Saint Christopher (n.d.): Artwork and History

Saint Christopher (n.d.) is in the Art Institute of Chicago collection. The museum lists its creator attribution as Israhel van Meckenem the Younger German, c. 1440/45-1503.

The work and its context

The Art Institute of Chicago describes the work:

The powerful giant Saint Christopher was said to have carried the infant Christ across a raging river without knowing who he was. The further the saint waded, the heavier his burden became, until, safe on the opposite bank, he realized that he had been carrying the weight of the world on his shoulders, as well as its creator. Israhel van Meckenem made several prints of this subject showing the saint in varying degrees of strain, struggling under the weight and in the swift torrent. This print is unusual in that it shows the saint’s feet through the transparent water; the shallow depth confirms that Christopher has just reached the opposite bank.

Object facts

• Title: Saint Christopher
• Date: n.d.
• Artist attribution: Israhel van Meckenem the Younger German, c. 1440/45-1503
• Place of origin: Germany
• Medium: Engraving in black on ivory laid paper
• Dimensions: Image/sheet: 13.6 × 10.2 cm (5 3/8 × 4 1/16 in.)
• Type: Print
• Department: Prints and Drawings
• Reference number: 1956.842

Collection credit

Bequest of Mrs. Potter Palmer, Jr.

View the original

Explore the artwork in the Art Institute's collection, including its image and the museum's current catalogue details.

The description above is credited to the Art Institute of Chicago and reused under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0; HTML formatting has been converted to plain text. Other catalogue metadata and the public-domain image are provided under CC0 1.0.