Exchange: St. Christopher carrying the Christ Child

96 Items in this Learning Collection

Double-sided Pendant with the Annunciation and the Resurrection

Side A: Etched pendant lined with gilt border with image of two figures, male and female.<br />
Side B: One main figure with a staff surrounded by many figures.

Collection Object

St. Christopher carrying the Christ Child

A standing, bearded figure of St. Christopher, broken off at the knees, holds the Christ child on his right shoulder while leaning upon a staff in his left hand. The child, whose head is encircled by a halo, wears a long cloak over his robe and rests his left hand upon an orb in his lap. The red and brown polychromy is a later addition.

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Coronation of the Virgin

A page from a manuscript depicting a woman, kneeling to be crowned, while a standing man blesses her. She is surrounded by a court of angels in an architectural setting in the clouds.

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Historiated Initial 'O' with St. John the Baptist

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Seraph, half of a medallion from the west rose window of Reims Cathedral

A lunette-shaped panel composed of red, blue, white, brownish purple and yellowish brown stained glass joined together by lead cames depicting a seraph. Four leafy fronds, taken from another medieval window, have been inserted here between the seraph's head and shoulders. The panel is the upper half of a roundel originally installed in the west rose window of Reims Cathedral.

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Leaf from a Gradual

A double-sided illuminated manuscript leaf with one column of seven staffs containing brown ink notes and Latin blackletter script. Some red rubrication is present. A large illuminated initial “S” is found on the verso, decorated with vegetal and floral forms in blue, green, scarlet, and gold leaf.

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Bowl with radial design and inscribed rim

"A Persian inscription is incised into the broad band of lustre decorating the vessel's rim. The main element in the decoration is a loosely drawn eight-pointed star from which a further series of eight- and sixteen-pointed stars are generated; beyond them are registers filled with medallions and cartouches. This structure, unusual in ceramic decor, is reminiscent of that found on metalwork vessels of this same period from Iran."<br />

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Floriated Bible Leaf

Two columns of light brown Latin blackletter script with foliate borders of red, blue, and gold leaf.

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Leaf from a Psalter

Double-sided illuminated manuscript leaf with two blocks of Latin blackletter script framed by floriated borders of blue, red, and gold leaf featuring interlace and an illuminated initial.

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Leaf from a Gradual

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Leaf from Missal or Book of Hours

A double-sided illuminated manuscript leaf with two columns of black Latin blackletter script with some red rubrication and illuminated initials in red, blue, and gold leaf.

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Calendar Leaf (January) from a Book of Hours

A double-sided illuminated manuscript leaf with three columns of text in gold leaf, red, and blue French blackletter script encased by a floriated border. There are two small miniatures, one on either side of the leaf, framed in arched compartments.<br />
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The illustrated compartment on the recto features a seated man wearing a long blue tunic and red cap seated at a table in an interior marked by a stone fireplace. A smaller servant boy dressed in a long tunic presents the man with a platter. The compartment on the verso contains a landscape with a winding river where a man kneels, dressed in pants and a tunic shirt, and draws water into copper jugs.

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Baking Bread, Labor of the Month for December

This enamel roundel depicts three figures in an interior. In the foreground a man with a soft pointed cap maneuvers small round loaves of bread in an oven with a long wooden paddle. Behind him a woman with an elaborate headdress and another figure prepare more loaves for baking. The silvery gray tones of this grisaille enamel impart the scene with a subtle luminosity.

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Gushtasp Slays the Wolf, from the Shahnama of Firdausi

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Priest Celebrating a Mass (Leaf from the Tarleton Hours)

This page of an illuminated manuscript on thin parchment is vertically oriented. Centered in the upper two-thirds of the page is a window-shaped scene of a priest celebrating mass. The priest, with red and white robes and a tonsure, holds up a communion wafer at an altar that has a bible and a communion goblet on it and an image of two figures with halos behind them. The altar and the priest’s robes are trimmed with gold leaf. Behind the priest are two kneeling figures, a man and a woman. They are in the interior of a gothic church, with stone vaulting above them. Below the scene are four lines of calligraphy with the first letter, a ‘D’, highly decorated. Decorative detailing surrounds the text and the scene. The left side consists of an ivy-like plant growing out of the "D", and the bottom and right sides have different foliate-derived design depicted in ink, tempera and gold.

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Tapestry;Border Fragment (Central cartouche depicting 'Atlanta and the Caledonia

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Luhrasp Addresses the Heroes, from the Shahnama of Firdausi

This Persian miniature is attributed to the Shiraz and Timurid schools, ca. 1460. The painting is done in ink, opaque watercolor and gold leaf on paper. The scene, <em>Luhrasp Addresses the Heroes</em>, is part of the Shahnama of Firdausi, the Persian book of kings.

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Brocatelle

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Processional cross with triumphant Christ (Christus triumphans) flanked by busts of the evangelists, Saints Matthew, John, Mark, and Luke (obverse); and suffering Christ (Christus patiens) flanked by busts of the Virgin Mary, God the father, Saint John and unidentified male saint with cross (Saint Philip?) (reverse)

The arms of the cross end in quatrefoil-shaped terminals. The front (obverse) is gilded and features a molding along the edges. The back (reverse) has a deep azurite blue ground and a gilded band punched with tiny rosettes that runs along the border.

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Leaf from a Book of Hours

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Candlestick with decoration of the Labors of the Months

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Champlevé enamel plaque with Christ in Majesty

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Architectural ceiling boss with four faces, probably from the Church of St. Andrew at Cullompton

This ceiling boss features four faces with traces of paint that are arranged in a radial pattern with the crowns of their heads converging on a single, central point. Two of the faces are female, identifiable by the wimples worn on their heads, while the other two, wearing small pointed caps and sporting beards, are male. The symmetrical regularity of the piece is counterbalanced by subtle asymmetries introduced by differences in detail and the sequence of facial types.

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Self-Portrait with carnations

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Scenes of Martyrdom and Monastic Figures

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A Censer, Chalice and Incense Boat

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Capital with vines

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Diptych

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Velvet

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Enthroned Madonna and Child with angels and Saints Louis of Toulouse, Zenobius, John the Evangelist, and John the Baptist

The majestic figure of the Virgin with the infant Christ on her lap sits enthroned in the center of this painted panel. Her elaborate throne rests upon a dais and is enclosed on three sides by panels bristling with Gothic ornament. Two bishop saints holding croziers stand at the foot of the dais accompanied by two other saints who stand behind them, while fourteen angels crowd the background.

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Christ giving communion to the Apostles in an historiated initial "C"

Eight robed male figures, each with a halo, kneel before a v-shaped bench or rail. They face a male figure with a crossed halo that stands on the other side of the bench, holding a golden chalice in his left hand and a circular white wafer imprinted with a crucifixion scene in his right. An altar draped with a red cloth appears behind him. The entire scene is enframed within the letter "C."

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Pair of turned oak columns

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Faucet with Peacock Spigot and Lion-Headed Spout

This large bronze faucet features a peacock spigot and a lion-headed spout.

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Coconut Cup

This cup is fashioned from a coconut shell set in a shallow bowl supported on a long, narrow stem and held in place by three straps and a tall neck band. The shallow domed lid has a plain, overhanging rim and terminates in a finial with a statuette of a nude sea nymph and serpent. The metalwork is densely decorated with various masks, animals, fantastic creatures, and vegetal ornament.

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Arms of Maximillian. Illustration from 'Quadriuium ecclesiae,' by Ioh. Hug, Lat

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Lintel Fragments (From a set of 5)

Two and a half prints, identical, long piece of wood with repeating pattern.

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Martyrdom of St. Matthew

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Annunciation

An angel, holding a scepter in his left hand and making a gesture of speech with his right, interrupts the Virgin at her reading. She kneels on the floor and rests her left hand on an open book placed atop a lectern. A vase with a flowering lily sits on the floor between the angel and the Virgin and a small white dove encircled by a halo hovers between them. The scene unfolds within an elaborate and richly decorated interior that includes a chair and canopied bed in the background.

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Gamepiece of an Armed Knight Throttling a Monstrous, Bearded Chimera

Round, carved gamepiece featuring the image of a figure in armor sitting on top of and stabbing a winged creature with a beard.

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Relief Panel with the Lamb of God ("Agnus Dei")

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Leaf from a Glossed Bible (Pauline Letter with Commentary; Epistle to the Thessalonians)

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Man of Sorrows

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Busts of Saints Jerome and Gregory

This pair of finely carved bust-length figures depicts two men in ecclesiastical garb. On the right appears an older figure who wears elaborate vestments and a papal tiara with a book in his left hand. His deeply lined and wrinkled face conveys a patient wisdom and authority as he stares directly ahead. His more youthful companion, dressed in a simpler collared robe and brimless cap, glances introspectively aside. He grasps an unfurled scroll in his left hand and a diminutive lion stares out from its perch on his left shoulder.

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The Triumph of Plenty

This bronze plaque features a pair of oxen pulling a four-wheeled wagon with six passengers. The seated driver holds a rod in his right hand and a two-tined fork in his left. An older figure holding a flaming vessel stands behind him, followed by a seated figure wearing classical drapery and a laurel wreath. The next figure, seated in the middle of the cart, is an older female, nude to the waist, who holds a cornucopia full of fruit and raises her left hand to point skyward. Two smaller standing figures appear next, one holding a bowl of fruit. The final figure is a reclining female nude holding a flower in the crook of her right arm.

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Charles V and his Brother Ferdinand I

Two male figures wearing voluminous patterned garmets and flat brimmed hats face one another, surrounded by an ornamental, classically inspired frame. Larson 2/7/18<br />

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Architectural ceiling boss with two dragons, probably from the Church of St. Andrews at Cullompton

Two rampant dragons with open wings, wide flared tails and red-painted eyes stand facing one another with a large plant form held between them.

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Fragment from a Choir Stall

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Pope Boniface VIII Presiding over the Sacred College

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Cuttings from an illuminated manuscript consisting of several decorative border pieces, containing dolphins, cherubs, portrait cameos and the arms of Cardinal Antonio Pallavicini.

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Incense burner lid with peacock-shaped finial

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Baptismal Basin with Lamb of God ('Agnus Dei')

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Fragment of a gaming piece with male slaying beast, possibly Hercules and the Erymanthian boar, zigzag pattern with incised circles in border

Fragment of circular gaming piece carved in elephant ivory in high relief. Standing male figure wearing knee-length robe holds sword in right hand and stabs inverted beast in the chest. Forelegs of beast end in hooves; head of beast characterized by large eye and pronounced nostril. Left arm of figure and rear half of the beast missing. Border contains zigzag pattern with bead motif.

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Console with bird in vine scroll, rinceau, and angel

A three-quarter length angel, robustly carved in high relief, emerges from a cloud bank on the curved inner face of the console. The outer face of the console bears a tightly wound vine scroll carved in shallower relief with a bird at its center. The bird grasps the vine with its left leg while stretching back to grasp a cluster of grapes in its beak.

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Chest (no lock)

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The Nativity of the Virgin

This painted panel depicts an intimate domestic setting consisting of a bedchamber with a fireplace and a smaller vaulted antechamber that opens out on a garden. A haloed woman wearing a white veil rests in bed, having recently given birth. She leans to her right as she reaches toward a basin held by an attendant and looks across the room to the infant who is held on the lap of another servant. A halo also encircles the head of the child and a pair of angels fly above her. Several other attendants and midwives bustle about the room, while another woman, more richly clad than the servants, gazes on the child from her seat at the foot of the bed. In the antechamber sits a haloed man in a long white beard, who leans forward to hear news of the birth from the child standing in front of him. A companion sits behind him and a servant passes through the door into the bedchamber.

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Velvet Chausable with embroidered panel of St. Paul

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Saint Sebastian

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Dish with an Escutcheon,

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Kneeling Angel Holding a Shield

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Medallion

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Achilles and Hector

This engraving depicts a frieze-like arrangement of figures in horizontal format. Two central figures are engaged in a duel on horseback. Several other nude male figures are engaged in battle throughout the composition. The artist's monogram is placed in the upper left corner of the image.

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Candlestick with scenes of paired figures drinking

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Dish: Abraham and the Three Angels

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The Banker and his Wife

A husband and wife, looking at books and coins on a wood table. She has a red dress and a white head covering, he is wearing all dark colors and a dark hat.

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Hymnal

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Cisele Velvet

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Caricatures of Voltaire (Thirty-seven heads of Voltaire)

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Cloisters, Arles

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Monreale

This photograph is a composite of nine individual photographs, each depicting a view of a ornate column’s capital.

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Capital from the palace-city of Medinat al-Zahara with stylized acanthus leaves, vine rinceau and fleurons

This capital, based upon the Roman composite order, features stylized acanthus leaves and rinceau on the bell of the capital, which terminates in a band of bead-and-reel motif on the astragal. This, in turn, is capped by an echinus decorated with three fleurons and vine rinceau on each face as well as four projecting volutes also decorated with rinceau and fleurons. Originally the bell of the capital had two tiers of acanthus leaves, but the capital has been cropped below the top of the first tier and the tips of the leaves, which once curved outward from the surface of the capital, have been sheared off.

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Intérieur de la mosquée d'Omar, le Rocher—Interior of the mosque of Omar: the Rock

Interior view of a chamber surrounded by a polygonal arcade. The lower register of the photograph shows a large, roughly hewn stone slab.

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Crossbow fibula with vegetal ornament on the catchplate

This fibula, a type of brooch used to pin outer garments, features a crossbar that ends in three onion-shaped terminals, which give the fibula a shape reminiscent of a crossbow. An arched bow connects the crossbar to the longer catchplate, which is ornamented with vegetal motifs.

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Head of Polydeukion (favorite pupil of Herodes Atticus)

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Adoration of the Magi

This unfinished painted study depicts a crowd of figures gathered around three richly dressed men and a woman and child, who appear on a flight of stairs near the entrance to a large building decorated with classical columns and pilasters. An elderly bald man wearing a red cloak trimmed with ermine kneels with his head bowed at the top of the stairs before a kneeling woman who holds an infant in her right arm. Another man wearing a turban decorated with a large feather stands behind the kneeling man and holds a gold censer hanging from a chain in his left hand. A third richly dressed man stands at the bottom of the stairs with his back turned toward the viewer. A number of other figures crowd around this central group from the sides. A large ox sits in the right foreground with a donkey standing behind it.

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St. John the Evangelist on Patmos

St. John the Evangelist sits in the foreground with a book open on his knee and quill pen poised over its pages. Two books rest next to him and an eagle has alighted on an adjacent rock. St. John looks up and to his right to see a standing figure of the Virgin Mary holding the infant Christ, who appear in a glowing mandorla hovering in the sky. A vast panoramic view of a bustling harbor and formidable mountains unfolds behind St. John and extends into the distance.

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Presentation in the Temple (Leaf from a Book of Hours)

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Schöne Madonna

Bust of Madonna with head facing down and to the side. The main sculpture is of wood with layers of paint on the face and veil.

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Madonna and Child with St. Thomas Aquinas and a Bishop Saint

This rectangular panel depicts four sacred figures rendered in dark hues with passages of vibrant red against a gold background. The upper edge of the gilded frame bears the prayer known as the "Hail Mary" ("Ave Maria Gratia Plena Domin[us tecum]").

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The Mourning St. John the Evangelist with two male figures (fragment of a crucifixion from a portable altarpiece)

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Small Chest

Small, ornately carved chest with metal hardware.

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The Annunciation

An angel, draped with a flowing red mantle, descends on the left from a bank of clouds. He holds a scepter and twisting scroll in his left hand while he points with his right toward a white dove encircled by a halo of light that descends toward a woman dressed in long robes and a veil. She sits, holding a book open on the lectern before her, and draws back slightly with her right hand raised and her eyes downcast. Six cherubim sit above on the edge of the cloudbank, which opens to reveal a male figure barely visible in the blinding light that fills the cloud.

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Leaf from a Choir Book with Nativity

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Leaf from a Book of Hours

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Sanctification cross with scenes from the life of Christ and the Virgin Mary and the Evangelists

This small carved boxwood cross is divided on each face into five compartments containing Christian religious scenes. The cross is set in a stand decorated with mother-of-pearl and green glass-paste stones.

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Prayer Book of Service for the Dead, manuscript page

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Copyright

St. Christopher carrying the Christ Child

Accession Number
1961/1.178

Title
St. Christopher carrying the Christ Child

Artist(s)
English

Object Creation Date
circa 15th century

Medium & Support
alabaster with polychrome and gilding

Dimensions
17 3/4 in. x 8 7/8 in. x 3 1/4 in. ( 45.1 cm x 22.5 cm x 8.2 cm )

Credit Line
Museum Purchase

Label copy
March 28, 2009
According to legend, Saint Christopher, a giant of a man, ferried people on his back across a treacherous river. One day he agreed to transport a small child and, to his consternation, discovered that the child far outweighed any previous passenger. The child revealed that he was Christ and that his great weight was due to the fact that he bore the sins of the world. This fine sculpture depicts Christopher (which literally means “Christ-bearer” in Greek) at the moment when Christ reveals his identity. River water once lapped around the saint’s ankles, but the figure has been broken below the knees. Saint Christopher enjoyed immense popularity among medieval Christians, especially among travelers who would invoke the saint for protection, and consequently he appears often in later medieval art. This statue of Saint Christopher probably belonged to an altarpiece, either as part of a larger panel with other figures or alone as an independent devotional object.

Subject matter
This alabaster sculpture represents St. Christopher transporting the Christ child on his right shoulder across a river, although the waters that once swirled around the saint's legs were lost when the figure was broken at the knees. The relatively large size of this sculpture indicates that it probably served as the principle devotional figure in a small altarpiece.

Physical Description
A standing, bearded figure of St. Christopher, broken off at the knees, holds the Christ child on his right shoulder while leaning upon a staff in his left hand. The child, whose head is encircled by a halo, wears a long cloak over his robe and rests his left hand upon an orb in his lap. The red and brown polychromy is a later addition.

Primary Object Classification
Sculpture

Primary Object Type
carving

Additional Object Classification(s)
Ritual Object

Collection Area
Western

Rights
If you are interested in using an image for a publication, please visit http://umma.umich.edu/request-image for more information and to fill out the online Image Rights and Reproductions Request Form.

Keywords
Christianity
alabaster (mineral)
globes (cartographic spheres)
rivers
staffs (walking sticks)