Skip to Main Content

Jesus being portrayed by King Abgar’s painter, from a Mir’at al-quds of Father Jerome Xavier (Spanish, 1549–1617)

1602–04
(1569–1627)
Gum tempera, ink, and gold on paper
Page: 26.2 x 15.6 cm (10 5/16 x 6 1/8 in.)
John L. Severance Fund 2005.145.143.a
Location: not on view
You can copy, modify, and distribute this work, all without asking permission. Learn more about CMA's Open Access Initiative.

Download, Print and Share

Did You Know?

Artist’s pigments are arranged in shells next to the brass cup for water.

Description

Jesus sits under a golden lamp with a cloth in his hand, while the artist emissary from Abgar, king of Edessa in present-day southeastern Turkey, struggles to paint a portrait of Jesus that Abgar believed would cure him of a disease. The similarity between the names Abgar and Akbar suggests that Father Jerome included this noncanonical story in his biography of Jesus to resonate with and inspire the Mughal emperor. The miraculous cloth described in this story, the Image of Edessa, also known as the Mandylion, was venerated by Christians for centuries as a relic of Christ. The original cloth was lost from Sainte-Chapelle in Paris during the French Revolution, but two copies remain: one in a church in Genoa, and the other in the Vatican.
Jesus being portrayed by King Abgar’s painter, from a Mir’at al-quds of Father Jerome Xavier (Spanish, 1549–1617)

Jesus being portrayed by King Abgar’s painter, from a Mir’at al-quds of Father Jerome Xavier (Spanish, 1549–1617)

1602–04

Mughal India, Allahabad, made for Prince Salim (1569–1627)

See Also

Visually Similar Artworks

Contact us

The information about this object, including provenance, may not be currently accurate. If you notice a mistake or have additional information about this object, please email collectionsdata@clevelandart.org.

To request more information about this object, study images, or bibliography, contact the Ingalls Library Reference Desk.

All images and data available through Open Access can be downloaded for free. For images not available through Open Access, a detail image, or any image with a color bar, request a digital file from Image Services.