The Painting “The Last Supper” in the Manducath Student Restaurant

The space of the “Manducath” student restaurant on the campus of the Catholic University of Croatia has been enriched with the valuable painting The Last Supper (300 × 150 cm) by the academic painter Vladimir Blažanović. Placed in the student restaurant, the painting is not intended merely to enhance or decorate the space, but to invite everyone who dines there to recognize within themselves a longing for the food that is found elsewhere.

The motif of Christ’s Last Supper with the apostles, artistically reduced to the essence of the event in which the act of the Lord’s redemptive self-giving for all people is clearly “readable,” takes on a special meaning in the setting of student dining. It becomes a gracious invitation to partake in the inexhaustible gift of love through which God nourishes the human soul and enriches human existence. Dining itself is a lasting reminder of our created nature and of the need for food, through which we discover our orientation toward others, toward our neighbours, and toward responsibility for the created world in which we find nourishment for the body.

Contemplating the Lord’s Last Supper encourages those gathered at the table to make room, at their own “table” and within their community, for the One who comes to enrich our fellowship and satisfy the hunger for the food that does not come from creation, but from the Creator himself, who strengthens us with the gift of sharing in his divine life.