The Supper At Emmaus

Here Caravaggio presents the story from the biblical New Testament:  on the third day after the Crucifixion two of Jesus’s disciples were walking to Emmaus when they met the resurrected Christ. They failed to recognize him, but that evening at supper he "... took bread, and blessed it, and broke and gave to them. And their eyes were opened, and they knew him; and he vanished out of their sight" (Luke 24: 30-31).

This painting was created at the height of Caravaggio’s fame. Typically for him, he has shown the disciples as ordinary working men, with bearded, lined faces and ragged clothes, in contrast to the young beardless Christ, who seems to have come from a different world. He brilliantly captures the dramatic climax of the story, the moment when the disciples suddenly see what has been in front of them all along. Their actions convey their astonishment: one is about to leap out of his chair while the other throws out his arms in a gesture of disbelief. The stark lighting underlines the dramatic intensity of the scene.

P.S. Caravaggio is definitely a known name for you, but do you know how he died? There is no definitive answer but many mysterious rumors ...