Blessing Christ 1525

Bernardino Luini made this painting of Blessing Christ in Italy sometime around the early 16th century. Luini worked in Renaissance Milan, an area that was then under French rule. As such, he became a leading interpreter of Leonardo da Vinci’s style. Da Vinci had spent time in the city under the patronage of the ruling Sforza family. Luini uses Leonardo’s characteristic sfumato to create a similar sense of depth and hazy atmosphere. The figure of Christ, who holds a blue orb, is a conventional representation of power and divinity, but the gentleness and soft colours of the image would have appealed to the sensibilities of the Renaissance elites. To learn more about the painting, you might look to surviving documents from the institutions where Luini worked, such as churches, monasteries and private collections, as well as looking at the writings of art theorists active at the time.