Belief

Leonard Bramer 1596-1674 (Dutch)
Christ and the Centurion
17th century
Watercolour on paper (parchment)
Height: 31.7 cm; Width: 36.2 cm
Inscription:
Signed, numbered, lower left, Bramer 16
Courtauld Institute Art Gallery, London


Sir Stanley Spencer 1891-1959
The Centurion's Servant 1914
Oil on canvas
support: 1143 x 1143 mm frame: 1270 x 1270 x 100 mm
Tate Gallery, London

The youth on the bed has Spencer's own features.

Members of his family were the models for the other characters.

Spencer was influenced by an event related by his mother: Cookham villagers praying round the bed of a dying man. The sick person suddenly recovered, healed by Christ from a distance.

One of the people praying half turns his head as if he felt the arrival of this happiness.