How did Han van Meegeren build The Supper at Emmaus from elements of genuine Vermeer paintings?

Han van Meegeren created The Supper at Emmaus using a technique known as a composite fraud, or pastiche. Rather than creating a direct copy of a single work, he constructed a new composition by combining specific elements—including figures, heads, hands, plates, and a wine jar—taken from various early, genuine paintings by Johannes Vermeer.1

By integrating these familiar components into a single, cohesive scene, van Meegeren leveraged the fact that creative artists often borrow from their own previous works, which made the forgery appear more authentic to scholars and critics. This method was highly effective; the painting was hailed as a masterpiece and identified as the earliest known work by Vermeer. Van Meegeren’s success with this approach highlights the deceptive power of composite forgeries, where the inclusion of recognizable elements from an artist's genuine repertoire helps to validate the fraudulent creation.12