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Preview image of work. tempera on panel,  Christ Blessing 4992
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1961.100.4

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Christ Blessing

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Artist

Allegretto de Nuzi (Allegretto di Nuzio) (Gubbio, Italy, 1316-1320 – 1373/1374, Fabriano, Italy)

Title

Christ Blessing

Creation Date

ca. 1360

Century

14th century

Dimensions

7 3/8 in. x 7 1/8 in. (18.7 cm. x 18.1 cm.)

Object Type

painting

Creation Place

Europe, Italy, Umbria

Medium and Support

tempera on panel

Credit Line

Gift of the Samuel H. Kress Foundation

Copyright

Public Domain

Accession Number

1961.100.4

This roundel, originally a portion of a larger polyptych (altarpieces with multiple panels), is in a very fine state of preservation. When first completed, the tondo might have been part of the frame of the larger altarpiece, in which it would presumably have graced the gable of the central panel. Art historian Roberto Longhi identified the work’s “simplicity and amplitude of shape” as telling signs of Allegretto Nuzi’s training in Florence in the 1330s, under the strong influence of Giotto. Despite the small scale of this painting, the half-figure of the haloed Christ in the act of blessing possesses monumental dignity. Nuzi’s panel depicting Saint Anthony Abbot, a wing of a major altarpiece for his home town of Fabriano, is today in the National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C., and, like this work, a gift from the Samuel H. Kress Foundation.