The Institution of Eucharist

The drawing is one of several preparatory works for the relief in the Cathedral Church of Our Lady in Copenhagen. Thorvaldsen has here abandoned the most common pattern for the presentation of this motif, Christ and the Apostles seated at supper, and instead Christ is standing to receive the Apostles as though they were a congregation about to take Holy Communion. In the top version, Judas, the betrayer, is seen leaving the gathering.