São Cristóvão e o Menino Jesus

The story painted here comes from the medieval Golden Legend. Christopher, a giant, makes his living carrying travellers across a river, until one day a small child asks to be taken over and grows heavier with every step, until the giant can barely stand. On the far bank the child explains that he had carried the weight of the whole world, for he is Christ, and here he holds a small globe to show it. This is an early fresco by Domenico Ghirlandaio, painted around 1473 before he became one of the busiest painters in Florence, the workshop where a boy named Michelangelo would later train. It was worked wet in seven daily sections and has survived in unusually fresh condition.