''Christ Blessing'' is a tempera-on-panel painting by the Italian artist Giovanni Bellini.Mariolina Olivari, Giovanni Bellini, in AA.VV., Pittori del Rinascimento, Scala, Firenze 2007. It is usually dated to the early 1460s, that is, in the middle of Bellini's Mantegnese phase. It is now in the

Louvre The Louvre ( ), or the Louvre Museum ( ), is the world's most-visited museum, and an historic landmark in Paris, France. It is the home of some of the best-known works of art, including the ''Mona Lisa'' and the ''Venus de Milo''. A central l ...

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), ma ...

. It is probably the painting mentioned by the historian

Carlo Ridolfi Carlo Ridolfi (1594–1658) was an Italian art biographer and painter of the Baroque period. Biography Ridolfi was born in Lonigo near Vicenza. He was a pupil of the painter Antonio Vassilacchi (Aliense). He painted a ''Visitation'' for the ...

as an "Effigy of the Saviour" in the Augustinian monastery of Santo Stefano Church in

Venice Venice ( ; it, Venezia ; vec, Venesia or ) is a city in northeastern Italy and the capital of the Veneto region. It is built on a group of 118 small islands that are separated by canals and linked by over 400 bridges. The isla ...

. Morassi is the only art historian to demur from this consensus, instead identifying the painting seen by Ridolfi with a painting in a Swiss private collection dating to 1500.

References

{{Authority control Paintings by Giovanni Bellini Paintings in the Louvre by Italian artists 1460s paintings Books in art Paintings of Christus Dolens