Cristo benedicente

This is a small panel, barely a hand's span, from Raphael's early twenties, when he was moving between Urbino, Perugia and Florence and absorbing everything the older masters could teach him. Christ raises two fingers in blessing and shows the wounds of the crucifixion, calm and frontal against a dark ground. People have long noticed that the face carries a hint of Raphael's own features. Recent scientific study of the paint turned up a surprise. It holds some of the earliest known use of Egyptian blue, an ancient pigment, in Renaissance painting, worked into this modest devotional picture by an artist still near the start of his career.