Christ Pantocrator from Sant Bartomeu in Igualada

This image shows the figure of Christ Pantocrator seated on a throne, blessing with his right hand and showing with his left hand the book of the law that he has open on his knee. Both the realistic expression on his face and the naturalism with which the folds in the tunic are carved distance this image from the geometric aesthetic of the Romanesque and put it closer to the new more humanistic style developed in Europe after 1200. In the later Gothic period, this image with the iconography of the Saviour from the chapel of Sant Bartomeu in Igualada, no longer standing, was turned into a Saint Bartholomew. With this aim in mind the traditional letters alpha and omega, typical of the iconography of the Pantocrator, must have been replaced in the book by the inscription that can now be read, dedicated to Saint Bartholomew: “Sancte Bartho lomeo a postole dei inter cede pro nobis ad dominum deum nostrum qui te elegit”.