Christ Blessing

This Christ Blessing by Nardo di Cione, now in the Brooklyn Museum, depicts Christ in the hieratic pose of the Pantocrator — the Almighty ruler of the universe — a subject with deep roots in Byzantine art that remained central to Italian Gothic painting. Nardo, working in Florence in the decades after the Black Death, helped shape a more solemn and spiritually intense approach to religious imagery. The panel likely formed part of a larger altarpiece complex, perhaps serving as the pinnacle panel above a multi-tiered polyptych.

Executed in tempera on gold-ground panel, the image of Christ follows the traditional Pantocrator formula with the right hand raised in blessing and the left holding an open book. Nardo's firm, sculptural modeling and restrained palette create a monumental presence despite the panel's modest scale.