Christ the Redeemer alongside Saints Peter, the Virgin Mary, John the Evangelist and Paul
Cosimo Rosselli, 1271
This panel shows Christ the Redeemer flanked by the Virgin Mary, Saint Peter, Saint John the Evangelist and Saint Paul of Tarsus, arranged frontally and solemnly beneath arches. It is signed and dated by Meliore di Jacopo to 1271 and painted in tempera and gold on wood, the usual technique for panel painting of the period. Its most striking feature is its rectangular format, which may make it one of the earliest surviving Italian altarpieces of this kind. Its original location and patron are unknown, so its exact function remains uncertain. Between the arches appear seraphim set within wreaths, added sometime between 1450 and 1500; Roberto Longhi attributed them to Cosimo Rosselli, which means the hand of the original painter must be distinguished from that of these later additions. The panel entered the Stuart royal collection and ended up in Parma, where during the Fascist era it was exchanged, along with two other works, for Parmigianino's Turkish Slave. Today it is held in the Uffizi Gallery in Florence.
- Painter
- Cosimo Rosselli
- Date
- 1271
- Medium
- tempera, panel
- Dimensions
- 85 × 209 cm
- Museum
- Uffizi Gallery, Florence
- Genre
- religious art
- Depicts
- angel, Jesus Christ, John the Evangelist, Saint Peter, Mary, Paul the Apostle
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