Sparse with colors and modest in scenery: a perfect decorum for an exceptional illumination by Simon Bening

Abstract

The oeuvre of one of the most celebrated Flemish artists producing colorful illuminations for lavishly decorated manuscripts is Simon Bening (about 1481 - 1561). This paper investigates a virtually unpublished miniature exceptionally executed in a grisaille technique and showing a unique portrait of Christ in profile as Salvator Mundi. It is part of a series of eleven miniatures kept in an unfinished fragmentary manuscript. The sparse color palette is a perfect decorum for this unusual rendering of the Face of Christ