Salvator Mundi

Girolamo da Santacroce, a Venetian painter active in the early sixteenth century, painted this Salvator Mundi (Christ as Savior of the World) around 1520, now at the Agnes Etherington Art Centre. The Salvator Mundi was a popular devotional image type showing Christ in frontal or three-quarter view, blessing with one hand and holding a globe or orb in the other, symbolizing his dominion over the world.

Girolamo's treatment follows the Venetian tradition established by Giovanni Bellini and his workshop, with warm tonality, soft modeling, and the serene, contemplative expression appropriate to this iconic image type.