The Supper at Emmaus

Artist Hendrick ter Brugghen (Dutch, 1588-1629)

Place of OriginUtrecht, Netherlands

Date1616

DimensionsPainting: H: 63 1/8 in. (160.3 cm); W: 74 in. (188 cm);
Frame: H: 72 in. (182.9 cm); W: 83 1/8 (211.1 cm); Depth: 2 1/2 in. (6.4 cm)

MediumOil on canvas

ClassificationPaintings

Credit LinePurchased with funds from the Libbey Endowment, Gift of Edward Drummond Libbey

Object number

1983.1

Not on View

Label TextAccording to the Gospel of Saint Luke in the Bible, after the death of Jesus Christ, two of his disciples traveling on the road to Emmaus met a stranger and invited him to join them. At supper the stranger blessed bread and broke it to give to the disciples. They saw immediately that the stranger was Christ risen from the dead. Hendrick Terbrugghen masterfully and subtly conveys the very moment the awed disciples recognize Jesus and share a tense look across the table. Terbrugghen spent ten years in Italy from 1604 to 1614, bringing back to his native Utrecht, Holland, a style with dramatic contrasts of light and shade inspired by the enormously influential Italian artist Caravaggio (1571–1610). In this earliest known picture following his return, Terbrugghen based his subject on a painting by Caravaggio (illustrated here), though without the dramatic gestures in his Italian model. Working in Utrecht, a Catholic city in a largely Protestant nation, Terbrugghen became the leading Dutch painter of religious themes in the Caravaggesque style. [caption] Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio, Supper at Emmaus, oil on canvas, about 1600. National Gallery, London.Published References"La chronique des arts," Gazette des Beaux Arts, vol. 103, no. 1382, March 1984, no. 157, repr. p. 25.

Holländische Malerei in neuem Licht: Hendrick Ter Brugghen und seine Zeitgenossen, Utrecht, Centraal Museum, 1986, no. 1, pp. 76-79, repr. (col.).

Kitson, Michael, "Brunswick, Herzog Anton Ulrich - Museum Hendrick ter Brugghen and His Contemporaries," Burlington, vol. 129, no. 1007, Feb. 1987, p. 137, fig. 60.

Renger, Konrad, "Holländische Malerei in neuem Licht," Weltkunst, vol. 57, no. 6, Mar. 15, 1987, p. 837, repr. (col.) p. 836.

Schnackenburg, Bernhard, "Holländische Malerei in neuem Licht: Hendrick ter Brugghen und seine Zeitgenossen," Kunstchronik, vol. 40, no. 4, Apr. 1987, pp. 171, 173, abb. 6.

Slatkes, Leonard J., "Rethinking ter Brugghen's Early Chronology," in Hendrick ter Brugghen und die Nachfolger Caravaggios in Holland: Beiträge eines Symposions im Herzog Anton Ulrich-Museum Braunschweig, 1987, pp. 77-84, fig. 95.

Nicolson, Benedict, Caravaggism in Europe, 2nd ed., Turin, 1990, vol. 1, p. 191, repr. vol. 3, pl. 1128.

La natura morta al tempo di Caravaggio, Naples, 1995, p. 179.

Caravaggio, Hof, Austria, 1995, p. 157, repr. (col.).

Briels, Jan, Peintres flamands au berceau du Siècle d'or hollandais, Anvers, 1997, p. 72, fig. 90 (col.).

Weller, Dennis P., Sinners and Saints, Darkness and Light: Caravaggio and His Dutch and Flemish Followers, Raleigh, 1998, p. 84, no. 5, repr. p. 216.

Tableax anciens et du XIXe siècle [sale], Paris, Tajan, 20 June 2007, repr. p. 25 (col.).

Slatkes, Leonard J. and Wayne Franits, The Paintings of Hendrick ter Brugghen, 1588-1629: Catalogue Raisonné, Amsterdam, John Benjamins, 2007, no. A22, pp. 6-8, 10-12, 15, 27, 78, 95, 111-113, 117, 126, 143, 214, 215, 224, 243, pl. 21, p. 326 and pl. 21a (det.).

Thiel, Pieter van, [review] "The Paintings of Hendrick ter Brugghen (1588-1629): Catalogue Raisonné," Burlington Magazine, vol. 150, no. 1259, Feb. 2008, p. 111.

Strinati, Claudio and Alessandro Zuccari, I Caravaggeschi: Percorsi e Portagonisti, vol. 1, Milan, Skira, 2010, p. 711, repr. (col.) p. 712, fig. 1. Caravaggio: Behold the Man! The Impact of a Revolutionary Realist, Columbus Museum of Art, 2011, cat. no. 5, repr. (col.) p. [5].

Sman, Gert J, Caravaggio and the Painters of the North, Madrid: Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza, 2016, cat. no. 28, p. 138, repr. (col.) p. 139.

Exhibition HistoryUtrecht, Centraal Museum; Braunschweig, Herzog Anton Ulrich-Museum, Holländische Malerei in neuem Licht: Hendrick Ter Brugghen und seine Zeitgenossen, 1986-1987.

Columbus Museum of Art, Caravaggio: Behold the Man! The Impact of a Revolutionary Realist, Oct. 21, 2011 - Feb. 5, 2012.

Madrid, Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza, Caravaggio and the Painters of the North, June 14-September 18, 2016.

Houston, TX, Museum of Fine Arts, Living with the Gods: Art, Beliefs, and Peoples, October 27, 2024-January 20, 2025 [extended loan through 2027].