Another Supper

Its no longer Maundy Thursday, but I was considering the suggestion of a fellow van Gogh enthusiast, Dena Hill, that 'Cafe Terrace at Night' can be seen as a 'Last Supper' painting. This was proposed by Jared Baxter, who noted the twelve figures dining around a central waiter, a Christ-figure with a subtle cross behind him in the window mullions. There may even be a Judas figure in flight.

'Cafe Terrace at Night,' Vincent van Gogh, 1888

This artistic evocation of Christ's life certainly seems possible in light of van Gogh's rich, complex faith journey, and a declaration around this time to his brother for a "tremendous need for, shall I say the word -- for religion."

What I find most poignant about the suggestion is the representation of Jesus as a waiter, serving as we see in the account of His washing the disciples feet. "Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into his hands, and that he had come from God and was going back to God, rose from supper. He laid aside his outer garments, and taking a towel, tied it around his waist." (Jn 13:3-4) And so He washes.

From a Lent poem collection my father gave me, Malcolm Guite's 'Maundy Thursday' captures some of the atmosphere of van Gogh's luminous night painting:

In vain we search the heavens high above,

The God of love is kneeling at our feet.

Though we betray him, though it is the night,

He meets us here and loves us into light.

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Image Credit:

Vincent van Gogh, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Vincent_van_Gogh_(1853-1890)_Caf%C3%A9terras_bij_nacht_(place_du_Forum)_Kr%C3%B6ller-M%C3%BCller_Museum_Otterlo_23-8-2016_13-35-40.JPG

Sources:

https://hyperallergic.com/190040/looking-for-da-vinci-in-van-goghs-cafe-terrace-at-night/

Malcolm Guite, "Maundy Thursday" in The Word in the Wilderness, Canterbury Press, 2014.