Master of Saint Veronica,
'Saint Veronica with the Sudarium', about 1420.
London, The National Gallery.

Seeing Salvation: The Image of Christ

26 February - 7 May 2000
Sainsbury Wing

Supported by The Jerusalem Trust and The Pilgrim Trust

Most people think they know what Jesus looked like. His face is recognisable from all sorts of images: in paintings, sculptures, films and illustrations. And yet no contemporary portraits of him were made and the Gospels, written in the first century after Jesus' death, give no description of his physical appearance. How did artists conceive a portrait of him, and how did they represent someone who is both God and man, human and divine, immortal but with a mortal body? These are some of the questions that were addressed in an exhibition organised by the National Gallery to mark the 2000th anniversary of the birth of Jesus Christ.

The exhibition explored how the figure of Christ has been represented in the Western tradition. Looking at paintings, sculptures, coins and engravings, it examined different aspects of the visual identity of Christ and the different pictorial questions that artists have confronted as they made his image. From early Christian sculpture to Holman Hunt's 'Light of the World', and from Donatello's 'Lamentation over the Dead Christ' to Salvador Dali's 'Christ of Saint John of the Cross', the exhibition also looked at how the language of Christian imagery has been constantly evoked to explore universal human themes of suffering, death and redemption.

It included three 20th-century paintings of Christ that caused a great sensation in Britain when they were first exhibited. 'The Light of the World' (1900-4) from St Paul's Cathedral, by the Pre-Raphaelite artist William Holman Hunt, Stanley Spencer's 'Resurrection at Cookham' (1921-3) and Glasgow City Corporation's purchase for Glasgow Museums of 'The Christ of Saint John of the Cross' (1951) by the Spanish Surrealist painter Salvador Dalí.

Exhibition Catalogue

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