The relief, in a foliate carved frame, appears in the 1867 Burghley Inventory which records: ‘No. 54 China Closet….An oak picture, ‘The Last Supper’ finely carved in alto relievo by Gibbons.’
César Bagard, to whom the work is now attributed, worked like Gibbons, in both stone and wood.
A native of Nancy, he may have studied in Italy, and later became Sculpteur Ordinaire to Duke Charles IV of Lorraine in 1669.
