Salvator Mundi

The Savior, in regal, gold-embroidered, red robes has his right hand raised in benediction; his left holds a jeweled crystal orb surmounted by an open-work gold cross. God's regal attributes show him as King of Heaven and Savior of the Earth. The orb symbolizes the world as created and ruled by God; the cross above indicates the salvation of Mankind through the sacrifice of His Son. This striking representation of Christ can be interpreted as the merging of the Salvator Mundi (the Savior of the World) and the Vera Effigies. The frontal portrayal of the face of Christ became standard in 15th century art, and was established as early as the 13th century through a description contained in the so-called Letter of Lentulus.

The composition derives from Quentin Massijs Salvator Mundi, in the Royal Museum, Antwerp (inv.no. 241), of which several workshop copies are known. The work closest to the present lot is by a follower of Massijs in the National Gallery, London (inv.no. 295) which is part of an arched diptych, with the Virgin on the right companion wing. The present panel may have also formed half of a diptych, with a companion panel. Like the London Salvator Mundi it is far more conservative in style than the relatively early Savior of Massijs in Antwerp. Both panels are probably based upon a more gothicising work by Massijs, now lost.