La Ultima Cena (The Last Supper)

Carrillo painted La Ultima Cena for Chacho, a San Ignacio local during one of his many stays in his ancestral home in Baja California, Mexico. Chacho was clear that he wanted his son Rogelio depicted as Jesus at the center of a Last Supper painting. Members of the town came to model for the 12 apostles except for Judas, who no one wanted to model for. Carrillo found the model for Judas in a traveling visitor to San Ignacio. Carrillo’s depiction of the last supper offers what feels like a more realistic depiction of this final meeting, instead of everyone crowded on one side of the table like in Leonardo da Vinci’s famous painting, the apostles sit all the way around the table and listen intently to Jesus’s words, none speaking or looking away, all with the faces of the townsfolk of San Ignacio. The lighting comes from two sources, the main source being the holy light of Jesus himself, and natural light coming from outside of the room to the far left implying the spiritual in the natural world as often seen in Carrillo’s work.

To see the full story about this painting watch the documentary on Eduardo Carrillo “A life of Engagement” here: https://museoeduardocarrillo.org/artist/documentary/

Photo courtesy of The Crocker Art Museum

EC.0088