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Original fileExemplar Virtutum, from the Allegorical Scenes from the Life of Christ
About This Work
The central scene depicts Christ posing in a landscape while a woman, representing the soul or the virtue of imitation, captures his likeness on a canvas. A lamb lies peacefully at their feet near a box of painting tools, while the elaborate border features twelve circular medallions and several cartouches illustrating virtues like Humility, Charity, and Poverty. These border elements use symbols such as a shepherd's crook, a sun, and a crown to link the life of Christ to the moral development of the believer.
This engraving visualizes the central theme of 'Imitatio Christi' (The Imitation of Christ), a cornerstone of late medieval and early modern Christian mysticism popularized by Thomas à Kempis. The artist-as-imitator metaphor also draws on Neoplatonic concepts of the soul as a mirror or artisan tasked with reshaping itself to reflect the divine archetype or Logos.