Attributed to Francesco Trevisani - Face of Christ

The iconographic subject of Christ's face has ancient origins and is connected to the legend of Veronica. The episode in which Christ's true likeness was imprinted on a cloth used by a woman to wipe his face is also recounted in the Gospels. This woman was identified as Veronica, likely due to the similarity with the Latin words "Vera Icon." Since the early Christian era, the face of Christ has been the object of particular veneration. Its depiction has pervaded the entire history of Western art. From the first iconic representations of the early Christian and early Middle Ages, we gradually moved on to increasingly naturalistic (starting in the Renaissance) or realistic (typical of Flemish art) depictions.

The work has a powerful visual and emotional impact. The composition is entirely focused on the face of Christ emerging from a completely decontextualized black background. The face is central and perfectly frontal, thus further endowing it with a supernatural appearance. To this end, the proportions are also unnaturally elongated, and Christ's expression has a hieratic fixity. Despite these unnatural constraints to enhance the subject's divine nature, the face is portrayed with great realism, without aesthetic idealization, almost crudely. The artist relies on an excellent pictorial technique, which allows the figure of Christ, especially his flowing mass of hair, to blend into the atmosphere. The face is strikingly illuminated from our left, leaving the right side in shadow.

The painting bears an inscription on the back that reads: "Pray for Francesco Trevisani Bassaneo who painted this most holy image of the Redeemer on the 13th of January in the year 1690." From this inscription, the work could be attributed to Francesco Trevisani, born in Capodistria in 1656 and died in Rome in 1746. Trained in Venice with Antonio Zanchi, his career developed almost entirely in Rome, where he moved in 1678. In Rome, Francesco Trevisani became one of the most important artists in the wake of Carlo Maratta's classicist style.

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