The Bible in Pictures

Bouts sets the table in a Flemish hall of his own time. Christ sits exactly in the middle, raises his hand in blessing and holds the bread. Servants of the house look on, two of them through a hatch in the wall.

The contract of 1464 survives. It obliged Bouts to follow the instructions of two professors of theology of the university of Leuven, and that is why the picture does not show the betrayal but the institution of the Eucharist. The altarpiece still hangs in the church for which it was made.

Christ blesses the host above the chalice, like a priest at Mass.

Christ blesses the host above the chalice, like a priest at Mass.

Two men look in through the serving hatch. They and the two standing servants are thought to be portraits, perhaps of members of the brotherhood that paid for the altarpiece.

Two men look in through the serving hatch. They and the two standing servants are thought to be portraits, perhaps of members of the brotherhood that paid for the altarpiece.