Christ with the Disciples on the Road to Emmaus

In 1582 Cardinal Gabriele Paleotti, archbishop of Bologna, published a treatise on sacred and profane images. He wanted religious pictures that ordinary people could read at once and feel. Scarsellino's Emmaus, painted around 1590, belongs to that climate.

Painters usually chose the supper at Emmaus, when the two disciples recognise the risen Christ as he breaks the bread. Here they are still out on the road and have not yet understood who is walking beside them. Christ carries a pilgrim's staff and wears sandals, while the disciples are dressed like travellers of the painter's own day.

A walled town with battlements rises on the hill behind them. Down by the river at the lower left, fishermen and a dog go about their business. In 1650 a guidebook to the Borghese villa recorded the picture above the door to the garden.