Apr 25, 2014
Oct 14, 2005
Mar 31, 2016
Oct 14, 2005
Apr 25, 2014
Mar 31, 2016
Nov 15, 2019

Jesus being portrayed by King Abgar’s painter, from a Mir’at al-quds of Father Jerome Xavier (Spanish, 1549–1617)

Jesus being portrayed by King Abgar’s painter, from a Mir’at al-quds of Father Jerome Xavier (Spanish, 1549–1617)

1602–04

Part of a set. See all set records

Gum tempera, ink, and gold on paper

Page: 26.2 x 15.6 cm (10 5/16 x 6 1/8 in.)

John L. Severance Fund 2005.145.143.a

Location

Did you know?

Artist’s pigments are arranged in shells next to the brass cup for water.

Description

Jesus sits under a golden lamp with a cloth in his hand, while the artist emissary from Abgar, king of Edessa in present-day southeastern Turkey, struggles to paint a portrait of Jesus that Abgar believed would cure him of a disease. The similarity between the names Abgar and Akbar suggests that Father Jerome included this noncanonical story in his biography of Jesus to resonate with and inspire the Mughal emperor. The miraculous cloth described in this story, the Image of Edessa, also known as the Mandylion, was venerated by Christians for centuries as a relic of Christ. The original cloth was lost from Sainte-Chapelle in Paris during the French Revolution, but two copies remain: one in a church in Genoa, and the other in the Vatican.

See also

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