GOOD FRIDAY Special Feature: Contemplating the Last Supper
Henry and Kate Holiday with Salviati‘s Murano mosaicists, The Last Supper, 1887/89
This wonderful mosaic glows with special meaning this week: Holy Week, during which Jesus shared a final meal with his Apostles before his arrest and crucifixion. As given in scripture, Jesus’ unique blessing for this gathering, significantly a Passover Seder, provided the script for its Christian commemorative form, the Eucharist (from the Greek for “thanksgiving”). But there’s more.
The mosaic’s designer, Henry Holiday, added special expressiveness to another dimension of the Last Supper that dominates its imagery: Jesus’ reiteration that one of the Twelve (Apostles) would betray him. Most here display stunned denial of the prospect, affirming in different ways their love and loyalty (note John the Beloved against Jesus’ chest). Unlike those at table, we observe Judas (the only one without a halo) leaving at right or preparing his planned departure. At center, the somber Jesus ponders the foretold betrayal that launches the painful conclusion of his earthly mission.
We explored this mosaic repeatedly at Holy Week during the pandemic—read here and here—but I see more now. For me, Holiday’s compressed space, shimmering surfaces and rich color intensify the dark psychological experience and import of this event. The life-size scene, moreover, seems to merge with elements on our altar, placing that momentous gathering in our world and time. There, it impels us ever more to contemplation, searching for its relevance today.
— Suzanne Glover Lindsay, St. Stephen’s historian and curator