St Christopher
Artist
William Dyce
(Aberdeen, Scotland, 1806 - 1864)
Associated
St Christopher
Date1850-1864
Mediumpen ink and wash on paper
ClassificationsPaintings And Drawings
DimensionsSight Size: Height: 20.5 cm, Width: 20.4 cm
Frame: Height: 48.3 cm, Width: 43.2 cm
Frame: Height: 48.3 cm, Width: 43.2 cm
AcquisitionBequeathed in 1940 by Miss Ella C Dyce.
CopyrightOut of copyright - CC0
LocationView by Appointment - Aberdeen Treasure Hub
Object numberABDAG003230
About MeThe popular story of St Christopher was based on a tale told in The Golden Legends, which relates how the future saint had been seeking the devil when he had to ford a river. A child asked if he would carry him across and whilst doing so, Christopher felt the weight of the child gradually increasing. The child then told Christopher that he was Christ and that therefore Christopher had been carrying the weight of the world upon his shoulders. Dyce depicts a muscular Christopher (whose name in Greek means "carrier of Christ") wading through the water with the Christ-child on his shoulders. Christ holds up his left hand in a gesture of blessing as he beatifies Christopher.
More About Me
Legend has it that an unknown child carried across a river by Christopher turned out to be Christ, but the saint was probably actually a martyr of the Romans in the third century AD
William Dyce
Sir Edward Coley Burne-Jones
1859
William Williams
