The Holy See announced Thursday its pavilion at the Expo world's fair will replace Tintoretto's Last Supper with Peter Paul Rubens' The Institute of the Eucharist.
Tintoretto's Last Supper - which attracted 45,000 visitors - will return to its permanent home at the San Trovaso Church in Venice, while Rubens' tapestry will be on loan to the pavilion for the next few months from Ancona's Diocesan Museum.
"The tapestry illustrates a frequent theme in sacred art, that of Jesus' Last Supper at Jerusalem with his disciples, in the iconographic variation of the apostles' First Communion," pavilion representatives said.
"That interpretation of the Eucharist came back into vogue and was prevalent in depictions during the Counter-Reformation".
Rubens depicted the Last Supper several times during the 1630s.
On Thursday, the last day of the Tintoretto exhibition, the Venetian's work received a visit from the Italian premier's wife, Agnese Renzi, and her sons Emanuele and Francesco.
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