
Last Supper (Ge)

The Last Supper is a painting by the Ukrainian painter Mykola Ge (1831-1894), completed in 1863. It is part of the collection of the State Russian Museum in St. Petersburg (inv. Zh-4141). The size of the picture is 283 × 382 cm.
Mykola Ge worked on this painting from 1861 to 1863 in Florence during his artistic trip abroad. After Ge brought the painting to St. Petersburg, it was exhibited at the Academic Exhibition in 1863. The Council of the Imperial Academy of Arts praised the artist's skill in painting, and awarded him the title of professor of history painting, and the work was purchased by Emperor Alexander II for the Museum of the Academy of Arts.
The painting depicts the Last Supper, described in the New Testament, the last meal of Jesus Christ with his twelve apostles, during which he predicted that one of them — Judas Iscariot -— would betray him. This plot was popular among artists in the field of Christian art — their versions of the image of the Last Supper of Jesus Christ, among others, created by Leonardo da Vinci, Salvador Dali, Domenico Ghirlandaio, Andrea del Castagno.
The painting was a success, much debated, but critics differed: some approved of the innovative interpretation of the Gospel story, while others believed that the images of Christ and the apostles were too far from traditional understanding, and they were not written convincingly enough.
Mykola Ge created at least two smaller author's replicas of the painting, one of which belongs to the collection of the State Tretyakov Gallery, and the other is in the Radishchev Art Museum in Saratov.