Collection

Christ Blessing

Nardo di Cione

1 of 2

Object Label

Previously known only through a nineteenth-century engraving, this panel was discovered at a country auction in Dorset, England, in March 2000. Scholars then identified the panel as the missing pinnacle of Nardo di Cione’s altarpiece Madonna and Child with Saints Zenobius, John the Baptist, Reparata, and John the Evangelist, on view nearby. As the pinnacle to the larger panel, Christ Blessing would have been located directly above Madonna and Child with Saints.

Caption

Nardo di Cione (Italian, Florentine, active 1343–1356/1366). Christ Blessing, mid 14th century. Tempera and tooled gold on panel, 8 x 9 in. (20.3 x 22.9 cm) mount (in dedicated vitrine. Display dims): 30 × 22 × 6 3/4 in. (76.2 × 55.9 × 17.1 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Purchased with funds given by The Dave H. and Reba W. Williams Foundation, Healy Purchase Fund B, and the Mary Smith Dorward Fund, gift of George S. Hellman, by exchange, 2000.27. (Photo: Brooklyn Museum)

Gallery

Not on view

Title

Christ Blessing

Date

mid 14th century

Geography

Place made: Italy

Medium

Tempera and tooled gold on panel

Classification

Painting

Dimensions

8 x 9 in. (20.3 x 22.9 cm) mount (in dedicated vitrine. Display dims): 30 × 22 × 6 3/4 in. (76.2 × 55.9 × 17.1 cm)

Credit Line

Purchased with funds given by The Dave H. and Reba W. Williams Foundation, Healy Purchase Fund B, and the Mary Smith Dorward Fund, gift of George S. Hellman, by exchange

Accession Number

2000.27

Frequent Art Questions

  • Any egg tempera paintings?

    Oh, let me look into that! Are you an artist? I have found that artists are often interested in materials.
    Sort of! I just came from the library and saw some really amazing egg tempera paintings.
    Many of the religious paintings in the Beaux-Arts Court, where you are, were painted with tempera. In the Renaissance-era, tempera was mixed with egg and that material practice has been used actually since ancient Egypt through the Renaissance until it was eventually replaced with oil paints.
    Oh! Awesome! Why was it replaced?
    Mainly because the effects that can be achieved with oil paints are much greater than with tempera. Artists could achieve more color, depth and contrasts with oil. Oil takes much longer to dry allowing the artist to continually make changes and add layers of color. The surface is often brighter.

  • Who is this?

    This small panel depicts Jesus Christ as an adult and is associated with the larger painting the Virgin and Child with saints next to it.

Have information?

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Artists and makers

Nardo di Cione

2 works in the collection