In the manner of Caravaggio
Italian, 1571–1610
The Supper at the Garage, 2026
Oil on canvas
180 × 144 cm
Never painted.
Commissioned for the collection, 2026.
PAB 2026.2.3
Three men, a bare bulb on a wire, and a car bonnet for a table, with the foil from the takeaway spread open on the steel. The one in red overalls is mid-argument, hand flung out; the other two are not convinced. Caravaggio's *Supper at Emmaus* has the same flung hand over the same bread, and the same moment of not quite believing it. Their feet are bare, which on a garage floor is devotion.
The brief
Three mechanics sharing takeaway food on the hood of a car under a single bare work lamp, one gesturing mid-argument, the workshop black behind them. Italian Baroque oil painting, extreme chiaroscuro with a single hard light source cutting figures out of near-total darkness, life-size figures pressed close to the picture plane, dirty feet and real faces, deep blacks, warm flesh tones, blood red and dull gold, dramatic diagonal composition, thick glossy oil surface. Museum photograph of the oil painting, dramatic but even gallery lighting, no frame, no text, no wall, no floor, cropped to the canvas edge.
Written to the house rules. The painter's name does not appear.
Take it home
The painting on this room's wall, at its own proportions, nothing written on it.
