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Christ and the Pope

Image credit: Glasgow Life Museums

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Notes

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Christ and the Pope face each other. Christ is mounted on a donkey, wearing his crown of thorns and humble habit, making a blessing gesture. The frowning richly-dressed Pope, by contrast, is crowned with gold and rides a proud white charger. The poem in Germanic dialect below makes further explicit comparisons between the humble appearance and actions of Christ and those of the pompous Pope – referring throughout to Christ as 'the lord' and the Pope as 'the servant'. The final summing-up sentence, translated, reads: '… the servant acts in opposition to the lord'. Dating from the 16th century, this is a 'propaganda painting' of the Reformation period with a clear anti-papal message. This is one of several known versions of the work, which uses an image and message which originated as a woodcut print.

Title

Christ and the Pope

Date

1550–1600

Medium

oil on panel

Measurements

H 56.8 x W 77.8 cm

Accession number

PC.157

Acquisition method

Stirling Maxwell Collection, gift, 1967

Work type

Painting

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Normally on display at

Pollok House

Pollok Country Park, 2060 Pollokshaws Road, Glasgow G43 1AT Scotland

This venue is closed to the public.
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