2020 IB Extended Essays

9

Analysis of “The Last Supper” by Emil Nolde

An example of an expressionist piece that was stolen and displayed in the “Entartete Kunst” exhibition is “The Last Supper” painted by Emil Nolde in 1901, not to be mistaken by the famed piece by Leonardo Da Vinci. Religious subject matter began to be the subject of many of Nolde’s work after a near-death experience involving a

Figure 4: “The Last Supper” by Emil Nolde, 1901 (oil on canvas, 86x107cm)

poisoning, however this piece strongly juxtaposes the traditional depictions of Da Vinci’s “The Last Supper” (shown in Figure 4) (Hull, 2020). Nolde’s “The Last Supper” was not made with the intention to recreate Da Vinci’s piece or to follow the New Testament but to rather create how he imagined the bible’s last supper actually unfolded (Lee, 2016).

While Da Vinci’s piece utilises a long canvas for spatial complexities (seen in Figure 5), Nolde has illustrated 13 men huddled around a table. The piece heavily lacks the depth and spatial awareness of Da Vinci’s piece. Christ is illustrated in the centre with the light source beaming down

Figure 5: “The Last Supper” by Leonardo Da Vinci 1901 (oil on a wall, 4.6x8.8m)

on him. The brushstrokes used are organic and thick, it’s unfiltered look represents the raw emotion being expressed at the table, heavily contrasting the refined painting of Da Vinci’s work. Nolde uses vibrant tones of red, orange and yellow to easily identify Jesus’ presence among the other men surrounding him in darker clothing. Jesus is wearing a white shirt to symbolise purity and the red of his overshirt mimics