Christ Blessing

The half-length Blessing Christ is a notable work of excellent quality by the Caravaggesque painter Bartolomeo Manfredi, datable c. 1619-1620.

We can recognize the almost identical typology of the Christ of The Tribute Money (Uffizi, Florence, c. 1620-1621). Physiognomy, posing and presentation of the subjects are the same: see the deep shadows in the ocular orbits, the wide vertical décolletage of the red robe and the draperies that open up onto the chest; a maceration of the pictorial technique (typical of the final phase of Manfredi) is also evident in the Florentine painting. These characteristics are already in part present in the Blessing Christ of the Gaudium Magnum Collection, but the density of colours and a certain degree of clearness in the brushstroke, which is still evident, makes the work closer to more precocious canvases, like the Saint John the Evangelist at the Pinacoteca Capitolina in Rome, and the Midas Washing at the Source of the Pactolus from a private collection.

According to the reconstruction attempted in my monography in 2013 the artist would progressively manifest an interiorization of the artistic image – as it already happens in the Christ of the Gaudium Magnum Collection – also marked by an increasingly fused ductus and a shaded and wet setting.

Everything prepares to the most extreme result: the Giustiniani Resurrected Christ Appearing to the Virgin, today at the Museo Civico “Ala Ponzone” in Cremona after the donation of Mina Gregori.