Christ in Limbo, from Passion of Christ
1575/1600
Medium
Engraving in black on ivory laid paper
Dimensions
Plate: 16.2 × 11.3 cm (6 7/16 × 4 1/2 in.); Sheet: 17.2 × 12.4 cm (6 13/16 × 4 15/16 in.)
Classification
engraving
Department
Prints and Drawings
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Accession Number
93103
Rights
Public Domain
About this artwork
In this work the oval format has been utilized to show Christ emerging triumphantly from the jaws of Hell, rendered in a style akin to that of Hieronymus Bosch—the eyes of the gaping beast curl out from two sinuous monsters biting their own tails. Bannered staff in hand, Christ reaches toward a few of the worthy souls sequestered in Limbo until his Resurrection while avoiding the hovering demons above and lurking below.
About the Artist
Jan Sadeler, I · 1550–1600
Jan Sadeler I (1550–1600) was born in Brussels and became the most prominent member of the largest and most successful dynasty of Flemish printmakers in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. The Sadeler family — which included Jan's brothers Aegidius and Raphael — produced an extraordinary volume of engravings that circulated across Catholic Europe, disseminating images of religious subjects, p...