Pentimenti and Provenance in Leonardo da Vinci’s Salvator Mundi.
As early as the 1960’s many existing versions of Christ as Savior of the world pointed to the existence of an original and lost prototype created by Leonardo da Vinci. The greatest contributions in this investigation came from the late professor Dr. Ludwig H. Heydenreich of Munich whose preliminary and exhaustive analysis on the Christological theme later led Dr. Joanne Snow-Smith into further inquiry and the ultimate discovery of the “de Ganay” Salvator Mundi in Paris, a painting that up until 2005, was known as the actual Salvator Mundi created by Leonardo da Vinci.
The most recent rediscovery of a Salvator Mundi previously mentioned by both scholars but not authenticated as the original is now recognized as the prototype that all others followed. This painting is everything of a storybook tale where a massive discovery of ages past is found in the most unexpected of places. There were initially many disagreements on the validity of the painting. Carlo Pedretti, one of the premier specialists in the field of Leonardiana disagreed with its authenticity in a 2011 published article in L’ Osservatore Romano. Dr. Pedretti cautioned strongly against autographing a painting that was part of the most expensive sales strategy of any work of art. And worse, one that dismissed the importance of further scientific testing. It would be later, that the painting made its way into the hands of Nica Gutman Rieppi, principal investigator at Art Analysis and Research, a firm specializing in the technical and analytical analysis of works of art. For four years Nica and her team carefully analyzed the painting at microscopic level, finally making a positive assessment of the painting being created by the hand of Leonardo.
On November 15, 2017 the world watched as the painting known as Salvatore Mundi by Leonardo da Vinci was sold at Christie’s auction house in New York for the amount of 450.3 million dollars to the Saudi crown prince Mohammad bin Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud.
Art is a reflection of who we are, and no amount of circumlocutions will confuse a truth. A multi million dollar strategy can create and disembowel many a good thing, the markings of one of the worlds greatest thinkers can exist only with our realization of its relevance to our time and to the entirety of civilization.
Dianne Dwyer Monestini, the conservator whose remarkable hand brought the Salvator Mundi to life had a beautiful connection to a painting that came to her with the proposition that it could have been made by the hand of Leonardo. After more than six years of detailed restoration, the transparency in the application of the restorative paint could easily be seen as the actual work of Leonardo da Vinci. Her analysis further revealed a trace of an alteration beneath the top layer of paint. Known as pentimenti, this revision by the artist proved to her that had this been a copy, there would be no need for any changes considering the artist is not creating but copying. In recent times it has been found that Leonardo’s Mona Lisa had many revisions on some of the fingers of the right hand, further attesting to the validity of Monestini’s observation. There is no reason to believe Dr. Monestini did not have the best intentions and that her reasoning, intuition and expertise didn’t feel the presence of the master artist, but the same can be said of the very first attribution to the de Ganay Salvator Mundi, the one dismissed in 2005.
In 1978, a journal article by Dr. Joanne Snow -Smith appeared on pages of Arte Lombarda. Her words are poignant, expressive, and full of specificity and detail. She starts off by explaining the observation of an existing etching that was linked to the newly found prototype. “ Leonardus da Vinci pinxit, Weceslaus Hollar fecit Aqua forti, Secundum originale A 1650 ” Thus is inscribed an etching by Wenceslaus Hollar after a pianting which was known to him as a work by Leonardo da Vinci. ” Going further still, Dr. Snow extends gratitude for her role in this discovery on the years of research into the theme of Salvator Mundi as written by Dr. Professor Ludwig H. Heydenreich of Munich in 1964. It was his exhaustive analysis of the many extant copies of Leonardo’s Salvator Mundi in the Raccolta Vinciana that led to her further investigation. The articles are full of detailed analysis, poignant observations and scientific examinations at the Laboratory of the Louvre museum including; monochromatic sodium light, ultraviolet light, infrared light and x-rays that found, among other things, no trace of pentimenti on the painting. This scientific analysis was headed by the then Chief curator of the National Museums of France and Master of Research at the National Center for Scientific Research. Much was confirmed including the extraordinary density of the painting and the discovery that the wood used in this painting was identical to that of another of Leonardo’s paintings of the time, Saint John the Baptist.
After reading much of the extensive research including the detailed provenance of the de Ganay Salvator Mundi done by Dr. Snow and subsequently reviewing the work of her predecessor Dr. Heydenreich it is clear to me that there is more to be discovered.
Artists create with intention that often comes with many revisions on a painting. Deciphering the intention of an abstract piece would certainly prove more difficult than the changes in a figurative work of art. By the same token and with equal validity, many artists create without the slightest change of thought often allowing everything to exist as it is without further revision. The one concern i have with both of the paintings named Salvator Mundi is in their rigid and uninventive composition. It is as if Leonardo was teaching other artists how to paint like him using a template, occasionally adding his own hand to promote their interest.
With this in mind I propose that their is a secret in the provenance of both of these Salvator Mundi paintings that validates and underscores the entirety of the work done by the late Dr. Joanne Snow-Smith and the late Dr. Ludwig H. Heydenreich whose extensive analysis appeals and inspires further inquiry.
J. Antonio Farfan
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Snow-Smith, Joanne. “The Salvator Mundi of Leonardo Da Vinci.” Arte Lombarda, no. 50, 1978, pp. 69–81. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/43105161. Accessed 23 Jan. 2020.
Snow-Smith, Joanne. “The Salvator Mundi of Leonardo da Vinci.” 1982. Henry Gallery Association.
http://www.osservatoreromano.va/en/news/if-leonardo-were-a-chimera
https://time.com/5028341/leonardo-da-vinci-salvator-mundi-authentication/
