Christ at the Column

For a long time this small panel hung under a bigger name. When it entered the Accademia from a Venetian collection in the 1850s, it was catalogued as an Antonello da Messina, and it kept that name into the early 20th century. The face is Antonello's idea: Christ shown close up, half-length against a dark ground, bound at the column and lifting his eyes, so that someone praying at home met his suffering at arm's length. The hand that actually painted it was most likely Pietro de Saliba, Antonello's nephew, who lived in Venice around 1490 and made versions of his uncle's compositions for private buyers. The prototype for this type is in the Louvre. This is one of several close copies that carried Antonello's format for meditation out of Sicily and across northern Italy, into rooms where it was looked at daily, up close, by candlelight.