Jeff KoonsAmerican, 1955Christ and the Lamb
About the sculpture
Having turned to art after a brief stint as a Wall Street commodities trader, Jeff Koons creates beautifully crafted and often controversial sculptures. An elaborate, Rococostyle mirror, Christ and the Lambis also a visual puzzle: its frame shapes the mirror surface into the figure of the infant Jesus playing with a lamb, taken from Leonardo da Vinci’s famous painting The Virgin and Child with Saint Anne (1508; Musée du Louvre, Paris). Viewers thus see their own image superimposed on the body of the Christ Child. Koons has said, “Anything that reflects has a kind of spiritual transcendence because it involves the viewer. It acknowledges your presence. Every time you move, the reflection changes; it always acknowledges you.”
Art Institute of ChicagoCC BY 4.0
Particulars
- Accession number
- 2015.140
