Description
‘Salvator Mundi’ by Declan Lee
Artist: Declan Lee
Title: ‘Salvator Mundi’
Medium: Pastel on paper
Dimensions: 16.3″ x 11.4″
Framed: Unframed
Year of Creation: 2023
About the Artwork:
“The ‘Salvator Mundi’, or ‘Saviour of the World’ is a subject that reached the height of its popularity in the 16th century. Based upon the Byzantine composition for Christ Pantocrator, the earliest example is believed to be Simone Martini’s “Salvator Mundi Surrounded by Angels” from 1341AD. The subject of Christ with one hand raised in blessing and the other resting on the globus cruciger offers an opportunity to create a painting with deep, eschatological symbolic meaning and lush, visionary imagery.” – Declan Lee
About the Artist:
(Artist Bio)
I was born in 1973 in Southport, England. After moving to Australia I studied classical art at the Adelaide Central School of Art and completed my Bachelor of Design in Illustration at the Underdale campus of the University of South Australia. After an award winning but soulless career as an Illustrator I have focused on establishing myself as an artist.
I work exclusively in pastel for its immediacy and delicate, vibrant colour. The work draws its inspiration from my interests in the esoteric symbolism and archetypal language of the Tarot, Hermeticism, Mythology and religious art that speaks to the viewer on a level that lies beyond language. Those symbols we understand intuitively, deeply rooted in the collective unconscious that find expression in dreams and myth. As they defy contrivance and seem to appear in the mind fully formed, the sketching of ideas is closer to memory than invention. Creating the finished art becomes a process of getting the ego out of the way and allowing the subject to take on a life of its own. For me beauty and truth are synonymous, and the end result should be a picture that allows the “other” to inhabit our world in all its vibrant immediacy.