The work in question is now so generally accessible through the medium of accurate engravings, that any one may easily exercise his own judgment on the matter, and decide for himself whether the criticism be well founded.
It must be borne in mind that the subject had long been a familiar decoration of conventual refectories before the time when Lionardo brought his profound knowledge of external human nature, and his unsurpassed powers of executive art, to bear on a subject which had before been treated in the dry, conventional, inanimate manner of the Middle Ages. The leading features of the traditional picture are retained: the long table, the linen cloth, the one-sided arrangement of the figures, the classic drapery, and the general form and design of the apartment, are all to be found in the earlier works; and must have been considered, by observers in general, far more essential to the correct delineation of the scene than any adherence to the exact description of it in any one of the Evangelists. But as the subject was usually introduced into refectories for the edification of the brethren assembled with their superior at their own meals, it does not seem likely that the treachery of Judas should have been intended to be the prominent action of the picture. It was a memorial of the institution of the Eucharist, although the Christ was not represented as dispensing either bread or wine. In such a case, if any particular point of time was ever contemplated by the artist, he might judiciously and appropriately select the moment when the Saviour was announcing, in mysterious words, the close of his mission—as in St. Matthew and St. Mark; or was teaching them a lesson of humility when the spirit of rivalry and strife had disclosed itself among them—as we find in St. Luke and St. John.
It is not perhaps generally known that the statutes of Queen's College, Oxford, prescribe the order of sitting at the common table in manner which evidently refers to the cœnaculum of the old church painters.
E. Smirke.
Minor Notes.
Scotter Register (County Lincoln).—The following extracts from the register of the parish of Scotter, in the county of Lincoln, are perhaps sufficiently interesting to be worth printing in "N. & Q.":
1. "Eccelesia parochialis de Scotter comitatu Lincolniæ dedicata est Beatis Apostolis Sancto Petro et Sancto Paulo ut apparet in Antiquo Scripto viduæ Loddington de Scotter, viz. in testamento vltimo Thomæ Dalyson, Gen. de Scotter, qui obiit Junii 19o, anno Domini 1495.
"Gul. Carrington,
"Rector eclīa ibid."
2. "Memorandum, That on Septuagesima Sunday, being the 19th day of January, 1667, one Francis Drury, an excommunicate person, came into the church in time of divine service in ye morning, and being admonisht by mee to begon, hee obstinately refused, whereuppon ye whole congregation departed; and after the same manner in the afternoon, the same day, he came again, and refusing againe to go out, the whole congregation againe went home, soe yt little or no service pformed. They prevented his further coming in yt manner, as hee threatned, by order from the Justice, uppon the statute of Queene Elizabeth concerning the molestation and disturbance of publiq preachers.
Wm. Carrington, Rec."
"O tempora, O mores."
3. "Michæl Skinner Senex centum et trium annorum sepultus fuit die sancti Johannis, viz. Dec. 27, 1673."
Edward Peacock, Jun.
Bottesford Moors, Kirton Lindsey.