Comunión de los Apóstoles (Signorelli)

Luca Signorelli painted this for the high altar of a church in Cortona in 1512, near the end of a long life spent mostly in his Tuscan hometown. The subject is unusual for Italian art. Rather than the Last Supper shown as a shared meal, it captures the moment Christ places the communion host directly on each apostle's tongue. Signorelli had seen the idea years before in Urbino, in an altarpiece by a Netherlandish painter, and brought it home with him. Watch Judas at the edge of the group. He has taken the host too, yet he is quietly slipping the coin of his betrayal into his purse. Signorelli signed and dated the work on the painted capitals of the columns behind the figures.