The Last Supper
c. 1590
Medium
Engraving on ivory laid paper
Dimensions
Plate: 26.4 × 39.4 cm (10 7/16 × 15 9/16 in.)
Classification
engraving
Department
Prints and Drawings
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Accession Number
268665
Art Historical Context
Jan Sadeler I created this engraving of *The Last Supper* around 1590, capturing one of the most pivotal moments in Christian tradition—the final meal Jesus shared with his apostles. As a Flemish printmaker,eler worked in an era when engravings served as vital tools for spreading religious imagery across Europe. The medium allowed detailed compositions to reach audiences far beyond churches and palaces, making sacred stories accessible to a broader public through affordable prints. Executed on ivory laid paper, the work showcases the precision of engraving, where fine lines incised into a met...
About the Artist
Jan Sadeler, I · 1550–1600
Jan Sadeler I (1550–1600) was born in Brussels and became the most prominent member of the largest and most successful dynasty of Flemish printmakers in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. The Sadeler family — which included Jan's brothers Aegidius and Raphael — produced an extraordinary volume of engravings that circulated across Catholic Europe, disseminating images of religious subjects, p...