Hand-painted in oil
About this Artwork
Saviour of the World
The parenthesis in the recorded title names the type: Salvator Mundi, the frontal blessing Christ with a globe. The formula is stable and public — the raised right hand, the orb standing for the world, the direct address to the viewer — and it belongs to no moment in the gospels. It is an image of authority rather than a report of an event.
Beside the narrative
Devotional images of this kind were made and hung alongside episode pictures without competing with them. A church could own a Passion cycle to be followed in order and a blessing Christ to be addressed at any time. The two do different work, and a catalogue that files both under religion does not distinguish them; the title usually does.
The record
The catalogue gives El Greco, 1600, and the Scottish National Gallery in Edinburgh, at 73 by 56.5 centimetres — upright, half length, the standard scale for the type. The style is entered as Mannerism and late Renaissance and the artist as Spanish; the subject fields class the work as a single male figure and as religious. The measured palette reads as red. Seventeen works in this catalogue are attributed to El Greco, and they include both devotional single figures like this one and full Passion episodes.
Sources
6 references- Greco, Nicolás — Getty ULAN
Spanish artist, active late 16th - early 17th century
- El Greco — Wikipedia
Doménikos Theotokópoulos (Greek: Δομήνικος Θεοτοκόπουλος, pronounced [ðoˈminikos θeotoˈkopulos]; 1 October 1541 – 7 April 1614), most widely known as El Greco (Spanish pronunciation: [el ˈɣɾeko]; "The Greek"), was a Greek painter, sculptor
- Greco, El — Getty ULAN
Greek painter, 1541-1614, active in Spain
- Christ Blessing, The Saviour of the World — Wikidata
description: painting by El Greco; inception: 1600-01-01; dimensions: 73 × 56.5 cm; collection: National Galleries Scotland
- art.nationalgalleries.org — record for "Christ Blessing, The Saviour of the World"
Primary source record for this work (art.nationalgalleries.org).
- El Greco (Domenikos Theotokopoulos) - Christ Blessing ('The Saviour of the World') - Google Art Project — Wikimedia Commons
High-resolution image of the work, hosted on Wikimedia Commons.
