Communion of the Apostles

This altarpiece was made to a pope's exact specifications. Around 1603 Clement VIII, of the powerful Aldobrandini family, wanted a Last Supper for his family chapel in this Roman church, and he was particular about it. He asked that the scene be set at night, since the Gospel supper had happened after dark and he wanted it historically correct, so Barocci lit the whole room by candle and lamp. It was the height of the Counter-Reformation, when the Church wanted its images clear, accurate, and moving. Barocci worked slowly and far off in Urbino, taking years over it. And he left a small joke of the trade inside it: for the face of Judas, the traitor edging out of the room, he borrowed the features of Michelangelo, dead only a generation before.