Not the Only "Last Supper" Trivia Quiz

Answer: Giotto de Bondone

Commonly known simply as Giotto, Giotto de Bondone, born near Florence around 1266, has been admired as the founder of modern art and the first of the great Italian masters. He was honoured by having a European space probe named after him - it visited Halley's comet.

He, along with a team of assistants, created a cycle of frescoes in the Scovegni Chapel in Padua, now preserved as part of the Paduan civic museum complex. His "Last Supper" shows the disciples sitting round a rectangle table in a room decorated with a Greek frieze. Christ is seated at the left end - the head of the table - with John resting his head on Christ's lap. There is little sign of perspective in this early painting.

Answer: Fra Angelico

The clue to the artist is the word "friar": Fra Angelico was an Italian painter of the Early Renaissance, described by the Italian painter and historian Vasari in his "Lives of the Artists" (1550) as having "a rare and perfect talent". Fra Angelico lived from about 1395 to 1455.

This fresco shows the disciples seated on stools round a table, with Christ in the centre facing the viewer. This, when you come to think of it, is odd; you'd expect Him to be at the head of the table, not halfway along one side.

Answer: Dieric Bouts

There are two definitely authenticated works by the early Dutch artist Diereck (Dirk) Bouts. One is that altar piece, commissioned by the Leuven Confraternity of the Holy Sacrament. The other is the first, together with an unfinished second, of an intended set of four huge panels for Leuven Town Hall. There are many other works almost certainly by Bouts, mostly with religious themes.

His "Last Supper" painting shows the disciples with Jesus sitting on stools and benches around a table, in the centre of which is a chalice - the Holy Grail? As in most contemporary and subsequent versions, Christ is seated halfway along one side of the table. Two men stand at the sides, probably representing local officials, and on the wall is a picture showing two more men, probably Bouts' contemporaries.

Answer: Cosimo Roselli

Roselli was one of the group of painters including Sandro Botticelli, Pietro Perugino, and Domenico Ghirlandaio, who came to Rome from Florence to do the decoration of the walls of the Sistine Chapel.

This example shows the disciples seated around the table, rather than all on the same side facing the viewer as many versions do. It is painted using bright colours, which apparently pleased Pope Sixtus IV; the artist community, however, acknowledged it as having poor taste!

Answer: Domenico Ghirlandaio

The other frescos of the "Last Supper" by Ghirlandaio, are for the Badia di Passignano (1476) and for the Cenacolo di San Marco (1486).

The arrangement in this refectory version shows a long U-shaped table with Jesus and all the disciples sitting at the back facing the viewer, except for Judas who is on the viewer's side, possibly arguing with Jesus. As is the problem with many depictions of the "Last Supper", the central figure is long and thin, so something had to be added to make the work a better shape. In this case it was two high semi-circular archways in the wall behind the table which show trees and birds.

Answer: Leonardo da Vinci

Painting was only one of the many talents of Leonardo (1452-1519), arguably the greatest polymath in history. In his own view, the extent of his varied interests and his perfectionism limited his achievements in any one of the areas of his expertise, although many may disagree. The reason for the praise of this particular work is far from obvious, as the work itself was not quite finished when Leonardo stopped work on it in 1497. Its condition has deteriorated since as early as 1517 as noted by Vasari. It has been restored many times, most recently in 1999.

The layout of the mural is well known, showing Jesus and his disciples sitting at a long table facing the viewer.

Answer: Juan de Juanes

Vicente Juan Masip was born in Valencia in 1523, and learned his craft in the workshop of his father, Vicente Masip. In order to avoid confusion with his father, he was known as Juan de Juanes. He had a successful career painting only religious subjects and was a devout Christian who always took Mass before working on a painting, like Fra Angelico.

His "Last Supper" shows the faces of the disciples radiating admiration which is strange since Jesus has just told them of his imminent betrayal. Judas is identified by his money bag and the fact that he alone has no halo.

Answer: Pierre Dancart

Seville Cathedral is the largest cathedral in the world, built from 1434 to 1517, and the great altarpiece was the work of just one man, Pierre Dancart, from Flanders, who made it his life's work between 1482 and 1526.

Photographs of this work do not do it justice, although there are one or two that capture the artistry of some of the 28 separate scenes. The depiction of the "Last Supper" shows Jesus with a single disciple either side of the table.

Answer: Raphael

The painter's full name was Raffaello Sanzio da Urbino, but he is universally known simply as Raphael. The loggia (gallery) was built as an extension of the papal palace in the Vatican by the architect D. Bramante. The decoration consists of frescoes and carvings by a team led by the renowned Raphael. A copy of the entire gallery was requested by Catherine the Great and built in the Hermitage, St Petersburg, in the 1780s.

His "Last Supper" is one of these frescoes, and shows the disciples around a smallish table, apparently arguing, and sitting on benches with curiously curved legs (the benches, not the disciples).

Answer: Hans Holbein

Holbein was born in Augsburg and painted his "Last Supper" during a four year stay in Basel. The patronage of Anne Boleyn and Thomas Cromwell led to significant commissions including portraits of Henry VIII and Thomas More.

Holbein's "Last Supper" was very similar to the earlier version by Leonardo, but one difference is that the windows in the wall behind the table do not have trees to distract the viewer, but show an intense blue sky. Only nine disciples are shown, but possibly they were originally placed at the edges of the picture. During the religious riots of the Reformation the painting was attacked, and the head of Christ was sawed out! The sides of the painting were probably sawed off at the same time. (The work is done in oils on limewood).

Answer: Joos van Cleve

A group of paintings formerly attributed to "The Master of the Death of the Virgin" are now accepted as the work of the Flemish artist Joos van Cleve (1485-1540), who was famous for religious subjects and portraits. Originally from Antwerp, van Cleve received commissions in Cologne and later Italy.

His work is frequently based on the styles of other painters, and his "Last Supper", an altarpiece from the church of Frati Minori in Genoa, Italy, painted about 1530, owes something to Leonardo's earlier work of 1494, in that it shows all the participants of the meal on the same side of a long table facing the viewer. On the other hand, there is a plain black background with no other indication of the location. An oddity is that there are 13 disciples, although one figure may be a patron or maybe a servant of the establishment.

Answer: Tintoretto

While the Palladian style church of San Giorgio Maggiore was being built on San Giorgio Island, the work of providing big canvases to decorate it was commissioned to Tintoretto's workshop.

Three of the paintings including the "Last Supper" were executed by Tintoretto himself, although many of the other works were done by his assistants. Tintoretto painted the "Last Supper" several times, but this version is unusual on account of the unconventional viewpoint, as the crowded scene is seen from slightly above and at an oblique angle. The light is from an overhead chandelier, while Christ himself has an especially bright halo. A supernatural aspect is provided by the presence of angels apparently floating in the rafters.

Answer: Jean de Boulogne

Jean de Boulogne(1591-1632), also known as Le Valentin, or Valentin de Boulogne, was born in France but later moved to Italy. He was keen on paintings of men grouped around a table, such as drinkers, fortune tellers, or gamblers, so doing a "Last Supper" came naturally.

In his version St John rather than simply leaning on Christ's shoulder, seems to be lying on a plate.

Answer: Nicolas Poussin

Although born in France, Poussin spent most of his working life in Italy, mainly in Rome. He was cajoled into returning to Paris for a short period as painter to the King Louis XIII. It was during this short period that he painted his version of the "Last Supper" in 1641. Overwhelmed with commissions and disgusted with court intrigues, he sneaked back to Italy while the King was away, and stayed in Rome for the rest of his life.

His painting shows Jesus and the disciples seated at an L-shaped table, all facing the viewer, in a dark room lit from overhead by a chandelier.

Answer: Phillipe de Champaigne

Born in Brussels in 1602, Phillipe de Champaigne moved to Paris when he was young and developed into one of the major painters of the French Baroque period. He worked with Poussin in the Luxembourg Palace, and later became painter to the Queen with a considerable pension. Among his many works are portraits of Cardinal Richelieu.

His "Last Supper" in oils on canvas was for the altar of the abbey church of Port-Royal-des-Champs near Paris, and shows an internal scene with the subjects on the far side and ends of a cloth covered table.