The Penultimate Supper

Ah, Monty Python. Still good all these years.
Watched Life of Brian recently, which really everyone should go watch right now (or Black Books, my other favorite UK show) but this is a great if you want to imagine Renaissance commissioning arguments: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l9Aj7W3g1qo
(No, Michelangelo did not paint The Last Supper. If he had, it might have lasted!)

Speaking of commissions, why do they have such a bad rap in the art world. If we are really over the whole notion of genius (clearly we are not) and (pick your least favorite artist to put here) has convinced us that artists can certainly be money-grubbing like the rest of society, then why are commissions so declassé? Does anyone believe that artists don't take the pulse of the times when they select works for a show? There's still plenty of aesthetic freedom to be had in commissions. (Unless it is a portrait of children, in which case bless the poor artist who has to suffer through that experience with the hovering mother anxiously awaiting to observe her child's newfound beauty.)

I guess to Michelangelo's point in the skit, the penultimate supper is more fun to think about. Too much already determined about the Last Supper. Unless constraints are your thing, it'd be much more fun to create the Penultimate Supper. In fact, someone out there...please do.