Salvator Mundi

The Artist: For a biography of Hans Memling, see the Catalogue Entry for The Annunciation (17.190.7).

The Painting: The strict frontality of Christ asserts the aura of the renowned Vera Icon, or “true image”. This formal presentation, however, is mitigated by the close-up view, set before a familiar landscape, which affirms the physical presence of a living being. Christ blesses the devotee with his right hand and rests his left hand on a cross-topped globe, thus representing the Salvator Mundi or Savior of the World.

The source for the official physiognomy of Christ is the Sudarium relic or Vera Icon, the cloth that miraculously received the image of Christ when Veronica (a legendary saint whose name perhaps was composed of the words “vera icon”) wiped his face as he labored under the weight of the cross on his way to Calvary for his crucifixion.[1] The cloth relic, housed in Saint Peter’s Church in Rome until it was lost during the sack of Rome in 1527, was first described by Gervasius of Tidbury in the Otia Imperialia (vol. III, 25) of 1210–15.[2] Matthew Paris, a monk of the Abbey of Saint Albans, subsequently produced a byzantinizying image of Christ in a manuscript of about 1245, relating the eventful procession of the relic in Rome in 1216.[3] Through such images, the characteristics of Christ’s appearance were established: a frontal, shoulder-length view of the figure, a passive expression, and often a tri-partite nimbus, all presented within a frame, like a portrait. A splendid example in The Met’s collection of Veronica’s veil, held aloft by two angels, is by the Master of the Orcagnesque Misericordia, a Florentine painter from the second half of the fourteenth century (1981.365.2).

The popularity of this type flourished in the fourteenth century, due to the so-called Lentulus Letter. As mentioned by Anselm of Canterbury in the early thirteenth century, the letter, purportedly sent to the Roman Senate by a certain Publius Lentulus, describes Christ’s appearance allegedly from first-hand experience.[4] The description focuses in particular on the central part of Christ’s hair, his smooth, unblemished face, and his short, forked beard. Although apocryphal, the Lentulus Letter was believed at the time to be authentic, and generated a number of images of which Jan van Eyck’s Head of Christ was the most famous. The Van Eyck original is lost, but known through several copies of which the one in Berlin is thought to be the most faithful (see fig. 1 above). A devotion to the Vera Icon was endorsed by two popes—Innocent IV (r. 1243–54) and John XXII (r. 1316–34)—who instituted indulgences for those who would recite the associated Salve sancta facies (Hail holy face) prayer.[5]

The Met’s Salvator Mundi is a conflation of the Vera Icon or Holy Face and Christ as Savior of the World. Toward the end of the fifteenth century in the Netherlands, the popularity of the Holy Face was superseded by a devotion to Christ as Salvator Mundi.[6] That the Salvator Mundi image was still connected to the Salve sancta facies prayer, and thus served the purpose of indulgenced images, is indicated by the direct connection of the Salvator Mundi with the prayer in Books of Hours.[7] An example of this is the Lehman Collection Salvator Mundi by Gerard David (1975.1.2486) that once accompanied the Salve sancta facies prayer in the opening devotion of the Escorial Hours of 1486.[8] It is likely, then, that the function of the Salvator Mundi under discussion here was related to the Salve sancta facies prayer and possible indulgences to be rewarded to those who prayed before it.

The Attribution and Date: In 1906, Max J. Friedländer, subsequently supported by other scholars, attributed the Salvator Mundi to Memling himself (see Refs.). However, closer comparison with autograph works by the master demonstrates that it is by a workshop assistant who closely followed a standard pattern, perhaps from a lost original (De Vos 1994 and Refs.). As Memling worked for a time in Rogier van der Weyden’s Brussels atelier, it is not surprising to discover that The Met’s Christ type derives from one in the central panel of Rogier van der Weyden’s Braque Triptych in the Louvre (fig. 2; see Held 1949). In both paintings, Christ holds in his left hand a globe that represents the earth, topped by a cross, and raises his right hand in a gesture of blessing. In Rogier’s image, the globe very clearly shows the reflection of light pouring through a window, a common symbol in Salvator Mundi images. The window references redemption through the light of Christ (often in such images, the bars of the window form the shape of a cross). In The Met’s painting, the reflection of light on the globe comes from the same direction as in Rogier’s prototype, but without the appearance of a window (Gottlieb 1960).

Memling himself produced several paintings related to this work, most notably the Christ Blessing of 1478 in the Norton Simon Museum, Pasadena (fig. 3), and one from 1481 in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (fig. 4). Also from 1480–85 is a recently discovered Christ Blessing now in the collection of Lynda and Stewart Resnick (fig. 5).[9] Memling painted a far more elaborately attired Salvator Mundi as the central figure of his Nájera Altarpiece of about 1487–90 in the Koninklijk Museum voor Schone Kunsten, Antwerp, and as a figure in the triptych of Earthly Vanity and Divine Salvation of 1485 (Musée des Beaux-Arts, Strasbourg). The close proximity of the figure of Christ in The Met’s roundel especially with those of Christ Blessing in Pasadena, Boston, and the private collection in California suggests a similar date, that is, around 1480–85.[10] These comparisons also underscore the more subtle and lifelike modeling of the head of Christ of the former three compared to The Met painting, which appears stiff and wooden. The underdrawing of The Met's painting is restricted mostly to the contours of the figure, with minor adjustments made to Christ’s left shoulder and right thumb (see Technical Notes and fig. 6). This careful but rather rigid-looking underdrawing is typical of copies from an established workshop pattern. There is no apparent underdrawing in the landscape, the details of which are mechanically executed in paint and appear unnaturalistic in comparison with the idyllic landscape behind Memling’s Virgin and Child roundel of around 1475–80 (The Met, 32.100.59).

Maryan W. Ainsworth 2019

[1] For Saint Veronica and the veil, see A. Sand, Vision, Devotion, and Self-representation in Late Medieval Art, New York, 2014, pp. 31–32; Jacobus de Voragine, The Golden Legend, trans. and adapt. G. Ryan and H. Rippergere, 2 vols., New York, 1969, pp. 214–15; Hans Belting, Likeness and Presence: A History of the Image Before the Era of Art, Chicago, 1994, pp. 218–20. For other earlier legends of the Vera Icon see Ewa Kuryluk, Veronica and Her Cloth: History, Symbolism, and Structure of a “True” Image, Cambridge, Mass., 1991; and Miyako Sugiyama, “Replicating the Sanctity of the Holy Face: Jan van Eyck’s Head of Christ,” Simiolus 30 (2017), no. 1–2, pp. 7–8.
[2] Ernst von Dobschütz, Christusbilder Untersuchungen zur christlichen Legende, Leipzig, 1899, p. 92.
[3] Matthew Paris, Matthaei Parisiensis, Monachi Sancti Albani. Chronica majora, ed. H. Luard, 7 vols., London, 1876, vol. 3, p. 7. See also Sugiyama 2017, p. 8.
[4] For the text of the letter, see Sugiyama 2017, p. 9.
[5] On the Van Eyck copies as indulgenced images and used to enact mental pilgrimages to Rome to the Vera Icon itself, see Sugiyama 2017, pp. 9–14.
[6] For two German Renaissance paintings in The Met’s collection of the Salvator Mundi, see those by Albrecht Dürer (32.100.64) and a German Painter (probably from Hamburg; 17.190.13–15).
[7] Maryan Ainsworth and Thomas Kren in Thomas Kren and Scot McKendrick, Illuminating the Renaissance: The Triumph of Flemish Manuscript Painting in Europe, exh. cat., J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles, 2003, p. 346, no. 99.
[8] See Ainsworth and Kren 2003 and The Met, 1975.1.2486.
[9] Till-Holger Borchert, “Een Zegenende Christus van Hans Memling,” in Anne Adriaens-Pannier et al., Hommage: Robert Hoozee: Museum voor Schone Kunsten, Gent, 1982–2012, Ghent, 2014, p. 95; Till-Holger Borchert, ed., Memling Rinascimento fiammingo, exh. cat. Scuderie del Quirinale, Rome, 2014, pp. 138–39, no. 17.
[10] An unusual feature in the Salvator Mundi is the parallel hatching in a deep red glaze in the red robe of Christ to indicate modeling. To my knowledge, this is rarely found in Memling’s autograph paintings, and only in the ones that are dated toward the end of Memling’s career. Compare a similar phenomenon in the red curtain sack of the bed in Memling’s Annunciation (The Met, 1975.1.113).

Support: The support is a single plank of oak with the grain oriented horizontally. Dendrochronological analysis indicated an earliest possible creation date of 1481.[1] The oak is from the Baltic/Polish region. The panel was planed down and cradled but the cradle has since been removed; staining in a grid pattern on the back is evidence of this. The panel now measures 5 mm thick. Some ground material or fill remaining in a low point on the back suggests that the panel was not significantly thinned.

The panel retains its integral frame (see figs. 8–10 above). X-radiography indicated that the panel and frame were turned on a lathe; the marks from this left a characteristic bull’s-eye pattern in the x-radiograph (fig. 7).

Preparation: The panel was prepared with a white ground. Examination with infrared reflectography revealed the presence of an underdrawing, executed with what appears to be a liquid medium, possibly pen and ink (fig. 6).[2] The schematic underdrawing defines the major contours: the facial features, the folds of the robe and the hands. The artist positioned the fingers with care; corrected lines there and in the drapery indicate that the design was not transferred but drawn freehand. Comparison of the infrared with the painted composition reveals that slight adjustments were made to contours, including Christ’s left shoulder and right thumb.

Paint Layers: Technical examination revealed generally skillful but occasionally uneven handling; some elements were well executed while others were less successful. For example, the eyes of Christ were built up with great complexity; both smaller highlights and catch lights are meticulously rendered as are the so-called “floating” irises that Memling often employed to give his subjects an otherworldly air.[3] The fingers are convincingly foreshortened, though slightly elongated. Upon closer analysis, the highlights on the fingernails are painted in the same manner regardless of the position of each to the light, betraying a somewhat formulaic approach.

Comparison with other paintings by Memling, including two similar compositions now in the Norton-Simon Museum, Pasadena (fig. 3) and the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (fig. 4), demonstrates how this composition approached but did not quite attain the level of painting achieved in those. The other two paintings are characterized by the stunningly lifelike rendering of fleshtones; the way that Christ’s skin is stretched tautly over the fine bones of his face, made more intense by subtle lighting effects. The portrayal of fleshtones in The Met's painting is stiff and wooden in comparison. This painter was technically accomplished, but did not have Memling’s deep understanding of anatomy and drapery effects. In a more specific example, the central fold of Christ’s robe does not fall convincingly; while it begins as a gentle ripple at his neckline, it suddenly becomes a deeply creased fold below Christ’s hand. The glazes of what appears to be a red lake, now slightly faded, may have attenuated this fold but not substantially. A similar fold is more convincingly rendered in the two other compositions by Memling in Pasadena and Boston. In addition, the trees seem mechanical when compared to the more naturalistic examples in another roundel of the same size in The Met’s collection, the Virgin and Child (32.100.59).

There is a light pink layer beneath roughly half of the composition, an area which comprises the sky, Christ’s head, and the landscape on the left. This paint does not seem to be related to the current composition or make sense as a priming for it, but could be associated with a different orientation of the panel. If the panel was rotated about 210 degrees, the pink priming would be in the area of Christ’s red robe. Furthermore, the grain of the panel would run diagonally, as more often found in roundels. There is no indication of an alternative design in the x-radiograph or infrared reflectogram. No significant changes were noted in the painting. A smaller reserve was left for the building at right, as evident in the x-radiograph.

The painting is in good condition. The losses are mainly restricted to the old break in the support. The browns in the fleshtones are only slightly rubbed, but generally well-preserved. The red lakes are slightly faded.

Sophie Scully 2019

[1] Wood identification and dendrochronological analysis completed by Dr. Peter Klein, Universität Hamburg, dated May 5, 2015. The report can be found in the files of the Department of Paintings Conservation. The youngest heartwood ring was formed out in the year 1464. Regarding the sapwood statistic of Eastern Europe an earliest felling date can be derived for the year 1479, more plausible is a felling date between 1479….1483. Under the assumption of a median of fifteen sapwood rings and two years for seasoning, as probably usual in the 14th/15th century, a creation is possible from 1481 upward.
[2] Infrared reflectography completed with an OSIRIS InGaAs near-infrared camera with a 6-element, 150 mm focal length f/5.6–f/45 lens; 900–1700 nm spectral response, September 2017.
[3] Lorne Campbell “The Netherlandish Portrait Tradition” in Memling and the Art of Portraiture, ed. Till Holger-Borchert, London, 2005, p. 60.

von Arnim family, Schwedt an der Oder (until 1904; to Kaufmann); Richard von Kaufmann, Berlin (1904–d. 1908; his estate, 1908–17; his estate sale, Cassirer & Helbing, Berlin, December 4 ff., 1917, no. 69, for 72,000 marks); [Kleinberger, New York, 1921]; Michael Friedsam, New York (1921–d. 1931)

Berlin. Akademie der Künste. "Ausstellung von Werken alter Kunst," 1914, no. 98 (lent by Frau von Kaufmann).

New York. F. Kleinberger Galleries. "Flemish Primitives," 1929, no. 25 (lent by Col. Michael Friedsam).

New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "The Michael Friedsam Collection," November 15, 1932–April 9, 1933, no catalogue.

New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "From Van Eyck to Bruegel: Early Netherlandish Painting in The Metropolitan Museum of Art," September 22, 1998–February 21, 1999, no. 56.

Philadelphia Museum of Art. "Hans Memling’s 'Virgin Nursing the Christ Child' and the Early Netherlandish Tondo," December 19, 2009–March 17, 2010, no catalogue.

Max J. Friedländer. "De Verzameling von Kaufmann te Berlijn." Onze Kunst 10 (July–December 1906), pp. 30–31, ill., observes that, although the painting's execution is a bit coarse, it is unquestionably by Memling.

Karl Voll. Memling: Des Meisters Gemälde. Stuttgart, 1909, p. 178, ill. p. 124, dates it about 1490.

J. O. Kronig. "Deux tableaux de maîtres primitifs néerlandais dans les collections de S. M. le Roi du Portugal." Les arts no. 99 (March 1910), p. 28, notes that, compared to the Lisbon "Christ Blessing" [Palais de Necessidades, now Norton Simon Museum, Passadena], our tondo is only a sketch; comments that in both works Christ is depicted with unusual faun-like ears.

"Mr. Friedsam's Memling." American Art News 14, no. 25 (March 25, 1916), p. 1, observe that it is "presumably a pendant" to Memling's Madonna and Child tondo in the Friedsam collection [MMA 32.100.59].

Georges Huisman. Memlinc. Paris, 1923, pp. 123, 148, ascribes it to Memling's workshop.

Max J. Friedländer. Die altniederländische Malerei. Vol. 6, Memling und Gerard David. Berlin, 1928, p. 123, no. 38, as by Memling.

Max J. Friedländer in The Michael Friedsam Collection. [completed 1928], p. 135, as from Memling's middle period.

Bryson Burroughs and Harry B. Wehle. "The Michael Friedsam Collection: Paintings." Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin 27, section 2 (November 1932), p. 20, call it Memling.

Harry B. Wehle and Margaretta Salinger. The Metropolitan Museum of Art: A Catalogue of Early Flemish, Dutch and German Paintings. New York, 1947, p. 70, ill., as Memling; note that the "Salvator Mundi" replaced the hieratic "Holy Face" toward the end of the 15th century.

Julius S. Held. "Book Reviews: Harry B. Wehle and Margaretta M. Salinger . . ., 1947." Art Bulletin 31 (June 1949), p. 140, observes that it derives from Rogier Van der Weyden's "Paris triptych" [Triptych of Jean Braque, about 1452–53, in the Louvre].

Julius S. Held. "A Tondo by Cornelis Engebrechtsz." Oud-Holland 67, no. 1 (1952), pp. 234, 236, points out that hanging small devotional tondos at the head end of beds seems to have been a standard practice during the 15th and 16th centuries; notes that such tondos are shown in paintings representing interiors and cites our "Annunciation" by Hans Memling [MMA 1975.1.113] and the "Anunciation" by Joos van Cleve [MMA 32.100.60] among other examples.

Josephine L. Allen and Elizabeth E. Gardner. A Concise Catalogue of the European Paintings in The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 1954, p. 67.

Erik Larsen. Les primitifs flamands au Musée Metropolitain de New York. Utrecht, 1960, p. 74.

Carla Gottlieb. "The Mystical Window in Paintings of the Salvator Mundi." Gazette des beaux-arts, 6th ser., 56 (December 1960), p. 330 n. 12, comments on the absence here of a reflected "mystical window" on the orb, which is simply highlighted; notes that "the obscure relationship of T-band [there is none] to globe proves that this portion is not in its original state or not by Memling".

Giorgio T. Faggin. L'opera completa di Memling. Milan, 1969, p. 103, no. 50, ill., as an autograph Memling.

Max J. Friedländer et al. Early Netherlandish Painting. Vol. 6, Hans Memlinc and Gerard David. New York, 1971, part 1, p. 51, no. 38, pl. 90.

Barbara G. Lane. Hans Memling: Werkverzeichnis. Frankfurt, 1980, p. 48, no. 63, ill., dates it to about 1480–90.

Dirk De Vos. Hans Memling: The Complete Works. Ghent, 1994, p. 142 n. 4, p. 232 n. 1, p. 344, no. A12, ill. (color), considers the tondo too dry in execution and lacking in atmosphere to have been painted by Memling and ascribes it to a follower; notes that it "could be a contemporary copy of a small, lost painting by Memling"; mentions two related compositions (Norton Simon Museum, Pasadena, and Museum of Fine Arts, Boston).

Dirk De Vos. Hans Memling: Catalogue. Exh. cat., Groeninge Museum, Bruges. Ghent, 1994, p. 66, 106, as a work of a follower.

Katharine Baetjer. European Paintings in The Metropolitan Museum of Art by Artists Born Before 1865: A Summary Catalogue. New York, 1995, p. 253, ill.

Mary Sprinson de Jesús in From Van Eyck to Bruegel: Early Netherlandish Painting in The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Ed. Maryan W. Ainsworth and Keith Christiansen. Exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 1998, pp. 236, 238–39, no. 56, ill. (color), ascribes it to Memling's workshop in the last quarter of the 15th century; compares the facial type to that in a panel of Christ as Salvator Mundi, part of a fragmentary triptych in the Musée des Beaux-Arts, Strasbourg; notes that in the compositional prototype, Rogier's Braque triptych, Christ holds the orb, whereas in Memling's examples Christ rests his hand on it; states that the painting and frame are a single piece of wood.

Philippe Lorentz and Micheline Comblen-Sonkes. Musée du Louvre, Paris. III [Les primitifs flamandes, I: Corpus de la peinture des anciens Pays-Bas méridionaux et de la principauté de Liège au quinzième siècle, vol. 19]. Brussels, 2001, p. 156, no. 13, lists it as one of numerous compositions related to the Braque triptych and ascribes it to the workshop of Memling.

Maryan W. Ainsworth. "Commentary: An Integrated Approach." Early Netherlandish Painting at the Crossroads: A Critical Look at Current Methodologies. Ed. Maryan W. Ainsworth. New York, 2001, p. 110, calls it a workshop example in excellent condition.

Lloyd DeWitt. Hans Memling’s "Virgin Nursing the Christ Child" and the Early Netherlandish Tondo. Exh. brochure, Philadelphia Museum of Art. Philadelphia, [2009], unpaginated, fig. 7 (color).

Diane Wolfthal and Cathy Metzger. Los Angeles Museums. Brussels, 2014, pp. 125, 132, fig. 4 (color).

This frame and panel are from Bruges and date to about 1480–85 (see figs. 8–10 above). The integral tondo frame and panel are made of oak and are lathe-turned from a single piece of wood with horizontal grain. A kick at the sight edge divides the hollow of the molding from the painted surface. It rises to a small step before the flat fillet at the top edge. The depth of the ogee molding falls below the plane of the painting. Likely painted black and mordant gilded originally, the gilded surface was later gessoed and water gilded and is now presently coated with bronze paint. The additional coatings modified the profile of the hollow to a slight ogee. A round panel may have fitted into the step at the top to protect this intimate devotional painting. See for comparison the small tondo Virgin and Child by Hans Memling (32.100.59), also in The Met’s collection.

Timothy Newbery with Cynthia Moyer 2016; further information on this frame can be found in the Department of European Paintings files