Csornay Boldizsár - Hubai Péter szerk.: A Szépművészeti Múzeum közleményei 96. (Budapest, 2002)

KOVÁCS, ZOLTÁN: A New Representation of the Salvator Mundi from the workshop of Quentin Massys

de coelo descendit) is taken from John, 6:51. Rogier's Christ warrants closer inspection, especially since it is an important antecedent to the figure in the Budapest picture. Commenting upon the Braque Triptych, Barbara Lane pointed out that Rogier's Christ derives from medieval representations of the Saviour holding a book or a scroll inscribed Ego sum lux mundi (John 8:12).

35 The appearance of these words is frequent in Byzantine mosaics of the Pantokrator and Italian apse mosaics of the late Romanesque and Gothic periods, as well.

36 Rogier may have seen a number of such images during his sojourn in Italy. Nevertheless, he substituted a gleaming globe for the inscribed book of the Pantokrator. Lane proposed that Rogier's intention may have been to provide a more vivid expression of the idea of lux mundi, which, we might add, was also more in keeping with the tastes of Northern realism. Lane suggested that half-length representations of the Salvator Mundi may derive from the images of Christ in Tuscan dossales of the late 13th and early 14th centuries; in a number of features these are in accord with the Saviour of the Braque Triptych.

37 The physiognomical features of the Rogerian prototype are quite consistent with those of the Salvator Mundi in the Budapest panel: long oval face; high forehead; thin eyebrows; almond-shaped eyes; long straight nose; dark hair, parted in the middle, falling over His shoulders; and short moustache and beard, the latter tapering off to two fine points below the chin.

38 Further common features are the large nimbus that is reminiscent of the radiant sun, the simple sacerdotal garment, and the neck, depicted with taut muscles. Rogier is well known to have had a formative influence on Hans Memling, who also painted an image of Christ the Saviour around 1490. Nevertheless, his version reflects some significant differences in interpretation in relation to the Salvator of the Braque Triptych.

39 He kept the half-length format, but set the figure among clouds, 35 See B. G. Lane, Early Italian Sources for the Braque Triptych, The Art Bulletin 62 (1980), 281-4, and also her The Altar and the Altarpiece. Sacramental Themes in Early Netherlandish Painting, New York 1984.118-9. 36 Cf. the apse mosaic (Fig. 8.) produced by Cimabue and others (Francesco da Pisa). Cf. Castelnuovo. op. cit. (cfr. n. 16), I, plates 243, 371; R. Van Marie, The Development of the Italian Schools of Painting, I, The Hague 1923, 453ff, fig. 261 (as attributed to Cimabue and his school). Rogier may not have been aware of the Southern Italian apse mosaics where Christ is represented half-length (Cefalù, Palermo, Monreale). Cf. Capizzi, op. cit. (cfr. n. 14), figs. 8, 13, 14. Cf. O. Demus, The Mosaics of Norman Sicily, London 1950, 12, 10B, fig. 61. 37 The same quotation from John can be read in Christ's open book in a dossale attributed to Cimabue, where Christ appears between Saint Peter and Saint James the Greater. The right hand raised in blessing is almost entirely identical to that in the Braque Triptych. Cf. Lane, op. cit. 1980 (cfr. n. 35), 283, fig. 4. For the altar, furthermore see E. B. Garrison, Italian Romanesque Panel Painting, Florence 1949, 172-3. The comparison with Tuscan dossales shows further similarities, as well. Such are the oblong format, the fivefigured composition, and the device of representing Christ as somewhat taller than the accompanying saints, which recurs in the Braque Triptych, as well. 38 Although not easily visible because of later overpainting, infrared reflectography clearly revealed the original, two-pronged form of the beard in the Budapest panel (Fig. 5). 39 The Salvator Mundi among Angels singing. Central panel of a triptych once in Nájera. Antwerp, Koninklijk Museum voor Schone Künsten. De Vos, op. cit. (cfr. n. 25), 289-93, no. 81. Cf. Gottlieb, op. cit. (cfr. n. 10), 320, fig. 6. Memling repeated, on a reduced scale, the Christ of the Nájera triptych on the reverse of the central panel of the triptych now in the Musée des Beaux-Arts, Strasbourg, dating from circa 1485. See De Vos, op. cit. (cfr. n. 25), 245-7, no. 64.