Saint Christopher with the Christ Child on his shoulders 1609 - 1619

Orazio Borgianni created this print of Saint Christopher carrying the Christ Child in Italy, around the turn of the 17th century. Borgianni was working at a time when the Catholic Church was fighting back against the rise of Protestantism, reasserting traditional doctrines, and promoting religious art. The figure of Saint Christopher looms large in the print, his muscular frame filling the space. We can see the infant Christ perched on his shoulder, a symbol of the weight of the Christian faith that Christopher unknowingly carries. The print is an assertion of the spiritual authority of the church. The inscriptions in the lower register were done in Latin, the formal language of the Catholic church. Borgianni is reminding viewers of its enduring power and the importance of its teachings. To truly understand the history of this image, we could explore popular religious beliefs of the period, the networks of patronage that sustained artists like Borgianni, and the Counter-Reformation’s efforts to use art as a tool of persuasion.