The Redeemer and the apostles

This panel was made to be read as much as looked at. Around 1528 Bonifazio painted Christ among his apostles for the altar of the relics in the Venetian church of Santa Maria dei Servi. Across the surface run inscriptions, lines of Gospel text set beside the figures, including the passage where the apostle Philip asks to be shown the Father and Christ answers that whoever has seen him has seen the Father. For worshippers gathered at the altar, the painted words turned the image into a lesson they could follow phrase by phrase. The panel was built as two hinged wings, so it could be opened like a cupboard over the relics kept behind it.