Salvator Mundi (Leonardo)

Salvator Mundi ( Saviour of the World German ) is the title of a painting that Leonardo da Vinci is credited. After the work had been attributed since about 1900 the workshop of Leonardo different expertise came in 2011 to the conclusion that it constitutes an autograph work by Leonardo da Vinci. The attribution is controversial. The painting is since 2005 owned by the art dealer Robert Simon and other people, the restoration and investigations prompted that eventually led to the attribution to Leonardo.

Description

The 65.6 × 45.4 cm painting is painted with oil paints on a walnut panel. It shows Christ as Savior of the world in frontal view, has given notice of the right hand with a blessing gesture and in his left hand holds a crystal ball.

History

Formation 1490-1500

The time of origin, principal or the original site of the painting are unknown. However, it is dated to the period 1490-1500.

1649-1763

The painting is said to have once belonged to the English King Charles I, in whose collection it is recorded in 1649. After the execution of Charles I, the painting is to be sold. Later the painting was restituted to the royal collection and will eventually be passed to the Duke of Buckingham, whose son was to auction the painting in 1763, after which the trail goes cold of the painting.

1900-2005

After 1900 there is evidence that the Salvator Mundi was in the Art Collection of English textile merchant Cook family. The painting was then considered a work from the circle of Leonardo 's pupil, Giovanni Antonio Boltraffio. 1958 Cook's descendants auctioned the painting. It was from then on American private property. The current owners acquired the painting from an American estate.

Restoration and rediscovery

About 20 copies and a 1650 engraving incurred the Bohemian engraver Wenceslas Hollar was evidence to suggest that Leonardo da Vinci had painted the motif of a Salvator Mundi. Various sketches, such as a blessing hand and drape, which are in the Royal Library at Windsor and Leonardo da Vinci can be assigned, occupied this assumption. Already in the 1980s therefore tried the art historian Joanne Snow- Smith, the authenticity of a supposedly originating from Salvator Mundi Leonardo to prove, but could not convince their colleagues. The now rediscovered painting was in poor condition with disfiguring overpainting of previous restorations, as it was presented to the New York art dealer and art historian Robert Simon, 2005. Simon, who was then suspected, although a quality full original, but not a work of Leonardo, prompted a careful restoration. Only after 2007, the original painting was exposed, the painting was submitted to several experts for review.

Mina Gregori (University of Florence) and Nicholas Penny (Director of the National Gallery in London, at that time curator of sculpture at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC) surveyed the board in 2007. Subsequently, the curators of the Metropolitan Museum of Art dealing, Carmen Bambach, Andrea Bayer, Keith Christiansen, Everett Fahy and Michael Gallagher with the painting. In May 2008, the painting was placed in the National Gallery in London, in order to compare it directly with Leonardo's Virgin of the Rocks can that must have been about the same time. Several Leonardo experts were invited to examine the paintings there, including Carmen Bambach, David Alan Brown, Maria Teresa Fiorio, Martin Kemp, Pietro C. Marani and Luke Syson. In 2010, finally, the conservation work on the panel could be completed. Then the image was assessed again. The experts came together to the conclusion that this constitutes the authentic original Leonardo da Vinci, can be derived from all known copies.

Examinations for attribution to Leonardo da Vinci is based, unless this has been published, and only on style critical arguments. A publication of chemical and dendrochronological analysis is still pending.

Importance

It is a product obtained by only around 15 oil paintings of Leonardo da Vinci and the first Neuzuschreibung an original to Leonardo da Vinci, since 1909 the painting Madonna Benois was retrieved, which today is located in St. Petersburg at the Hermitage.