The Last Supper

Emily Nolde's painting, The Last Supper, has a strange visual effect on me.  As I look at it I seem to get tunnel vision and, strangely,  find myself staring at the central figure who I assume to be Jesus.  The use of color, shading and the angles of the people in the painting seem to work together for this effect.  The only bright colors in the painting are on Jesus and all the other people are surrounding Him. It's also interesting to me that the disciples look like they are from lots of different countries.  This makes me think that Nolde might have been influenced by the modern advancements such as telegraph, trains, cars etc.  People in the early 1900s had much more opportunity to travel and to hear of news around the world.  The world was becoming a smaller and more interdependent place which would explain the possibility that Nolde was painting a "statement" that religion goes beyond borders.  He also may have read Else Lasker-Schuler's poetry "Der Siebente Tag" written in 1905.  She was a German poet that wrote of love and religion during the years of the Expressionistic painters.
Else Lasker- Schuler
Der siebente Tag 1905