# Christ Blessing [View the canonical artwork record]() ## Artwork - Artist: [SPINELLO ARETINO]() - Date: 1351-1400 - Technique: Tempera on wood, gold base, diameter 25 cm ## Commentary Christ blessing with his right hand, while his left is holding a phylactery inscribed with the Latin word, EGO. He is robed in red, over a blue tunic, the usual colours for Christological iconography which allude to the dual human and celestial nature of Christ, although often inverted - blue robe over a red tunic. The panel, whose original form is uncertain, since it has been altered and restored numerous times, was most likely inserted into the cymatium on an altar piece, perhaps as a polyptych with a complex frame, according to the sumptuous, magnificent style so characteristic of Tuscan painted panels in the late 14th century. The panel of Christ Blessing may belong to one of the polyptychs painted by Spinello in Lucca, during the early 1380s, perhaps on one of the two altarpieces commissioned by the Olivetan Benedictine monks from Florentine carpenter, Simone Cini, Senese gilder Gabriello Saracini, and painter, Spinello Aretino. ## Related artworks - [Adoration of the Magi]() - [Coronation of the Virgin]() - [Fall of Lucifer \(fragment\)]() - [Feast of Herod]() - [Four Evangelists with their Symbols \(vault fresco\)]() - [Fragment from the Manetti Chapel \(1\)]() - [Fragment from the Manetti Chapel \(10\)]() - [Fragment from the Manetti Chapel \(11\)]() - [Fragment from the Manetti Chapel \(12\)]() - [Fragment from the Manetti Chapel \(2\)]() - [Fragment from the Manetti Chapel \(3\)]() - [Fragment from the Manetti Chapel \(4\)]() ## Attribution [Web Gallery of Art]()