Bibliographic record
Abstract
This dissertation explores medieval depictions of the Last Supper, focusing primarily on illuminated manuscripts produced between c. 1100 and 1500 in diverse regions of the Latin West, alongside selected works in such other media as sculpture and ivory diptychs. Employing a cross-disciplinary methodology that integrates iconographic, theological, and liturgical analysis, this study investigates how image and doctrine work in concert to articulate medieval Eucharistic theology and guide viewers in spiritual contemplation. By examining key iconographic elements in these depictions, my study sheds new light on how medieval visual culture engaged with contemporaneous theological, devotional, and moral concerns, contributing to a deeper understanding of the religious, social, and cultural history of the period.The three chapters of the dissertation discuss the visual manifestation of the doctrine of transubstantiation and Christ’s Real Presence in the Eucharist, the marital union between Christ and John, and the multivalent, morally complex portrayal of Judas. Through close analysis of the compositional arrangement of figures, symbolic gestures, and sacramental elements, this study places the images in dialogue with biblical and apocryphal narratives, as well as theological writings from patristic and scholastic authors. John’s intimate posture of resting on Jesus’s bosom symbolizes a mystical marital union between Christ and the Christian soul, prefiguring the eschatological wedding feast of the Lamb prophesied in Revelation 19:9. In contrast, Judas is depicted with moral ambivalence: sometimes he is shown as a reverent communicant and at other times a demonic traitor. Viewed through the lens of their life stories, John and Judas embody two sides of the same soul and represent the opposing ends of human response to divine grace––from intimate union to ultimate condemnation, each shaped by the soul’s choices. This dissertation argues that medieval Last Supper depictions functioned not only to commemorate a historical event but also to invite reflection on the soul’s moral choices between righteousness and sin. By presenting Christ as the celebrant who invited potential sinners to partake of his own body and blood, these images prompted medieval viewers to examine their own spiritual state before receiving the sacrament. They evoked deep contemplation, illustrating the spiritual choices available to medieval Christians: to seek salvation through sincere reception of the Eucharist or to fall into condemnation by turning away from grace.
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How this classification was reachedexpand
Full frame distilled prediction
Teacher imitationNot calibrated prevalence, not ground truth. Human validation pending. Learned from the 10,348 direct Codex labels and 10,348 direct Gemma labels. Candidate is the union of thresholded teacher heads; consensus is their intersection. These outputs are machine_predicted_unvalidated and are not human labels or direct frontier model labels.
Codex and Gemma teacher scores by category
| Category | Codex | Gemma |
|---|---|---|
| Metaresearch | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (narrow) | 0.001 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (broad) | 0.001 | 0.000 |
| Bibliometrics | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Science and technology studies | 0.002 | 0.000 |
| Scholarly communication | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Open science | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Research integrity | 0.000 | 0.001 |
| Insufficient payload (model declined to judge) | 0.003 | 0.001 |
Machine scores (provisional)
The two teacher heads of the student model, read on this work. A score orders the frame for review; it never asserts a category, and the validation status ships verbatim with every row.
Baseline scores from an immature model (maturity gate not passed, 7 training rounds). Scores rank; they never assert a category.
score_only:v0-immature-baseline · verbatim from the scoring run: score_only means the number may rank works, and no category label ships from itClassification
machine, unvalidatedMachine predicted; both teacher heads agree on what is shown here.
How this classification was reached, model by model and score by score, is at the end of the page under "How this classification was reached".