The Last Supper in Codex of Valois

 Nikola Benin

The Last Supper in Codex of Valois

Ms. 2020 (here, Id., c38r)

Casanatensis Library, Rome

The Last Supper undoubtedly represents one of the fundamental moments of Christianity, enriched by a double meaning: Jesus Christ who announces the betrayal of Judas and who, through the act of breaking the bread and sharing the wine with the disciples, institutes the Eucharist. The episode is narrated both in the synoptic Gospels (Matthew 26.20-30; Mark 14.17-26; Luke 22, 14-39) and in that of John (13.1-20).

The challenge of the artists, over the centuries, has been to try to represent the drama of the moment in the faces of the protagonists on the one hand, and the solemnity of the birth of the central sacrament for the Catholic religion on the other.

In the miniature shown here (Ms 2020, c38r), the characters sit at a round table which, however, to give a sense of greater depth and to be able to represent each character in a suitable way, assumes an almost triangular shape.

It is a bare table: set up with a simple white tablecloth, there are no dishes or utensils. In the center is the bread, the only element present, aimed at emphasizing the gravity of the act that is represented.

The moment depicted is in fact that of the Eucharist which culminates in the figure of Jesus Christ, naturally placed at the center of the scene under a canopy, in the act of offering the bread to Peter, seated on his right, while holding the chalice. with the left hand.

The Disciples, arranged in groups of three, sit on benches and stools.

On the opposite side of the table to that of Jesus, as per tradition, Judas is seated, recognizable by the absence of the halo and by the bag of thirty coins that he holds with his right hand under the table, as if to hide his infidelity. The figure of the traitor is also highlighted by the color of the clothes which emerges preponderant with respect to those of the other diners.

On his right we can then see Thomas who raises a finger in a questioning way, the same one that he will later want to insert, because of his incredulity, in the wound of Jesus Christ after his Resurrection.

The whole page fits inside a frame decorated with numerous flowers on which insects sometimes land: a caterpillar in the upper margin, a butterfly in the lower one, to symbolize transformation and rebirth.

The miniature is contained in the ms. 2020, an Evangelary also known as the Valois Code due to its provenance.

The manuscript was in fact made around the first quarter of the 1500s, probably for Francesco di Valois-Angoulême (1518-1536), Dauphin of France and son of King Francis I (1494-1547).

Of rather small dimensions (222 × 151 mm) the codex, parchment, is written in round antiqua script in a single hand and has a binding of XIX the century, performed by the famous Aristide Staderini, known for having introduced the catalog with mobile cards in libraries.

The decoration of the code has been much debated, but in recent years scholars are more inclined to attribute the miniature to the skilled hands of the Maître de Claude de France, active in Tours in the 16th century.