Cleveland Museum of Art

Christ Holding a Chalice and Cross (recto); Resurrected Christ and Lamb of God (verso)

Alonso Cano

Date

1666

Medium

pen and brown ink and brush and brown wash

Culture

Spain

Department

Drawings

Institution

Cleveland Museum of Art

In this drawing, a triumphant Christ holds the cross signifying his resurrection while offering a chalice as a symbol of his blood and sacrifice. In the background, Saint John the Baptist points, identifying Christ as the Lamb (or sacrifice) of God. Alonso Cano was an artist in Baroque Spain who made works primarily in the service of the Catholic Church and Spanish monarchs. Though no related painting is known, the composition is appropriate for an altarpiece, meant as a visual aid to clarify the meaning of the Catholic Mass. The disk rising above the chalice in Christ's hand represents the eucharistic wafer. Designs were impressed onto these disks of unleavened bread using special wafer irons, some of which have made it into museum collections.

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