PUBLIUS LENTULUS [ACTOR]:
“Christ had a reverend countenance which they that look upon may love and fear; hair of the hue of an unripe hazelnut waving over his shoulders; a parting in the middle of the head; a brow smooth and very calm, with a face without wrinkle or any blemish; a full beard not long, but a little forked at the chin.”
FEMALE NARRATOR:
The unknown writer who penned those words might well have been describing The Blessing Christ by the Flemish artist Hans Memling, painted in the late 15th century. Memling probably followed such descriptions, believed to stem from antiquity.
Memling was a master of portraiture. The faces he painted glow with life and subtly suggest the sitter’s character. He was equally famous for his devotional paintings, designed to promote private worship and prayer.
Here, Christ confronts us in dramatic close-up. His frontal pose and focused gaze confer a majesty befitting his divinity, and a nimbus surrounds his head in tiny rays of golden light. Yet, he is also seen in very human terms. He is shown against a plain dark background, his figure filling the frame like a real portrait. Notice how minutely Memling has rendered Christ’s soft beard the highlights in his curls or the delicate creases on his fingers and neck. He raises one hand in a gentle gesture of blessing. The other rests on the edge of the frame, as if he were standing behind a window or parapet, looking out at us.
By blending the formality of a religious icon with the realism of a late 15th-century portrait, Memling has created both a loving meditation on the physiognomy of Christ, and a celebration of his divine role as Redeemer.
Christ Giving His Blessing
1478
Hans Memling (Netherlandish, c.1430/40-1494)
On View
Hans Memling was the leading painter in Bruges during the last quarter of the fifteenth century. His Christ Giving His Blessing recalls an iconographic type found in early Christian and Byzantine sacred icons, but echoes the later compositional types of Rogier van der Weyden, in whose workshop Memling presumably worked before settling in Bruges. Unlike the work of his predecessors, however, Memling's portrait of Christ is neither severe nor characterized by tragic pathos. In form and feeling, it presages Italian portraiture from the following decade: the search for clarity and order, the monumental effect achieved by filling the frame with Christ's head and shoulders, and the close-up view of the delicately modeled face against a neutral background. The gentle spirit and grace of the Redeemer, presented in fully human terms in this compelling devotional image, marks Memling’s debt to Rogier, but also his status as someone who transformed religious and portrait imagery throughout Europe from that point forward.
Details
- Artist Name: Hans Memling (Netherlandish, c.1430/40-1494)
- Title: Christ Giving His Blessing
- Date: 1478
- Medium: Oil on oak panel
- Dimensions: comp: 14-3/8 x 10-1/2 in. (36.5 x 26.7 cm); panel: 15-1/8 x 11-1/8 in. (38.4 x 28.3 cm)
- Credit Line: Norton Simon Art Foundation, Gift of Mr. Norton Simon
- Accession Number: M.1974.17.P
- Copyright: © Norton Simon Art Foundation
Object Information
Don Manuel I, King of Portugal, Palacio das Necessidades, Lisbon, sold 1910 to;
[Duveen Brothers, London and New York, sold 1927 to];
Dr. and Mrs. A. Hamilton Rice, New York, sold 1957 to;
[M. Knoedler & Co., New York, jointly owned with Pinakos, Ltd., New York, stock no. A6680, as The Blessing Christ; sold 5 April 1964 to;
Norton Simon Art Foundation.
[Duveen Brothers, London and New York, sold 1927 to];
Dr. and Mrs. A. Hamilton Rice, New York, sold 1957 to;
[M. Knoedler & Co., New York, jointly owned with Pinakos, Ltd., New York, stock no. A6680, as The Blessing Christ; sold 5 April 1964 to;
Norton Simon Art Foundation.
Exhibition of Flemish and Belgian Art, 1300-1900
- London, Royal Academy, 1927-01-08 to 1927-03
- De Vos, Dirk, Hans Memling: The Complete Works,no. 27 pp. 142-143
- Friedländer, Max J., Der Cicerone, p. 211-212
- Lauts, J., Antonello da Messina, pp. 13-14, 34
- Friedländer, Max J., Hans Memlinc and Gerard David,no. 39, pl. 90 p. 51
- Padovani, S., et al., L'Età di Savonarola: Fra' Bartolomeo e la scuola di San Marco, p. 171
- Groeningemuseum, Bruges, Le siècle des primitifs flamands,no. 37 pp. 150, 102
- Morse, John D., Old Master Paintings in North America,1979, p. 197
- Leidtke, Walter A.; and Guy C. Bauman, Flemish Paintings in America, A Survey of Early Netherlandish and Flemish Paintings in the Public Collections of North America,fig. 354 p. 354
- Sperling, Harry, Loan Exhibition of Flemish Primitives,no. 23 pp. 80-81
- Vaughn, M., The Connoisseur, p. 295
- Carlo Ginzburg, History Workshop Journal,fig. 12 p. 10-11
- Revised and Enlarged Complete Catalogue of the Paintings and Sculptures - Masterpieces of Art. The Official Souvenir Guide and Picture Book, New York World's Fair, 1939,no. 252, pl. 39 p. 10
- Winkler, Friedrich, Kunstchronik, p. 314
- Masterpieces from the Norton Simon Museum,1989, p. 23
- Campbell, Lorne, The Burlington Magazine, p. 265
- Anonymous, Art News, p. 5
- Longhi, Roberto, Scritti giovanili, p. 80
- Kennedy, Trinita and Joan Nolan, A Divine Light: Northern Renaissance Paintings from Bob Jones University,2011, Fig. 52 p. 116
- Dunkerton, Jill, Renaissance Venice and the North: Crosscurrents in the Time of Bellini, Durer and Titian, p. 98
- Faggin, Giorgio T.; and Maria Corti, L'Opera completa di Memling,no. 5
- Longhi, Roberto, L'Arte, p. 212
- Sutton, Peter C., The William Appleton Coolidge Collection,fig. 1 pp. 27-28
- Anonymous, Art News, p. 4
- Friedlander, M., Early Netherlandish Painting,no. 39 p. 51
- Han Belting, Keith Christiansen, et. al., Giovanni Bellini: Landscapes of Faith in Renaissance Venice,2017, pp. 104-109
- Van Miegroet, Max, Gerard David,n. 97, fig. 116 pp. 133, 141
- Lambotte, Paul, et al., Exhibition of Flemish and Belgian Art, 1300-1900,no. 62 p. 31
- Lane, B. G., Hans Memling, Werkverzeichnis. Die grossen Meister der Malerei, p. 38
- Detroit Institute of Arts, Flanders in the Fifteenth Century: Art and Civilization,no. 34 p. 154
- Vaughan, Malcolm, International Studio, p. 40
- Snow-Smith, Joanne, The Salvator Mundi of Leonardo da Vinci,fig. 76 p. 75
- Campbell, Sara, Collector Without Walls: Norton Simon and His Hunt for the Best,2010, cat. 210 p. 271
- Norton Simon Museum, Selected Paintings at the Norton Simon Museum,1980, p. 34
- Alexandre, Arsène, La Renaissance de l'Art français et les industries de luxe, pp. 62-64
- De Vos, D., National Biografisch Woordenboek,
- Buijsen, Edwin, Oud Holland Jaargang,no. 110, fig. 17 pp. 65, 67
- Frankfurter, Alfred M., The Fine Arts, p. 22
- De Vos, Dirk, Hans Memling,no. 10 pp. 17, 66-67, 106
- Eric Denion, Sophie Denion, Frédéric Mouriaux, Guillaume Béraud, Sclerotic scatter and focusing in eye painting: light through darkness,2022, 1478 p. 9, pp. 237-243 (ill. supplemental materials)
- Catalogue. The Loan Exhibition of Flemish & Belgian Art, Burlington House London 1927: A Memorial Volume,no. 62, pl. XXXIV p. 31
- Friedländer, Max J., Die Altniederlandische Malerie,no. 39, pl. XXVIII p. 124
- Philipart, G., Flemish Primitives,no. 13 opp. p. 48
- Vollmer, Hans, Allegemeines Lexikon der bildenden Kunstler, p. 375
- Masterpieces of Art, New York's World's Fair,no. 252
Image reproduction permission may be granted for scholarly or arts related commercial use. All image requests, regardless of their intended purpose, should be submitted via the reproduction request form.
Images may be protected by copyright and other intellectual property rights. Additional permission may be required.
Approved requests for the reproduction of an image will receive a contract detailing all fees and conditions of use of the image. Upon receipt of both the signed contract and full payment, the Office of Rights and Reproductions will provide the image. A complimentary copy of the published material must be provided to the Norton Simon Museum.