Christ the Resurrected, Salvator Mundi

The figure is shown in a slight contrapposto. A patterned decorated cloak is draped over the naked body, revealing the torso and legs, fastened at the neck with a clasp adorned with amethysts. The right hand is raised in a gesture of blessing, while the left holds a royal orb or interchangeably a cross. The face is surrounded by a beard, with wavy hair reaching the shoulders. On the head is a circlet crown topped with a cross. The crown is adorned with precious stones, including emeralds and rubies in box settings. Similarly set stones of yellow-green and green colors decorate the fleurons above the circlet.

Christ tramples the head of Leviathan with its open mouth. To the sides (on the left) Satan is raising his head, and (on the right) a skeleton with its skull tilted upward, as well as depictions of naked figures in the flames of hell. A serpent crawling under Christ’s foot bites his heel.

The figure of Christ is both the most important preserved work of Caspar Pfister and the greatest masterpiece of Wrocław goldsmithing of the first half of the 17th century. The exceptional artistic qualities and significant size suggest treating it as a sculptural work that goes beyond the usual horizon of possibilities and ambitions of goldsmithing art. The mastery of craftsmanship allowed Pfister, using classical repoussé techniques, to create an image of a figure with a majestic yet free and expressive character. Combined iconographic elements typical of depictions of Christ the Savior of the World (the crown and royal orb symbolizing the globe) and the Resurrected Christ (the cloak draped over the naked body, the cross).