History of the Salvator Mundi (opens in new tab)

What an incredible irony that the world’s most regressive Islamic government buys a painting of Jesus by one of the world’s most famous artists; and that same government rules that, according to Islamic jurisprudence, a similar depiction of Mohammed would be a high crime worthy of severe punishment.

Do people really belief that this is from Leonardo? It is so much unlike and I would say, forgive me, inferior compared to his uncontested works.

I worked at an art-tech company when the Salvator Mundi went on sale. It was one of the most exciting things in to happen in the art world during the 3 years I worked there. I got to go on a tour of the viewing room at Christie's to see the painting and learn about its history. I have no idea how to evaluate the claims of its attribution, but it's definitely a great story, no matter what. Hopefully it will go on exhibition again soon.

Michael Lewis has a great episode about this on his podcast Against the Rules:

https://www.pushkin.fm/episode/the-hand-of-leonardo/

I highly recommend the documentary "The Lost Leonardo" referenced in the article:

https://www.justwatch.com/us/movie/the-lost-leonardo

Hito Steyerl has a nice talk on XR technology that starts with this work. (talk starts at about 6:30) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T1Qhy0_PCjs

> Condition & Restoration

> [Regarding the eyes] After many attempts over a period of several months I reached a reasonably satisfactory result by doing as little as possible.

:)

This is an incredibly detailed study. Especially the x-ray imaging showing a San Giovanni outline on the back.

I need to reread all of it once more!