Cena in Emmaus - Supper at Emmaus

Caravaggio painted the Supper at Emmaus between 1605 and 1606, that is to say between the end of his stay in Rome and his flight from the city following his conviction for murder. He was able to sell it, with Ottavio Costa acting as go-between, to Marchese Patrizi and the picture was still in the family’s Roman palace in 1939, when it was acquired for the Pinacoteca by the Amici di Brera association. The picture is the second version of the subject by Caravaggio, who had already tackled it in the painting now in the National Gallery in London. But the essentiality of the scene, along with the strong contrasts of light and shade, lend more drama to the event in the version now in the Pinacoteca.