16th–17th-century School, Christ Blessing

16th–17th-century school

Christ Blessing

Oil on canvas, 58 x 69 cm

With frame: 73 x 83

The iconography of the Salvator Mundi evokes—and enriches—God’s devotion to humankind, with particular reference to Christ’s sacrifice for the salvation of all. The globe as an attribute, in fact, signifies the extension of the divine blessing “Urbi et orbi,” a message further conveyed in this painting by Christ himself through the gesture of his right hand—sacred par excellence. The codification of the globe as an attribute dates back to ancient times, to the pagan depiction of the Roman emperor carved in bas-relief or minted by the state mint bearing the globe of victory—an explicit reference to his military conquests. In the development of a modern iconography that would harmonize with solid figurative references—late Roman on the one hand and Jewish on the other— the early Christian artists adopted the meaning of the globe held by the emperor and attributed it to Christ, the true and ultimate emperor, reigning in both the earthly and the otherworldly realms.

This figurative type subsequently gained widespread popularity both for the immediacy of its message and for the captivating aestheticization of the blessing gesture. In this painting, a double source of light illuminates the figure of Jesus: one emanating from the halo, gently brightening the brown background against which the scene is set, and the other from Christ himself, illuminating the red robe he wears. The rippling folds of the blue cloak draped over his right shoulder lend movement to the portrait, enriched by the deliberate three-quarter view of the Son, preferred here over the classic, often-used solemn frontal pose. On the globe, the artist chooses to lightly outline the contours of the landmasses, reserving a pure white glow where Jesus’s hand rests.

Art history lists several excellent examples of this subject: one need only recall the Blessing Christ by Antonello da Messina (National Gallery, London), although he does not hold the globe; or the Flemish examples preserved at the Museum Mayer van den Bergh (Antwerp) by an anonymous 16th-century artist and at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, a work by Gerard David. As for Italian painting, we should also mention the *Salvator Mundi* by Andrea Previtali (National Gallery, London) and that by Titian (St. Petersburg, State Hermitage Museum).