The Supper at Emmaus

Pierre Fatoure and Gabriel Lejeune, after Caravaggio

National Gallery of Art

Printed with black ink on light tan paper, this horizontal etching and engraving shows a young man with long hair, Jesus, sitting at a table with one hand lifted. Two people sitting at the table react, and a third stands on the far side, near Jesus’s shoulder. The front corner of the table is near and parallel to the lower right corner of the print. The table is covered with a cloth and holds a bowl of fruit, a roasted game bird, vessels, and a chunk of bread. At the center of the composition, Jesus holds up his right hand, to our left, and hovers his left hand over the table. His eyes are cast down or closed, and he leans slightly to our right. The two men at the table have beards and short, wavy hair. The man to our right holds both arms straight out to his sides as he looks toward Jesus’s hands. A shell is affixed to the front of his cloak. The other man wears tattered robes and sits on our side of the table in a U-shaped wooden chair. He grips the arms of the chair with both hands and juts his head forward, also staring at Jesus’s hands. The fourth person stands and looks down at Jesus in profile, mouth slightly parted. The background is shaded with parallel and overlapping hatching. Inscriptions are printed across the lower margin with “M. age dicarauage In. P. Fatoure: G. giovane f.” to the lower left, “Firmat et accendit diuino Lumine Corda, Cristus quem nostuns augustum frangere panem” at the center, and “Luc 24” in the lower right.