Landscape with Saint Christopher
This exquisite panel entered the Thyssen Collection in 1929. It shows a landscape with two figures, a hermit and Saint Christopher crossing a river with the Christ Child on his shoulders. As the patron saint of travellers who also guarded against sickness and disease, Christopher was immensely popular in the sixteenth century.
Jacobus de Voragine’s Golden Legend tells us that he was a Canaanite giant. His teacher, a hermit, is pictured in the foreground holding the lantern whose light, according to the tale, guided the saint across the waters. However, the true protagonist of this work is the landscape, executed in the manner preferred by Antwerp masters active in the early sixteenth century, most notably Joachim Patinir, whose influence is clearly reflected in this painting. Although it is difficult to precisely date Herri met de Bles’s work, this oil painting has been attributed to the Flemish artist’s late period in the mid-1500s.
