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Jeongho Park Associate Professor of Art History, Seoul National University

Rarely represented in European art, Christ as the Divine Pilot is a subject that exemplifies the global circulation of Christian images along Iberian maritime routes in the early modern period. Standing on a cloud just above a ship adorned with arma Christi, the Christ Child navigates the waters with the main sail yard in one hand and an orb in the other. The iconography likely originated in Spain in the late sixteenth century but was much more frequently represented in Asia and America in the seventeenth century. The remarkable resemblance among the works points to a common prototype, most likely a European print, but subtle variations in the details of each work suggest that it was the objects made in non-European regions that circulated and served as models for the images produced around the world. The global circulation of Christ as the Divine Pilot images sheds light on the early modern Iberian world as a network with multiple nodes actively in communication with one another, not always relying on the ‘center’ of the global monarchy. One of the remaining questions is why this particular subject enjoyed popularity in Asia and America. To answer this question, this talk explores the significance of the combination of the Christ Child as savior, arma Christi, and nautical motifs for the localities along the Iberian trade routes.