Images: Museum Catharijneconvent
Clavis number: ECMA 114
Other descriptors: none
Location: Museum Catharijneconvent, Utrecht, Netherlands
Object number: BMR s2
Category: paintings
Related literature: Epistle of Lentulus
Featured characters and locations: Jesus Christ.
1. DESCRIPTION
Material: oil on wood.
Size: 37 × 53.4 cm; depth. 5 cm
Image: On the left half of the diptych is the Latin Epistle of Lentulus written in gold. On the right half is the side profile of Jesus Christ who is facing to the left with three fingers raised in gesture similar to Leonardo DaVinci’s Salvator Mundi. He has a serene facial expression and has long brown hair. He is wearing a plain black shirt. The diptych is in a simple wooden frame that can be hanged.
Date: 1490–1499
Provenance: The artist responsible for this diptych is unknown, however it was likely created in the southern Netherlands in the style of the Flemish school. Currently, it is in the Museum Catharijne convent, in the Dutch city of Utrecht. The museum acquired it as a loan from an unnamed party.
2. RELATION TO APOCRYPHAL LITERATURE
The Epistle of Lentulus, transcribed to the left of the image of Jesus, provides a description of Christ as reported by a Roman named Publius Lentulus, who, according to the letter, was the Procurator of Judaea in Jesus’ time. The description in the letter is usually associated with a frontal, not profile, image as in the diptych.
“. . . having a reverend countenance, which those who look upon may love or fear; having hair of the hue of an unripe hazel-nut and smooth almost down to his ears, but from the ears in curling locks somewhat darker and more shining, flowing over his shoulders; having a parting at the middle of the head according to the fashion of the Nazareans; a brow smooth and very calm, with a face without wrinkle or any blemish, which a moderate red colour makes beautiful; with the nose and moth no fault at all can be found; having a full beard he colour of his hair, not long, but a little forked at the chin; having an expression simple and mature, the eyes grey, flashing and clear . . .” (trans. J. K. Elliott, The Apocryphal New Testament [Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1993], 542–43)
3. BIBLIOGRAPHY
Bussels, Stijn. “The Diptych of the Lentulus Letter: Building Textual and Visual Evidence for Christ’s Appearance.” Pages 241–57 in Speaking to the Eye: Sight and Insight Through Text and Image (1150–1650). Edited by Thérèse de Hemptinne, Veerle Fraeters, and Mariá Eugenia Góngora. Turnhout: Brepols, 2013.
Caron, M. L. “Het beeld van Christus in de vrouwenkloosters en bij de Zusters van het Gemene Leven.” Ons Geestelijk Erf 50 (1985): 457–69.
Finaldi, Gabriele. The Image of Christ. London: National Galley, 2000 (pp. 94–97).
Hand, John Oliver, Catherine A. Metzger, and Ron Spronck. Prayers and Portraits: Unfolding the Netherlandish Dyptich. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2006 (pp. 200–205).
Taylor, Joan E. What Did Jesus Look Like? Edinburgh: T & T Clark, 1988 (pp. 18–20, fig. 6).
4. ADDITIONAL RESOURCES
Entry created by Maria Gazoukin, under the supervision of Tony Burke, York University, 2 April 2021.