Bread and Cup, Communion Still Life Christian Wall Art

What is painted

On a rough wooden table covered with a fringed linen cloth lie a round flatbread broken in two, its crumbs scattered on the fabric, and a simple goblet of fired clay. Behind them stand a tall terracotta jug with a curved handle and a shallow bowl of green and black olives, with an olive sprig laid across it. A deep window in the stone wall opens onto a sunny landscape of cypresses, a small town and blue hills, with a trailing vine at the top of the frame.

The painting has the warm, grainy look of an oil still life in sand, honey and clay tones, and it fades out into rough brushed edges. There are no words on it at all: the objects do the talking.

The bread and the cup in the Gospels

Every Christian who sees a torn loaf next to a cup thinks of the Last Supper. On the night he was betrayed, Jesus took bread, gave thanks, broke it and gave it to his disciples, saying “This is my body which is given for you: this do in remembrance of me” (Luke 22:19). After supper he took the cup in the same way. Paul passes on the same words to the church at Corinth in 1 Corinthians 11, the earliest written account we have of the Lord's Supper.

The broken bread appears again on Easter evening, at Emmaus. Two disciples walk with the risen Jesus without recognizing him, and only when he takes bread, blesses it and breaks it at their table are their eyes opened (Luke 24:30-31). Olives, wine and bread were everyday food in the land of the Bible, which is part of what this painting is about: the holiest meal is set among ordinary things.

Different churches understand communion in different ways, Eucharist, Mass, the Lord's Supper, but all of them start from this table.

A kitchen, a dining room or a first communion

Because there is no verse on it, this Christian poster fits easily into a kitchen, a breakfast nook or above a sideboard in the dining room, where it looks at first like a fine still life and only then like a prayer. It is a thoughtful first communion present for a family, a gift for a priest or pastor, or a reminder for anyone who wants grace said at every meal.

Like the rest of our Christian wall art, it is produced as a fine art print on heavy archival matte paper and printed to order in the US, with shipping free inside the United States. Choose a size between 5x7 and 24x36, or a metric or A size. It is sent unframed, with a paper margin around the picture, and a digital file is available too.