Das Mahl in Emmaus

In 1523 the plague swept through Florence, and the painter Pontormo left the city to wait it out at the Charterhouse of Galluzzo, a monastery in the hills nearby. He stayed on good terms with the Carthusian monks, and two years later he painted this Supper at Emmaus for one of their rooms where guests were fed. The subject suits the place, the risen Christ revealed to two travellers at the moment he breaks bread. What makes it feel real are the faces at the back. Those are five of the actual Galluzzo monks, portrayed from life, watching the miracle from behind the table. The eye inside a glowing triangle above Christ was not part of the first version. It was painted in later to cover an older image of the Trinity as three faces, once the Counter-Reformation had banned that way of showing God.