Salvator Mundi

The original design for this Salvatore Mundi ultimately derives from an example by Quentin Metsys (Antwerp, Koninklijk Museum), though van Cleve himself adapted the composition in an autograph picture which is believed to have been painted around a decade later (circa 1516-18, now Paris, Louvre; see J. Hand, Joos van Cleve: The complete paintings, New Haven and London, 2004, p. 121, no. 13). It is uncertain whether van Cleve originally intended his Salvator Mundi to be paired with a Virgin in Prayer, as was often the case in early Flemish depictions of Christ as the Saviour of the World, a tradition which has its origin in Byzantine art; Hand, however, believes the Louvre painting to have been created as an independent work (ibid., p. 49). As in the Louvre panel, Christ is holding an orb divided into three distinct sections by an ornate metal band, each meant to represent one of the three then know parts of the Earth: Europe, Asia and Africa.