Heiland
The painting would have been used in the context of personal devotion, as were other panels of this size and subject in the sixteenth century. Indeed, Snow-Smith emphasized in her writings the devotional relationship that Louis XII had with the "Salvator Mundi" as a subject and Frank Zöllner discussed the painting's relationship to French illuminated manuscripts in the practice of early sixteenth century personal devotion and prayer. It is possible that the painting was recorded in a 1525 inventory of Salaì's estate as ""Christo in mondo de uno Dio padre"," though it is unclear which "Salvator Mundi" this might refer to. The provenance of the painting breaks after 1530.