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

while His left rests on the globe - this time one without a surmounted cross - on His knees.

88 All three members of the notable Wierix engraver dynasty of Antwerp, i.e., Antoine (7-1574), Jan (1549-after 1620), and Hieronymus (1553-1619), produced plates of the Salvator Mundi that show him three-quarters in length, the body cropped at the knees. One of the earliest examples is the signed engraving by Antoine (fig. 48) that offers close parallels with the Budapest panel in its frontal view.

89 There are a number of further plates where the figure of Christ is of the same length; nevertheless, these present him at an angle, similar to the composition of Hemessen.

90 In one of the engravings of the 1578 edition of Libertus Shaloun's Imagines aliquot insignes de Passione Domini nostri Ihesu Christi, published in Sint-Truiden, the compositional formula is once again quite consistent with that of the Budapest picture (fig. 49).

91 Given the examples presented above, it would appear that the Budapest panel, painted ca. 1530, is one of the earliest knee-length representations of the Salvator Mundi in Netherlandish art. The artist has produced an image that amalgamates several iconographie traditions, incorporating the distinctive physiognomy of the very popular portrait-like representations of the Holy Face and, at the same time, expressing the ideas of blessing and salvation, as well. The likeness of the Saviour, considered to be authentic, was depicted according to a formula that was quite popular with, above all, Italian portraitists but had been adopted by artists of the North, as well, especially in representations of the Madonna. Giving a vivid impression of the enthroned pose of Christ, this formula must have seemed particularly suitable for reinforcing the sense of His sovereignty.

92 Considerably larger than that of other Netherlandish representations 88 Cf. Friedländer, op. cit. (cfr. n. 24), XII (Jan van Scorel and Pieter Coeck van Aelst), pl. 108, fig. 195. 89 The inscription on the engraving reads SPECIOSVS FORMA PRAE F ILII S HOMINVM. Cf. M. Mauquoy-Hendrickx, Les estampes des Wierix conservées au Cabinet des Estampes de la Bibliothèque Royale Albert 1er I., Bruxelles 1978, no. 494. It may be interesting that the same inscription appears in a copy of the Eyckian Holy Face, preserved in the Groeningemuseum, Brugge. Cf. A. Janssens de Bisthoven, De vlaamse Primitieven. Groningemuseum, Brugge 1, Brüssel 1981, 163-8. 90 Mauquoy-Hendrickx, op. cit. (cfr. n. 89), nos. 496, 499, 501, 503. 91 Liège, Université, Bibliothèque générale, Ms. 1096, fol. 16v. Cf. Smeyers, op. cit. (cfr. n. 20), pl. 8. 92 Cf. RDK III., 692ff, Christus als König. 48. Antoine Wierix: Salvator Mundi, engraving, first half of the 16th century