Emil Nolde's 'The Last Supper': An Interpretation in Light of the History of Iconography

In this article, I propose a new interpretation of Judas' identification in Emil Nolde's painting The Last Supper. I argue that Nolde reinterprets in a revolutionary way the iconographic tradition of representing the Last Supper as it had developed in Western painting in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance. By modifying the iconographic heritage and by presenting Judas as embraced by an apostle, the painting makes visible the paradoxical identity of the revelation of sin and the revelation of forgiveness.