The Ugly Feet

If you look at a good copy of Holbein's version of the Last Supper you can get a good look at all the feet under the table. After staring at the picture for quite awhile I came to the conclusion that the feet are very ugly. Jesus' are the worst. Odd thing to have in a painting isn't it?

I imagine that feet where pretty disgusting in Jesus' day. They must have taken a lot of abuse, a lot of wear and tear. Cracked, scaly, deformed, gunky feet. To make matters worse Holbein seems, at least to me, to have made them a little larger than they should be. They aren't troll sized but they are close.

When I lived in Africa I used to see some ugly feet. Such was the result for men who toiled hard, on rough ground, with bared feet. Their feet were hard, calloused and deformed. Some had "used" their feet so much that they were flattened and the edges looked like the rubber skirt protruding from the side of a hovercraft.

I've never been totally at ease with my own feet. There is nothing weird about them though they do bare the marks of years of playing soccer. I have just always shied away from things as revealing as a foot washing service, say. I think I've only been involved in two in all my life. I guess I've never bought into the idea that one should put his best foot forward. Shake hands, I say, and leave it at that.

So why does Holbein go into detail with the feet? Why didn't he leave them in the shadows like Da Vinci and spare us the details? I don't know but I can offer two possibilities. Maybe he was trying to capture the "nothing to look upon" aspect of Jesus. If so I applaud the effort though I would have to say Jesus looks pretty good everywhere else in the painting.

He could also be trying to emphasize the sacrifice of a servant. Looking at all those feet under the table is rather unappealing. It would be hard for me to find any joy in the task of giving them a scrub. I would dread it and maybe that is the point.