St. Christopher

France, circa 1500-1510
Pot-metal, colorless and flashed glass, oxide paint, silver stain.
Getty Center, Los Angeles, California

This image follows the traditional pattern in all but some minor respects. The river hardly registers, and the hermitage often represented on its other side is replaced by a castle. The castle may have something to do with the knight whom the saint is commending to Christ.

The orb in the child's hand is usually a mappa mundi topped by a cross, as here, but in this case the cross is lengthened and features a crossed pennant so as to resemble the one Christ holds in certain types of Resurrection images (example).

View this image in full resolution.
Read more about images of St. Christopher.

• Home Page
• Iconography of St. Christopher
• This Picture

Photographed at the site by Richard Stracke, shared under Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike license.