Saint Christopher Bearing the Christ Child

Saint Christopher Bearing the Christ Child by Giovanni Antonio da Pordenone (Giovanni Antonio de Sacchis)

Medium

Pen and brown ink, brush and brown wash, highlighted with white gouache, on blue paper, squared vertically and horizontally in red chalk, diagonally in charcoal

Dimensions

14 1/4 × 9 3/4 in. (36.2 × 24.8 cm)

Classification

Drawings

Department

Drawings and Prints

Museum

Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY

Credit

The Elisha Whittelsey Collection, The Elisha Whittelsey Fund, 1960

Accession Number

60.135

Tags

Saint ChristopherJesus

Art Historical Context

Welcome to the Metropolitan Museum of Art's Drawings and Prints collection, where you'll find *Saint Christopher Bearing the Christ Child*, a preparatory drawing by Giovanni Antonio da Pordenone1484–1539). This Italian Renaissance artist from Friuli was renowned for his dramatic Mannerist style, blending robust figures inspired by Michelangelo with emotional intensity. The subject depicts the legendary giant saint wading a river with the young Christ Child on his shoulder—a popular motif symbolizing the burden of faith and protection, rooted in medieval hagiography and widely venerated during ...

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