Ingres was a student of Jacques-Louis David (1748-1825), a central figure of French neoclassicism. He became established as a painter while still young, receiving important official commissions from the Napoleonic regime. In 1806, he traveled to Rome, where he remained until 1820, when he moved to Florence. In Italy, he became one of the most highly demanded portraitists. Returning to Paris in 1824, he became recognized as the leader of the French classical school. Elected as a member of the academy, he opened a prestigious studio and during his life was considered by the official art world as the greatest French artist. His countless drawings show how Ingres possessed an enormous erudition that ranged from the painting of Greek vases to mannerist art. He knew how to combine all these references in his compositions through drawing, conceived in a purely decorative way, that is, in accordance with the formal balance and without naturalist concerns. Two of MASP’s works by Ingres, The Blessing Christ (1834) and Virgin of the Blue Veil (1827), present religious themes. Historically, the gestures of these figures refer to specific biblical narratives, but they also serve to instruct the faithful in their devotion. At the outset of Christianity, the hands of Christ were portrayed opened and facing upward; it was how he taught the people to pray the Lord’s Prayer. For her part, Mary’s hands are held together, according to medieval tradition, expressing humility and submission.
— MASP Curatorial Team, 2015
By Luciano Migliaccio
The painting was commissioned by the Comte de Pastoret to serve as pendant for the Virgin in the Masp Collection. The head is very similar to the one in a preliminary sketch of the Redeemer in The Giving of the Keys to St. Peter (Montauban, Musée Ingres). The facial features seem inspired in the later works of Raphael, such as for example the Transfiguration (Vatican Collection), but were interpreted in accordance with Nicolas Poussin’s model in the Seven Sacraments series.
The raised hands with open palms are part of the posture of the Almighty Christ (Edelstein, ed. 1984, p. 132). In fact, here Christ’s hands are raised in a gesture of prayer similar to that found in classical and ancient Christian iconography, whereas the Virgin is depicted in the pendant, her palms joined in prayer. Apparently, prayer is the subject in both paintings: while by bringing her palms together in a gesture of medieval submission the Virgin evokes the Magnificat proposed as model of female devotion, the image of an open-armed Jesus evokes the Lord’s Prayer, which he himself taught to his disciples. Following Chateaubriand’s example, we should take a closer look into the relationships involving Pastoret, Ingres, and the French Catholic church of that time. The two images isolated on an abstract background resemble Byzantine icons with a slight archaistic touch, possibly inspired by the Nazarenes and purists whose work Ingres saw in Italy. This aspect of the master’s work later found an echo in the French and Italian religious painting produced in subsequent decades by Ary Scheffer, Consonni, or Podesti.
— Luciano Migliaccio, 1998
