Bernardino Luini “Christ Blessing - The Redeemer” at the Ambrosiana Gallery Pinacoteca in Milan in Italy

Bernardino Luini (1475-1480 — June 1532) “Christ Blessing - The Redeemer”

Painting - Tempera and Oil on Wood (43 x 37 cm) 1520-1530

Cardinal Borromeo, who owned this Luini painting, described it as follows:

Bernardino Luini, Christ Blessing - The Redeemer, at the Ambrosiana Gallery Pinacoteca in Milan in Italy

Christ Blessing Redeemer

“Luini, by painting the Saviour in his first prime, between the ages of seventeen and eighteen, was able to preserve all of His majesty.”
Cardinal Borromeo

Christ's hand is raised as a sign of blessing, and his delicate face reflects an almost feminine tenderness.

And yet, as Cardinal Borromeo noted, the youthful and androgynous features of Christ do not detract from the intensity of his presence or his majesty; he is “Christ the Redeemer”.

Luini respects the most common way of presenting the gesture of blessing by raising the first three fingers and folding the others on the palm, as Hans Memling already did.

In the blessing, the raised index and middle fingers mark the dual human and divine nature of the Son of God, and the palm is never opposed to the blessed one.

Bernardino Luini fully respected this.

Christ Blessing Redeemer