How to Read Paintings: Christ Displaying His Wounds by Giovanni Antonio Galli
By: Christopher P Jones
Tags: Christianity, Artist, Inspiration, Art, Painting

How to Read Paintings: Christ Displaying His Wounds by Giovanni Antonio Galli

A compelling work of art from a follower of Caravaggio

Christ Displaying His Wounds (c. 1630) by Giovanni Antonio Galli. Perth Museum and Art Gallery, Scotland. Source Wikimedia Commons

For several years now I’ve had this image tacked to my study wall. I found it reproduced in a newspaper and almost every day of the week the image tends to catch my eye, either when I’m working or just passing through the room.

I love the painting: it is so immediately striking, so perfectly done. Historians believe it is by an artist called Giovanni Antonio Galli. It shows a pale-skinned Jesus in a three-quarter view. The lower half of his body is cloaked in a white linen cloth, which is draped over his left arm and wraps around his waist in rich folds. He stares out of the picture with an expression of surprise and alarm, incredulity even, as if he can’t quite understand what has happened to him. “Do you see?” he asks. “Do you see what they did to me?”

He draws open the wound on his torso where a soldier pierced him with a lance. The almond-shaped nail wounds on his hands are also visible. These are the injuries of his crucifixion; he is showing us these wounds to make us see that his suffering was real, and also that he has resurrected and is flesh again.

Detail of ‘Christ Displaying His Wounds’ (c. 1630) by Giovanni Antonio Galli. Perth Museum and Art Gallery, Scotland. Source Wikimedia Commons

The colours of the painting are muted, with an extreme version of chiaroscuro (the contrast between light and dark). The overall effect is reminiscent of the work of Caravaggio. Indeed, Galli was an Italian Baroque artist who was a member of the Caravaggisti — followers of Caravaggio who used his dramatic compositional techniques as a basis for their own work.

There is much of Caravaggio in this painting. The almost pitch-black background, the invisible light source that illuminates little but the main subject of the work, gives a distinct sense of the figure of Christ emerging from the shadows with the exact place or time of day impossible to determine.

What is effective in these techniques is the intense foregrounding of the principle subject. The dramatic directness is palpable; Christ’s expression is alive with emotional possibility and has the glorious potential to be read in many different ways. The glowing skin and the furrows in the brow, the shadows beneath the wide gazing eyes and along the side of the nose, all of these details give Christ an enigmatic and idealised quality. His lips are accentuated with a deep red colour, the same colour used to paint the wounds of the hands and torso. These are the only highlights in an otherwise earthy colour scheme, tinged with subtle touches of pink, grey and cream.

Detail of ‘Christ Displaying His Wounds’ (c. 1630) by Giovanni Antonio Galli. Perth Museum and Art Gallery, Scotland. Source Wikimedia Commons

Little is known about the artist himself. He was born in Rome in around 1585 and died sometime around 1651. Records show he worked on various projects in Rome, including the Sala Regia, a state hall in the Vatican City. Whilst his full name was Giovanni Antonio Galli, he was also known as Lo Spadarino.

Beyond these scant details, there are only a handful of paintings attributable to the artist. Christ Displaying His Wounds was painted around 1630, and is perhaps the most direct and intensely real of his known works.

You only need to look at the drapery of the linen cloth to see how skillfully — and with such a vivid sense of tangibility — the work has been painted. The folds and twists in the fabric are perfectly animated by light and shadow, and act as a counterpoint to the smooth skin on Christ’s torso.

Detail of ‘Christ Displaying His Wounds’ (c. 1630) by Giovanni Antonio Galli. Perth Museum and Art Gallery, Scotland. Source Wikimedia Commons

Most of all, it is the way that Christ looks out of the image, with his head lit from behind by a feint halo, that is the most gripping aspect of the work. For not only does his expression seize our attention, it also places us in the role of Thomas, the apostle who doubted Christ’s resurrection until Christ presented himself directly to him.

According to the Bible, Thomas was absent when the other disciples first saw Christ resurrected after the crucifixion. Thomas refused to believe it until he had seen Christ for himself. When Christ appeared to Thomas, he said to the apostle, “Reach your finger here: see my hands; reach your hand here and put it into my side” (John 20:19–29).

Galli’s painting put us in the same role and asks us to consider the real flesh wounds of Christ resurrected, who steps towards us irresistibly and irrefutably.

Christ Displaying His Wounds (c. 1630) by Giovanni Antonio Galli. Perth Museum and Art Gallery, Scotland. Source Wikimedia Commons

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Christopher P Jones is a writer and artist. He blogs about culture, art and life at his website.