The Communion of the Apostles

The painting was done by Carl Henrici, one of the main figure of Tyrolean Rococo, highly acclaimed by the clergy and by the bourgeoisie of Bolzano in the period between the 18th and 19th centuries. The scene depicts the communion of the apostles, an inconography modelled on the liturgy of mass that became highly popular in the baroque and late baroque period: inside a monumental building the architecture of which recalls that of a church, Christ in a priest's garb distributes the consecrated hosts to the apostle kneeling around a table made in the shape of an altar. The theme underlines the symbolical aspect of jesus' last supper when, after breaking the bread, he instituted the sacrament of the Eucharist by prounouncing the woeds: "This is my body, broken for you".