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Catalogue raisonné: Description in Italian Paintings: Three Centuries of Collecting, Nationalmuseum, Stockholm, 2015, cat.no. 6:

FORMER INV. NOS.: 79 (M. 1796–97); 2 (F. 1798); 211 (M. 1804); KM 301.

TECHNICAL NOTES: The support consists of a single piece of fine,
densely woven, plain-weave linen fabric. The ground is red. 
The support has been lined with glue and mounted on a non-original 
stretcher. There are some old retouches, and the varnish is thick and yellowed. 
Although the painting is square, the frame covers the corners and it
is shown as circular. The painting is in fairly good condition. 
Documented restorations: 1868, 7 Oct.: Restored by Chaquis. 
Rentoil/Lined; 1868–72: Restored by Brunkal.

PROVENANCE: Martelli 1804.

BIBLIOGRAPHY: Af Sillén 1790; NM Cat. 1867, p. 
14 (as Leonardo da Vinci); Sander 1872–76, III, p. 111, 
no. 211 (as Leonardo da Vinci); Göthe 1910, p. 20; 
NM Cat. 1990, p. 21 (as Giovanni Bellini, free copy after);
Prytz and Eriksson 2010, p. 79.

The head of Christ is depicted in a frontal position,
with the light coming from the upper right of the picture. 
Christ is looking straight at the beholder like a Byzantine
Majestas Domini or Salvator Mundi, or perhaps even 
more like the famous but now lost Volto Santo, executed 
by Jan van Eyck in 1440.¹ Christ is depicted with dark 
hair and a thin beard. He is wearing an originally blue 
gown, now turned green by  several layers of varnish. 
The interplay of light and shadow (chiaroscuro) 
on Christ’s face is set against a very dark background. 
There are some visible retouches on the throat, 
and IR radiation confirms extensive retouches in the 
lower part of the painting. Otherwise the work is in a 
relatively good state of preservation.

The painting is mentioned as a tondo in Sander 
1872–76, III, and is consequently referred to as 
such a work in the 1990 Nationalmuseum catalogue
of European paintings.² This is due to the fact that 
the painting is mounted in a circular frame dating 
from the mid 19th century, also visible in the illustration.³ 
The original painting, however, has a square format 
(30 × 30 cm), and there is no reason to question 
that it was originally inserted into a square frame, 
especially as neither Martelli nor Fredenheim
mentions the form of a tondo in their letters or 
catalogues.⁴In Fredenheim’s catalogue of 1798, 
based on the original one prepared by Martelli, the 
painting is listed as “Une tête de Christ. 
Tableau de Cabinet”, and attributed to Leonardo 
da Vinci.⁵ 

In Martelli’s letter to Fredenheim dated 1799, it 
is listed as the third painting, referred to as 
“Testa di Gesù Nazzareno  (Leonardo da Vinci)” 
and,  further on: “Questa testa è preziosa. 
Essa è veramente di Leonardo”.⁶ Already in 1790, 
when the architect Gustaf af Sillén (1762–1825) 
isited Nicola Martelli, he saw a painting by da Vinci, 
which was probably the present painting.⁷ 
And when he gets the opportunity to see the 
Martelli collection exhibited at the Palazzo Chigi 
alla Colonna a year later, in 1791, he especially 
takes notice of the head by da Vinci.⁸ 
The attribution to Leonardo was preserved in 
the early catalogues, but questioned by Sander
in 1874.

The painting has some similarities with the head 
of Christ in Giovanni Bellini’s altarpiece The Baptism
 of Christ in the church of Santa Corona in Vicenza. 
Painted for the funerary chapel of the Garzadori 
family in the early years of the 16th century, the
altarpiece is Bellini’s last major painting with a narrative
theme. In it, Christ is standing in the river Jordan
looking straight at the viewer. Although this is a
 scene showing Christ’s baptism, the features of 
his head are very close to the Head of Christ in the 
Nationalmuseum.

Another Head of Christ, previously attributed to Bellini,¹¹ 
but later referred to his workshop or considered a copy
after a lost original,¹² is now in the National Gallery
 of Canada, Ottawa .¹³ In the recent exhibition 
catalogue, Giovanni Bellini, it is reattributed by 
Giovanni Carlo Federico Villa as an autograph work
by Bellini and dated on stylistic grounds to the end of the
first decade of the 16th century.¹⁴ The Head of Christ
in Canada is in fact a head-and-shoulders portrait 
(50 × 40.6 cm), showing a benedictory Christ raising
his hand and pointing with two fingers. This painting
is even closer to the Head of Christ in the Nationalmuseum
and may in fact be the original on which the present 
work is based. It is also possible that the Nationalmuseum
version has been cropped and that it originally had 
the same measurements and features as the 
Head of Christ in Ottawa.

Although the altarpiece in Vicenza is executed 
on a much grander scale and in a somewhat 
brighter colour shade, the Nationalmuseum canvas
seems to have been painted either after the head of
that painting, after the Ottawa Head of Christ, or after
a lost original following a type of Head of Christ 
established by the late paintings of Giovanni Bellini.
JE

1 For depictions and the meaning of the Salvator Mundi, see
Ringbom 1965 (II rev. ed., 1984). For the Volto Santo by
Van Eyck, see for example Harbison 1991, p. 162.
2 Sander 1872–76, III, p. 51; NM Cat. 1990, p. 21.
3 Sander 1872–76, III, p. 7.
4 Fredenheim 1798, p. 1; NM Archives, Kongl. Museum, F:1,
Catalogue du Cabinet de Martelli (à Rome); NM Archives,
Kongl. Museum, F :1, letter from Nicola Martelli to Carl
Fredrik Fredenheim, received 3 July 1799.
5 Fredenheim 1798, p. 1, NM Archives, Kongl. Museum, F:1,
Catalogue du Cabinet de Martelli (à Rome). See also Prytz
and Eriksson 2010, p. 77.
6 Letter from Nicola Martelli to Carl Fredrik Fredenheim,
received 3 July 1799, NM Archives, Kongl. Museum, F:1, see
Appendix 1. See also Sander 1872–76, III, p. 49; Prytz and
Eriksson 2010, p. 79.
7 Gustaf af Sillén, Diaries, pp. 480, 484–486, 521, Uppsala
University Library, 1790.
8 Ibid., pp. 506–507.
9 Sander 1872–76, III, 1874, p. 51.
10 Goffen 1989, pp. 163–166.
11 Berenson 1957; Hubbard 1961; Ghiotto 1969, p. 106.
12 Ghiotto 1969, p. 106.
13 Giovanni Bellini, workshop of, The Head of Christ, no. 4421,
National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa.
14 Lucco and Villa 2008, p. 290.
[end]

Foto: Erik Cornelius / Nationalmuseum 2010

Kristushuvud