ABSTRACT
In 1902, William James published The Varieties of Religious Experience, wherein he explored the universal and pervasive manifestation of mysticism found in world religions. James was interested in altered states of consciousness leading to experiences of perception, awareness, and certainty in the existence of God inherent to the cognitive states that are the purview of mystics. This chapter considers one example of maniera, enargeia, and the altered stages of cognition associated with the mystic’s connection to God, in an analysis of Jacopo Pontormo’s Supper at Emmaus. As with Masaccio’s Trinity, Pontormo’s Supper at Emmaus is a visionary painting, wherein ordinary people behold a transformative moment, in which they witness a miraculous appearance of divinity. In Pontormo’s Supper at Emmaus, the spectator feels the emotions that accompany the moment of communication between their humanity and God.
