light-source, realism and freeze-frame composition proved an important precedent for Caravaggio, Velázquez and Francisco de Zurbarán. History It was originally commissioned by prior Leonardo Buonafede for the forestry refectory or the dispensary at the Certosa del Galluzzo near Florence, both places intended for welcoming and feeding guests, hence its subject. Two years earlier the artist had taken refuge from the plague there. Several preparatory drawings survive in the Uffizi's Gabinetto dei Disegni e delle Stampe (n. 6656F r e v), the British Museum (1936-10-10-10) and the Staatliche Graphische Sammlung München (nn. 14043 r e v, 14042 r e v). Vasari's Lives of the Artists stated his admiration both for the paintings and for the "German manner" of the frescoes in the Certosa's cloisters (slightly earlier than Pontormo's painting). Analysis