Christ

Description. The oval image contains a depiction of the blessing Christ, depicted as Salvator Mundi – the Savior of the World, which was emphasized by showing the globe. Christ on a dark brown background, illuminated mainly around his head thanks to regularly distributed rays. The background is additionally diversified by a gray-blue coat flowing behind the figure. Jesus standing depicted more than 3/4 of the figure’s height (only his feet and ankles are not visible), heraldically turned negligibly to the left, with the left knee slightly bent visible under the robes. Head directed almost straight, slightly turned away from the rest of the body, a face with very delicate, but clearly masculine features, with a very short, sparse beard and long hair, falling in curls over the right shoulder, and on the other side to the back. The complexion of the face is slightly pink on the cheeks, with dark eyes, stubble, and light chestnut hair. Christ’s right arm is bent at the elbow, and the blessing hand is visible to the left (heraldically) from the axis of the image field, against the left shoulder of the figure. Left lowered down, to the side – Jesus’ hand embraces the cross crowning the sphere of the world. Salwator dressed in a long, simple, red robe with long, rather wide sleeves and a grey-blue, richly pleated coat slung over his left shoulder, slanting down the front from the left side of the figure to the right, flowing at the back. A large ball is visible partially on the right (from the viewer) side of the image field at the bottom, gray with whitish reflections of light on the convex surface, topped with a brown (implicitly golden) cross with delicate finials at the ends of the arms. Partially openwork frame. In the general outline of an oval, slightly elongated on the vertical axis. At the top, the decoration of the frame is a bit more elaborate, it has the character of a finial, on the axis of which, at the top, there is a horn with a bunch of lilies and roses (recreated during the conservation). The frame is cut straight from the bottom. Made of symmetrical, multi-layered weaves of acanthus flagellum in the white color of the polished ground, with a sharp styling (but not withering yet) and golden roses. The described weaves are enriched with motifs wholly or partly gold: profiled strips, sections of a gathered ribbon of various widths, mostly twisted (with volute endings), and horns serving as flower vases.

Provenance: The painting belongs to a series of nine compositions funded by the Świdnica Jesuits as part of the baroqueization of the Gothic interior of the church in Świdnica, which lasted several decades. The paintings were commissioned in 1700 by two Silesian painters: four from Knechtl and five from Johann Jacob Eybelwieser the Younger. Knechtel probably painted his paintings quite quickly, as early as around 1700, while Eybelwieser – judging from the signatures and dates discovered during the conservation works on some of his paintings from the series – completed his part of the commission in 1710, and it was probably then that the rich frames for all the canvases were made.

Characteristics: The painting belongs to a series that was intended to illustrate the merits of the Jesuits in the history of the Catholic Church by showing the most outstanding representatives of the order. However, the principals rightly considered it necessary to show the Jesuit saints in the context of the entire history of salvation. That is why the cycle begins with the representations of Christ (as the Savior of the World) and the Mother of God (shown in the context of the Annunciation – and thus the Incarnation – and thus as the Mother of God), hung closest to the main altar of the church. The part of the series, to which the picture in question belongs, was entrusted by the monks from Świdnica to the Wrocław guild painter, Johann Jacob Eybelwieser. His work, characterized by delicacy and precision in the way of painting, shows Jesus in motion, acting, setting the world in motion – and not, as was often the case in earlier eras, presented frontally, hieratic, and frozen on the throne as the ruler of the world.