Early European Print : Saint Christopher

Early European Print

<p style='text-align: justify;'>Impression on paper depicting Saint Christopher. The Saint strides through the water from one shore to the other of a little bay. He grasps in both hands the stem of a date palm which he uses as a staff, and carries on his shoulder the Infant Christ, clad in a long robe, who blesses with his right hand and holds the Orb in his left. The landscape, diminutive in scale as compared with the figure of the Saint, consists of hills that rise and form steep, jutting cliffs, surmounted by trees, on either side of the bay, but descend to the level of the water in the foreground. On the right, a hermit kneels, holding a lantern to guide the Saint, before the door of a chapel, beneath him a rabbit emerges from a burrow. On the left, a man rides on a mule, carrying a sack, towards a mill, from which another man, carrying a sack of flour over his shoulder, climbs on foot the steep road that ascends to a little house beneath the topmost tree. Xylographic text at foot: Cristofori faciem quacumque tueris Illa nempe die morte mala non morieris Millesimo cccc° xx° tertio. The whole within a single wide border.</p>