Leonardo’s Rediscovered Salvator Mundi

Leonardo da Vinci, Salvator Mundi
Italian, c. 1500
Private Collection

UPDATE:  On November 15, 2017 this picture was sold at auction at Christie's New York for four times the anticipated price, or $400,000,000 (plus the buyers premium).  This is the highest price ever paid for a work of art.  At this point, the name of the buyer has not been released.

November 4, 2017
Right now, in midtown New York, just half a block from Saks Fifth Avenue, what is probably the last Leonardo da Vinci painting still in private hands is on exhibition, but only until early afternoon on November 15.  At 7 PM that same evening it will be auctioned by Christie’s and is expected to sell for upwards of $100,000,000 (that’s right, one hundred million dollars), according to reports in the press. 

The story of how this remarkable and beautiful painting comes to be lodged temporarily on West 49^th Street is one of the most interesting stories of the last several decades.  

Since Leonardo’s own time it has been known that he made a painting called Salvator Mundi (Savior of the World).  At some point following his death in 1519 the painting made its way into the famous collection of King Charles I of England and was recorded in the inventories of the royal palaces.  After the King lost the English Civil War (1641-1649) and was beheaded, his collection was sold off to anyone with the money to pay.  In 1986 I did some research in those inventories, now held as part of the Public Records of England, and was amazed at the number of famous paintings, now dispersed worldwide, that were once part of that collection. 

Wenceslaus Hollar, Salvator Mundi
Engraving after the painting by Leonardo da Vinci
Czech, 1650
Windsor Castle, Royal Collection

The painting was catalogued for the sale as “A peece of Christ done by Leonardo at 30- 00- 00”.¹ It was sold on October 23, 1651 as part of settlement for a debt owed by the Crown.  

When Charles’ son, also Charles (Charles II), was restored as King in 1660, Parliament passed a bill requiring that any possessions of his father that had been purchased in the sales and were still in the country should be returned to the Crown.  The painting of the Salvator Mundi was duly returned and placed in the King’s private quarters.  

On Charles II’s death, it presumably passed to his brother, who became King James II.  When James was forced to flee England during the Glorious Revolution of 1688, the picture is believed to have passed to others, possibly through James’ mistress, Catherine Sedley, Countess of Dorchester.  

It is presumed to have passed by inheritance to her descendants, one of whom sold it in a 1763 auction for £2 s10.  It then passed down through the family of the person who bought it in 1763 until 1900, when it was sold again.   By the time of this sale its previous history and attribution had been forgotten, and it was attributed to Bernardino Luini.  

It was sold again in 1958 as a “copy after Boltraffio” for £45, after which it disappeared.

When it reappeared again it was in the sale of an American collection in 2005.  It was bought at that time by an American art dealer, who suspected that it might be more than it seemed.  Careful examination and restoration by the leading conservator of the Samuel H. Kress Program in Paintings Conservation at my graduate alma mater, the Institute of Fine Arts of NYU, revealed the reasons for its loss of attribution and confirmed that it was, indeed, the work of the master.

Photograph from 1904 showing the picture with the
disfiguring overpainting.

Over time the wooden panel on which Leonardo had painted the Salvator Mundi had warped and split, with a crack running from top to bottom.  To disguise this the panel had been thinned and glued to another form of support and the gap created by the crack had been filled with various materials, which only aggravated the situation and also resulted in a two-fold new problem:  loss of original pigment and clumsy overpainting to disguise these problems.  When the overpainting was removed it could be seen that, despite the damage, the remaining original surface was in good condition and of much higher quality than the attributions suggested. 

Examination by x-ray and microscopic examination of cross-sections of the paint have pretty much proved conclusively that this is the original painting, recorded in the royal inventories, and not one of the numerous copies.  Most decisive have been the finding of numerous pentimenti through study of the x-rays.  

Hans Memling, Maria Portinari
Detail showing close up of head and neck
Flemish, c. 1470
New  York, Metropolitan Museum of Art

Pentimenti are areas in which artists made corrections as they rethink the design even after having begun the painting.   One famous example, that is evident even to the unaided eye, is found in the portrait of Maria Portinari by
Hans Memling.  Her necklace was initially painted higher up on her neck.  One can easily see the original location because the black pigment of the original line of black beads has come through the flesh tones with which the
artist overpainted them.

Pentimenti are clear signs that a work in which they are found is an original and not a copy of someone else’s work.   While copyists may make differing decisions about the colors of clothing, background, etc. they almost never make changes in the basic design of the work, so copies are generally free of these telltale pentimenti.  I was initially skeptical about this picture, as I usually am about such “discoveries”.  However, the evidence of the pentimenti went a long way toward convincing me that this just might be a real Leonardo.

Evidence from the paint layers is also striking.  The surface is built up in several layers, arguing a great deal of time and effort was involved in creating the surface we see.  Again, this is not typically the sign of a copy, but of an original.  Further, the blue pigment used for Christ’s robe is the very expensive ground lapis lazuli, hardly the blue pigment that would have been used by a copyist!

Then there is the style of the work, especially the style and handling of the face, the hands and the exquisitely painted orb of crystal.  They looked good in pictures, but in person they leave little doubt.  

Leonardo da Vinci, Salvator Mundi
Close up of face

The strangely veiled, elusively soft impact of the face and eyes, the carefully highlighted curling hair, the beautifully painted blessing hand, emerging out of a highly detailed sleeve (for which an autograph drawing exists at Windsor Castle), 

Leonardo da Vinci, Salvator Mundi
Detail of the blessing hand and arm.

Leonardo da Vinci, Drawing of a Sleeve
Italian, c. 1500
Windsor Castle, Royal Collection

and the gorgeous, minutely observed, rock crystal orb were entirely convincing.  This beautiful painting is indeed by Leonardo da Vinci.

Leonardo da Vinci, Salvator Mundi, Detail of the Orb

I strongly urge everyone with any interest in the work of Leonardo who is in the New York area or who can get to the city to go see this picture while it awaits its auction date.  You may never again have the chance to see it this close or perhaps to see it at all.  One hopes that the buyer may be an institution that will allow public access to it, but there is no guarantee that it will. 

The painting is on exhibition in a specially prepared gallery at Christie’s at 20 West 49^th Street, opposite the Rockefeller Plaza ice skating rink, between Fifth and Sixth Avenues.  This gallery has been allotted its own well-guarded entrance.  It is also well-guarded on the inside of the darkened gallery in which it sits. 

On the way to it, one passes a related work that will be included in the same auction.  This is the famous “Sixty Last Suppers” painting by Andy Warhol.  Dating to 1986, shortly before Warhol’s premature death, it is a large canvas composed of ten six-picture columns, each segment of which is a small, black, grey and white silk-screened image of Leonardo’s famous Last Supper.  Each small image is slightly different from the others.  The repetition is classic Warhol, while the subject matter reflects the more meditative works of Warhol’s last few years. 

Andy Warhol. Sixty Last Suppers
American, 1986

It is well-known that Leonardo’s restless, experimental approach to painting had tragic results for his Last Supper, which began to flake off the wall shortly after it was painted.  What remains today is, quite simply, a ruin.  It is difficult to imagine what it might have looked like when just completed.  The presence of Warhol’s tribute in the room next to the Salvator Mundi reminds us that in it we may catch a glimpse of what the figure of Christ in that newly completed wall painting may have looked like. 

Leonardo da Vinci, Last Supper
Detail of the Figure of Christ
Italisn, c. 1492-1498
Milan, Santa Maria delle Grazie

Leonardo da Vinci, Salvator Mundi
Head and Blessing Hand of Christ
Italian, c. 1500

The exhibition is open weekdays and Saturdays from 10 AM to 5 PM and on the two remaining Sundays from 1 PM to 5 PM.  On the date of the sale, Wednesday, November 15, it will be open from 10 AM to 2 PM.  The sale will follow at 7 PM.

© M. Duffy, 2017

1.  For this quote and other information about the painting, its presumed provenance and restoration please see the Christie exhibition catalogue:  Leonardo da Vinci, Salvator Mundi, Christie’s New York, 2017.  A PDF copy can be found at http://www.christies.com/zmags?ZmagsPublishID=7baedae9.  A printed copy can be ordered from Christie’s at https://catalogues.christies.com/christies-shop/Product.aspx?offerId=51568&sId=82 and is priced at $50.00.

Man or Woman 6: St. John the Evangelist or Mary Magdalene? – The Last Supper

Leonardo da Vinci, Last Supper
Italian, 1498
Milan, Friary of Santa Maria delle Grazie

In my earlier essays on the question of how the figure of St. John the Evangelist has been portrayed in the history of western art since the Middle Ages we have seen that, although at times shown as an mature (or even old) bearded figure, St. John is most often shown as a youthful, beardless man.  So, we have finally come to the crux of the question “is the figure sitting at the right hand of Jesus in Leonardo DaVinci’s Last Supper a man or a woman?”   

Obviously we must begin to answer this question by reviewing how the figure of John was presented in earlier images of the Last Supper.  Is he shown as a mature man or as a young boy or man? 

Anonymous, Fresco of Meal
Early Christian, 346-355
Rome, Catacomb of Marcellinus and Peter

First of all, we should look at what are believed to be the earliest representations of what may be the Last Supper, from the early Christian centuries.  These are paintings in the Roman catacombs, dating to the third and fourth centuries.  They show us images of a typical banquet in the ancient world, where the participants sit or recline around a table.  However, it is by no means clear that these are actually paintings of the Last Supper, they may be simply representations of the fraternal meal that often accompanied the early Christian liturgies. 

It is not until a few centuries later that we can definitely begin to say that the image we see is truly a representation of the Last Supper.  

Anonymous, Last Supper
From The Rossano Gospels
Greek, 6th century
Rossano, Diocesan Museum

In the Rossano Gospels, dating from the sixth century, we can be certain that we are seeing Jesus, seated at a semi-circular table with His disciples, including Judas who is distinguished from the others by reaching into the dish.  But, we can say with some certainty that John is not the disciple seated next to Jesus.  This white haired, white bearded figure is probably Peter.  John may be the young, bearded man seated next to Peter, or he may even be one of the other young, beardless disciples.  We simply have no clues to help us identify him.

Two hundred years farther on the image in the Drogo Sacramentary, produced in Carolingian France, is not more helpful.  All the disciples look alike, including Judas who is again shown reaching for the dish, and none of them sit immediately next to Jesus.

Anonymous, Last Supper and Betrayal

from Sacramentary of Drogo

Carolingian (Metz), ca. 850

Paris, Bibliotheque nationale de France

MS Latin 9428, fol.44v

It isn’t till another two hundred years later that we begin to be able to identify John.  

Anonymous, Last Supper
Crete, 1001-1300
Crete, Monastery of Agia Triada

Around the year 1000, we begin to see images that include the figure of a youthful disciple who leans his head against Jesus.  The earliest seem to come from the Byzantine Empire and the lands influenced by it. 

Anonymous, Last Supper
from Gospel Book
Egyptian (Damietta), 1178-1180
Paris, Bibliotheque nationale de France
MS Copte 13, fol. 76v

The image passes into western art through the medium of mosaics and during the twelfth century becomes the standard image for representing the Last Supper. 

Anonymous Mosaicist, Entry into Jerusalem and Last Supper
Italian (Monreale), 1180s
Monreale, Cathedral (detail of west transept wall)

Anonymous, Last Supper
from Gospels of Matilda
Italian (Lombardy), 1080-1099
New York, Pierpont Morgan Library
MS M 492, fol. 100v

Anonymous, Last Supper
from Gospel Book
Austrian (Salzburg), 11th Century
New York, Pierpont Morgan Library
MS G 44, fol. 80r

Anonymous, Last Supper
German, 1245-1260
Naumberg, Cathedral of Saints Peter and Paul, Detail of West Choir

Maitre Henri, Last Supper
from Livre d'images de Madame Marie
Belgian (Hainault), 1285-1290
Paris, Bibliotheque nationale de France
MS Nouvelle acquisition francaise 16251, fol. 30v

By 1300 it is the established image. 

Duccio, Last Supper
Italian, 1308-1311
Siena, Museo dell'Opera del Duomo

Frequently, John is shown leaning against Jesus, as if asleep.  Sometimes he is shown as if asleep on the table.  Occasionally he is shown awake and alert. 

Pietro Lorenzetti, Last Supper

Italian, ca. 1320

Assisi, Lower Church of S. Francesco

Andrea del Castagno, Last Supper
Italian, 1447
Florence, Sant' Apollonia

Andrea del Castagno, Last Supper (detail)

 

 

Pietro Perugino, Last Supper
Italian, 1483-1496
Foligno, Convent of the Tertiary Franciscans

 

 

But, from the eleventh century on he is almost always depicted as a young, beardless man.  His clothing, consisting of a long tunic and collarless cloak, just like the other Apostles and Jesus Himself, is definitely masculine.  In some pictures John’s hair is long, in others it is relatively short.

 Finally, we come to the picture that has inspired so much speculation, the Last Supper by Leonardo DaVinci.  It was painted by Leonardo for the refectory (dining room) of the monastery of Santa Marie delle Grazie in Milan in the last years of the fifteenth century.  This painting, like the Mona Lisa, is one of the most famous ever painted.  Like other Leonardo paintings it became the new paradigm against which the work of other artists was measured and from which others took their own inspiration.  It is also another in the long list of Leonardo’s lost or ruined experiments in painting.

Leonardo da Vinci, Last Supper
Italian, 1498
Milan, Friary of Santa Maria delle Grazie

Leonardo was many things and one of them was an inventor of experimental techniques.  For this important commission he chose, not the safe and tested medium of fresco for a wall of this size, but an experimental technique of his own, using a wax medium on dry wall.  This was a technique that had some historical basis but which had not been tried for centuries.  He decided to try to revive it.  His experiment was not successful.  Within a few years of completion, the work began to peel off the wall.  It has been repainted and restored multiple times in its long life.  Consequently, we can really say very little about the surface of the work, we can really only speak of its composition and of the effects it had on those who came after Leonardo.

Leonardo da Vinci, Last Supper
Detail showing the group of Peter, John and Judas and the ruinous state of the painting surface.

It is in its composition as well as in its technique that Leonardo’s Last Supper was revolutionary.  And it is in its composition that it is most successful and had the greatest impact.  Other artists had tried to enliven the sense of a row of nearly identical faces by showing interactions between them.  Leonardo created a grand masterpiece of drama in the way in which his cast of Apostles interact.   Arranged in four groups of three figures each, they argue, they call the attention of others to the actions of Jesus, who has just said that the bread is his body and the wine is his blood.  They react with surprise and astonishment.  Their actions reveal things about their personalities and about their place among the entire group of disciples.  Some of these personality traits were determined by the traditions related to each of the figures.  For example, Peter was long recognized as having the kind of personality that reacts in extremes.  He is the first to vehemently assure Jesus of his faithfulness, the first to react violently to Jesus’ arrest in Gethsemane and the first to vehemently deny even knowing him a few hours later!  Thus is easy to identify the figure of Peter among the disciples.  He is the white-haired man (a traditional attribute) who lunges forward to tap John the Evangelist on the shoulder. 

Likewise, Judas can readily be identified.  He is the one just in front of Peter, who seems to recoil as he clutches a small bag, possibly containing the thirty pieces of silver for which he betrayed Jesus.

And what of John?  As we have seen, he is traditionally seen as the young beardless man seated next to Jesus who is passive enough to be asleep, either slumped on the table or leaning against Jesus.  In Leonardo’s image he becomes the beardless young man seated next to Jesus who seems to pull back quietly from the table as he listens to the words of Peter who has tapped him on the shoulder.   But, the argument goes, this figure looks like a woman.  How can you be so sure it is John?

Leonardo da Vinci, Last Supper
Detail of head of St. John

Well, there are some clues.  While it is difficult to see the figure in the painting in its current near ruined (though recently restored) state, one can examine it to some extent.  There are close ups of the figures.  There are studies for it.  And there is Leonardo’s own style in dealing with images of young men to be considered.

 

No artist paints such a monumental work without planning and preparation.  Studies of the figures and for the composition itself exist.  Some of the compositional drawings suggest that the original idea was a much more traditional depiction, with a sleeping John and with Judas on the other side of the table.  

Leonardo da Vinci, Study for the Last Supper
Italian, ca. 1494-1495
Venice, Galleria dell'Accademia

Other drawings are studies for the heads of the Apostles and one of them is of the head of John.  One can see more clearly from this study that the figure is male.  His clothing is that of a man, not a woman, and there is a certain masculinity about his features.  

Leonardo da Vinci, Study for Head of John the Evangelist

Further, a look at some of Leonardo’s other paintings of young male figures, such as John the Baptist, reveal that Leonardo tended to make them more effeminate in character than when he painted older males.  This is a recognizable and well known feature of Leonardo’s work that was manifested throughout his career.

Leonardo da Vinci, Annunication
Detail of Angel Gabriel
Italian, 1478-1482
Paris, Musée du Louvre

Leonardo da Vinci, St. John the Baptist
Italian, 1513-1516
Paris, Musée du Louvre

Therefore, it is safe to say that the figure seated to the right of Jesus in the Last Supper is not Mary Magdalene, but John the Evangelist.  Indeed, this identity has never been in doubt until the last few years and the ill informed speculations of some authors with little knowledge of iconographic tradition or the work of Leonardo as a whole.

© M. Duffy, 2014

Glorious Saint Anne – Iconography of Saint Anne, Day 6 – Anne, the Root of the Tree of Salvation

Masaccio, Madonna and Child with Saint Anne
Italian, 1424
Florence, Galleria degli Ufizzi

The first painted images of Saint Anne that most people encounter are two famous paintings that to the twenty-first century viewer are among the most puzzling of all the images of Saint Anne. These are the paintings of Saint Anne with the Madonna and Child by the Quattrocento artist Masaccio,  now in the Ufizzi in Florence, and by the High Renaissance artist Leonardo da Vinci.




The Leonardo is particularly well known and frequently reproduced. Leonardo’s image exists in two versions, a large drawing (more properly called a cartoon and commonly known as "The Burlington House Cartoon"*) in the National Gallery in London (first below) and a painting in the Louvre in Paris (second below).

 

 

 

 

In these images, Jesus sits on Mary’s lap (or in the case of Paris painting has just squirmed off it), while Mary herself sits on her mother’s lap. While emphasizing the blood relationship of the group, the arrangement seems today somewhat awkward, even comical.

Leonardo da Vinci, Saint Anne Cartoon
Italian, c. 1499-1500
London, National Gallery

                                                                         

One sees the Madonna and Child seated on the lap of another, larger woman and wonders at its meaning. We can understand the Child sitting in His mother’s lap. But why is His mother sitting on her own mother’s lap, almost as if the three were a set of Russian nesting dolls?

Leonardo da Vinci, Madonna and Child with Saint Anne
Italian, c. 1503-1519
Paris, Musée du Louvre

The answer is found in the physical relationship of the three characters to each other for, just as Jesus is the child of Mary, so Mary is Anne’s child. The differing sizes of the three indicate their relationship. It is a kind of visual metaphor, a representation of a kind of holy version of mitochondrial DNA. Since Jesus does not have a biological father, His descent from Anne is the source of His blood relationship with humanity. And this leads us to an interesting series of images produced during the late Middle Ages and Renaissance and to the ideas behind them.

The compositions by Masaccio and Leonardo are related to a series of depictions in sculpture and painting from northern Europe. They are known in English by the German title of Anna selbdritt images. 1  A rough English translation would be “Anne herself three times” (a fair description for the passage of the then-unknown X chromosome from mother to daughter to grandson!).

As the writer of the Golden Legend tells us:

“The nativity of the blessed and glorious Virgin Mary, of the lineage of Judah and of the royal kindred of David took her original beginning. Matthew and Luke describe not the generation of Mary but of Joseph, which was far from the conception of Christ. But the custom of writing was of such ordinance that the generation of women is not showed but of the men. And verily the blessed Virgin descended of the lineage of David, and it is certain that Jesu Christ was born of this only Virgin. “ 2  He then goes on to describe Mary’s descent from David, ending with Joachim and Anne.

These Anna selbdritt images derive from earlier medieval depictions of Mary and the Christ Child, known as the “Sedes Sapientiae” or “Seat of Wisdom” type, such as the late 11th-century sculpture from central France now in the Cloisters Collection of the Metropolitan Museum. In these images a rigidly upright figure of Mary sits on a throne-like chair, holding on her lap an equally rigid Jesus. He is the Divine Word Incarnate and the embodiment of Divine Wisdom and she is, therefore, the Seat of Wisdom.

"Sedes Sapientiae" wooden statue,
France (Auvergne),  c.1150-1200
New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Cloisters Collection

These images themselves go back to Byzantine images of the Mother of God (Theotokos), such as the mosaic showing the Virgin and Child being venerated by Emperors Justinian I and Constantine I at Hagia Sophia.

Theotokos Venerated by Justinian I and Constantine I
Byzantine, 944
Istanbul, Hagia Sophia

The figure of Anne began to be added to the Madonna and Child during the late 13th century. Numerous examples exist in both painting and sculpture. The theme was particularly important in the Low Countries and Germany.

Virgin and Child with Saint Anne  (Anna selbdritt)
Spanish, c. 1270-1290
Budapest, National Museum

Anna Selbdritt Statue
German, 1307
Stralsund, Saint Nicholas Church

Anna Selbdritt Statue
German, c.1400-50
Minden, Cathedral Treasury

Masaccio’s image remains close to the medieval precursors, observing a rigidity and size order that is typical of these images. In most cases Anne is shown seated, with Mary standing beside her, but she may also hold Mary and Jesus on her lap.  Jesus may be cradled in Mary's arms or may be held by Anne.

Gerard David, Anna selbdritt
Dutch, c. 1500-1520
Washington, National Gallery of Art

     

Hans Leinberger, Anna Selbdritt
German, c. 1510-1520
Paris, Musée de Cluny, Musée national du moyen age

                  
Anne is most frequently presented as a vigorously mature, but not old, woman; Mary is sometimes portrayed as a child, sometimes as a smaller adult woman. Jesus is portrayed as a baby or toddler in all. In most cases the figures of both Mary and Jesus are placed within the contours of the figure of Anne, either by being seated in Anne's lap or by being encompassed by her cloak, or simply by visual placement within the outline of her larger figure.

Albrecht Dürer, Madonna and Child with Saint Anne
German, 1519
New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art

However, some images take a different approach and depict Mary as a child herself, sometimes carried in her mother’s arms. She may either hold Jesus (now reduced to the size of a doll) or Anne may carry both separately. In the latter case Jesus is depicted as a slightly smaller child than his own Mother. 

Anna selbdritt of walnut
Belgium, c. 1500-1525
New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art

Master of the Berlin Sketchbook, Anna selbdritt
German, 1525
Strasbourg, Musée des Beaux-Arts

Bartholomeus Zeitblom, Annunciation, with Anna selbdritt and Saint Anthony Abbot
German, c. 1474-1500
Paris, Musée du Louvre

According to the thesis proposed by Virginia Nixon these Anna selbdritt images represent a moment in theological thought and popular piety when Anne was accorded a special position among the saints. Beginning in the late 14th century and extending into the 15th century she was no longer seen as merely an intercessor, but as something more. Due to her blood relationship with Christ, she was judged to have the power, in her own right, to assist in the salvation of souls. The number of images of this type that were produced in all media is staggering. I have shown just a small number here. Although most prominent in the northern countries they are found in smaller numbers throughout the rest of Europe as well.

After about 1520 the number of these images declined as Saint Anne’s image gradually took on the characteristics by which we know it today. We will examine some of that development tomorrow.

* A cartoon in this sense is the full-sized drawing used by Renaissance artists to transfer their ideas from small scale sketches to full sized painting.  The cartoon served as a guide for marking the canvas or panel or wall on which the actual painting would be done.  Cartoons in this sense also were used by artists to guide the weavers of tapestries, who often worked hundreds of miles away from the artist's location.  This has nothing whatever to do with the current meaning of the word, which signifies a sometimes satirical drawing or set of drawings reproduced en masse for magazines or newspapers.  
___________________________________
1. For an analysis of the Anna selbdritt images in northern Europe see the book by Virginia Nixon. Mary’s Mother: Saint Anne in Late Medieval Europe, University Park, PA, The Pennsylvania State University Press, 2004. See also, the Ph.D. dissertation on which the book is based at http://spectrum.library.concordia.ca/325/1/NQ39798.pdf

2. The Golden Legend or Lives of the Saints. Compiled by Jacobus de Voragine, Archbishop of Genoa, 1275. First Edition Published 1470. Englished by William Caxton, First Edition 1483, Edited by F.S. Ellis, Temple Classics, 1900 (Reprinted 1922, 1931.), Vol. 5, pages 47-54.

© M. Duffy, 2011/2012.  Images refreshed 2022.