Christ the savior leonardo da vinci. "Savior of the World" by Leonardo da Vinci sold for $ 450.3 million at Christie's. This painting is by Leonardo da Vinci

"Savior of the World" is a painting by Leonardo Da Vinci that has long been considered lost. Her customer is usually called King Louis XII of France. Several sketches are kept at Windsor Castle. About 20 works of Leonardos on this subject have survived. It is possible that one of them is a badly damaged original by Leonardo, finished by someone from his workshop.

Paris version

For decades, the Marquis de Ganet tried to convince the museum community of the primacy of the "Savior" who decorated his mansion in Paris. According to de Ganet, one of the former owners of the painting, Baron de Laranti, acquired it in the 19th century from a monastery in Nantes, where the widow of Louis XII bequeathed to transfer the work.

In 1982, the painting took part in an exhibition of the master's works in his hometown of Vinci; this exhibition was curated by Carlo Peretti, an experienced Leonardesque attribution specialist. Despite all efforts, the Marquis failed to prove that the Parisian "Savior" was Leonardo's brush. Most modern catalogs attribute it to Francesco Melzi or Marco d'Ojono.

In 1999, the painting was sold at Sotheby's for $ 332,000.

New York version

There is also an engraving of the mid-17th century by Vaclav Hollar, probably commissioned by Queen Henrietta Maria of England. If the engraving was made from an original by Leonardo, then we can conclude that at that time the painting belonged to the Stuarts. Perhaps it was this work that entered the collection of the Duke of Buckingham in 1688. In any case, in 1763 his descendants sold it at auction as the work of Leonardo, after which the trace of the painting was lost.

In late 2011, the National Gallery of London announced that the upcoming exhibition of Leonardo's work, along with his authentic Milanese work brought to London from all over Europe, will also include the Savior of the World from a private collection in New York. In 1900, it was acquired as a work for the Milan school by one of the richest men in Victorian England, Baronet Frederick Cook, owner of the luxurious Montserrat palace in Sintra. Works by Filippo Lippi, Fra Angelico, Hubert van Eyck, Diego Velazquez and Rembrandt hung in his house.

Reproduction from the catalog of Cook's collection, 1913. Painting before restoration. (left)

The "Savior of the World" from the Cook collection was distorted by later notes and corrections: in the era of the Counter-Reformation, the traditional mustache and beard were added to the beardless and strangely feminine face of the Savior. It was so difficult to attribute the painting in this form that in 1958, Cook's heirs were able to sell it at Sotheby's for only 45 pounds.

In 2004, at an unnamed auction, the work was acquired by Robert Simon, an Old Master Specialist, and a group of art dealers. Then the work was sent for restoration, during which it was possible to clear it of the records. Details of the restoration were not disclosed. After that, "The Savior" underwent examination in several museums in Europe and the United States, and only London, after consulting with major experts, agreed to recognize the authorship of Leonardo. Attention is drawn to the high craftsmanship of the glass orb and, as it were, the luminous hand of Christ, the airy lightness of blue robes, the use of sfumato, the similarity of the drawing with the sketches from Windsor Castle and the complete correspondence of the pigments of the New York "Savior" and London "Madonna of the Rocks".

Although Carlo Peretti disputes the attribution of this painting to Leonardo, the market value of New York's Savior was estimated in the summer of 2011 at $ 200 million. In 2012, the Dallas Museum of Art attempted to acquire the painting. A year later, Russian billionaire Dmitry Rybolovlev bought the canvas for $ 79 million.

On October 11, 2017, it was announced that Leonardo da Vinci's Savior of the World would be on display at Christie's in New York on November 15, with a starting bid of approximately $ 100 million.

Dmitry Rybolovlev put up for auction his work by Leonardo da Vinci "Savior of the World". Bidding will take place on November 15, New York-based auction house Christie’s said on Tuesday. The painting is estimated at $ 100 million. Christie’s did not name the seller of the painting. The fact that the canvas is being sold by the Rybolovlev family trust was confirmed to The Wall Street Journal by a representative of the Russian billionaire, formerly the owner of Uralkali and now the owner of the Monaco football club.
On the canvas "The Savior of the World" Jesus Christ is depicted in blue robes, in his left hand he holds a glass ball, the right one is raised in a sign of blessing. The painting dates back to around 1500. Unlike the rest of Leonardo's works that have survived to this day (there are less than 20 of them), "The Savior of the World" is in a private, not a museum collection.

In the middle of the 17th century. The painting was owned by King Charles I of England, although there is evidence that it was originally painted for the French royal court, Alan Wintermute, senior expert on old masters at Christie’s, told the Financial Times. Then, for several centuries, the painting was owned by various European monarchs.
For a long time it was considered lost. And in 1958 it was sold at auction for only 45 pounds (then about $ 125) as one of the works of the "da Vinci school". The authorship of Leonardo himself became known only in the mid-2000s. In 2005, during the restoration, the canvas was freed from the layers of paint superimposed over the original image. Thus, "Savior of the World" became the last discovered painting by da Vinci after "Madonna Benoit", found at the beginning of the last century.
Christie’s experts call da Vinci’s painting “the holy grail,” its discovery is “more event than the discovery of a new planet,” says Loic Goser, co-chairman of Christie’s post-war and contemporary art department.

The public first saw the canvas in 2011 at an exhibition of da Vinci's works at the National Gallery in London. Later, "Savior of the World" became one of the subjects of dispute between the Swiss art dealer Yves Bouvier and Rybolovlev, his former client. Two years after the exhibition at the National Gallery, through the mediation of Sotheby's, the painting was sold to Bouvier for $ 80 million, and he resold it to Rybolovlev for $ 127.5 million.
This premium to the price was subsequently the subject of a lawsuit filed by the Russian billionaire, accusing Bouvier of fraud. Legal proceedings are ongoing, but the Rybolovlev family's rights to the painting are not disputed. The billionaire hopes that "the upcoming auction will finally put an end to this very painful story," said his spokesman Brian Cattell.
Dmitry Rybolovlev, owner of the Monaco club, may become persona non grata in the principality

The painting is priced lower than Rybolovlev paid for it in 2013. Bouvier's lawyer Ron Soffer doubts that the Russian billionaire needs money from its sale. “If he sells a painting by Leonardo da Vinci just to earn points in this case, you can only shrug your shoulders,” he told the WSJ.
Rybolovlev saw attempts to influence justice in publications about "monacogate"
If "Savior of the World" is sold for more than the preliminary estimate, it will become the second painting sold in New York this year for more than $ 100 million. In May, Sotheby's sold an unnamed work by Jean Michel Basquiat for more than $ 110 million.

On November 15, 2017, Leonardo da Vinci's painting "Savior of the World" was sold at Christie's auction in New York for $ 400 million + auction commission $ 50,312,500 for a total of $ 450,312,500. After the sale, the painting "Savior of the World" became the most expensive in the world. history as a work of art.

But how does it compare to some of the most valuable paintings? Take a look below to find out ... INFORMATION TO REFLECT!

Exchange
Willem de Kooning
1955, 200.7 × 175.3 cm


Number 17A Jackson Pollock 1948

According to Bloomberg, last fall, the famous billionaire, collector and philanthropist Ken Griffin set an absolute maximum amount for a private transaction for the sale of works of art. Griffin acquired from Hollywood magnate David Geffen, whose collection prior to the deal was estimated at $ 2.3 billion, paintings by the classics of abstract expressionism Willem de Kooning "Interchange" and Jackson Pollock "Number 17A", having paid for them 300 and 200 million dollars.

Thus, Kunning's "Exchange" shared the palm with Paul Gauguin's painting Nafea Faa Ipoipo ("When is the wedding?"), Which was sold in 2015 for a similar amount of $ 300 million to the Qatar Museum Directorate.

A selection and brief description of works devoted to this subject.

Savior of the world- this is an iconography plot depicting Jesus with his right hand raised, with which he blesses people, and with his left hand, in which he holds a ball, crowned with a cross, which symbolizes the earth. The composition has a strong eschatological connotation.

Hans Memling

The theme was popular with northern artists, including Jan van Eyck, Hans Memling, Titian, and Albrecht Durer.

Savior of the world

Leonardo

Lost earlier and restored in 2011, this work is attributed to Leonardo da Vinci and depicts Christ with crossed fingers on his right hand and a crystal ball in his left. Later, in 2013, the work was sold to a collector from Russia, Dmitry Rybolovlev, for $ 127.5 million.

Leonardo da Vinci

The poor condition caused by early restoration attempts makes it impossible to accurately determine the authorship of the painting. However, detailed examination revealed several features, such as a number of pentimentos and unusual pressure techniques, that were characteristic of other works by da Vinci. In addition, the pigments of the paint and the walnut board depicting the Savior are consistent with other works of the master.

Durer

Albrecht Dürer, the main painter of the German Renaissance, probably began this work shortly before he went to Italy (1505), but at that time he completed only the drapery. In the unfinished parts of the face and hands of Christ, the vastness and thoroughness of the preparatory drawing is visible. The work is painted in oil on a lime board.

Titian

In addition to the work of 1570, kept in the Hermitage, Titian painted the painting "The Savior of the World and the Saints" with a similar theme, however, in it, Christ lacks power, and his figure is surrounded by saints.

Other paintings

The plot can be found on the stained glass window of the Church of St. John of England (New South Wales).

The work of an unknown master, dated to the second half of the 16th century.

Previtali

In addition to these works, several dozen other works on the plot have survived to this day, authored by many Lombard painters, imitators and icon painters.

Savior of the world updated: September 12, 2017 by: Gleb

The painting of the great master of the Renaissance from the scandalous collection of billionaire Dmitry Rybolovlev has officially become the most expensive work of art in the world

The picture caused a stir already at the Christie’s press conference on October 10, 2017. Photo: GettyImages

The painting, which dates from around 1500, became the most expensive item at Christie’s nightly contemporary and post-war art auction in New York on November 15. Moreover, $ 450.3 million is an absolute record price for a work of art sold at a public auction. The total revenue of the auction house, which also sold works by Andy Warhol, Cy Twombly, Mark Rothko and others, this evening, amounted to $ 789 million.

Bidding began with $ 90 million (it became known yesterday that Christie’s has a guaranteed rate from an absentee buyer who offered a little less than $ 100 million) and lasted for 20 minutes. The main applicants were 4 telephone buyers and 1 participant in the hall. In the end, the job went to a phone-bargaining client of Alex Rotter, head of Christie’s international contemporary art department. When the auctioneer Jussi Pilkkanen confirmed the sale of the painting for $ 400 million with the third blow of the hammer (taking into account the commission of the auction house, the price reached $ 450.3 million), the audience burst into applause.

Christie’s explained its decision to sell "The Savior of the World" at an auction of contemporary art by the incredible significance of the work. “A painting by the most important artist of all time, depicting an iconic figure for all of humanity. The opportunity to put up such a masterpiece for auction is a great honor and a chance that comes only once in a lifetime. Despite the fact that the work was written by Leonardo about 500 years ago, today it influences contemporary art no less than in the 15th and 16th centuries, ”said Loic Guser, chairman of Christie’s post-war and contemporary art department in New York.

The last work of Leonardo da Vinci, which is in a private collection, was decided to sell by the billionaire of Russian origin Dmitry Rybolovlev, whose name now constantly sounds in the news of the art world. Firstly, he is suing his art consultant, accusing him of fraud and claiming that he overpaid twice for the collection, and secondly, he is gradually selling this collection at auctions and privately, usually getting much less for the works than he paid. Now the turn has come to the "Savior of the World" by Leonardo da Vinci, who went under the hammer for more than three times more: Rybolovlev cost $ 127.5 million for the painting, and he sold it for $ 450.3 million.

Remarkable are both the history of this painting, which was considered destroyed for a long time, and the scientific discussion devoted to its attribution. There are several facts indirectly proving that Leonardo painted Christ in the image of the Savior of the world at the turn of the 15th-16th centuries, that is, during his stay in Milan, most likely, by order of King Louis XII of France, who at that time controlled the north of Italy. Firstly, there is an engraving from 1650 made by Vaclav Hollar from the original by Leonardo da Vinci (as indicated by the engraver himself). The master's sketches have also survived - a drawing of the head of Christ, dating back to the 1480s, from the Atlantic Code of Leonardo (stored in the Ambrosian Library in Milan), as well as drapery sketches (stored in the Royal Library of Windsor Castle), compositionally coinciding with those depicted on the painting put up for auction, and with those in the engraving. There are also several close compositions by Leonardo's pupils with the same plot. However, the original was considered irretrievably lost.

The painting "Savior of the World" by Leonardo da Vinci was sold at Christie's post-war and contemporary art auction in New York on November 15, 2017 for $ 450.3 million. Photo: Christie's

The Savior of the World, now owned by Rybolovlev, was first documented in the collection of the British monarch Charles I: in the 17th century it was kept in the Royal Palace in Greenwich. The following testimony dates back to 1763, when the painting was sold by Charles Herbert Sheffield, the illegitimate son of the Duke of Buckingham. He sold off his father's legacy after he sold Buckingham Palace to the king. Then the picture disappears from sight for a long time, and its trace is re-discovered only in 1900, when "Savior of the World" as a work of a follower of Leonardo Bernardino Luini was acquired by Sir Charles Robinson, art consultant to Sir Francis Cook. So the work falls into the collection of Cook in Richmond. It is believed that by this time the work had already undergone an inept restoration, which was needed after the board split in two (in particular, the face of Christ was rewritten). In 1958, Sotheby's sells out the collection, a pretty rewritten depiction of Christ goes under the hammer for £ 45. This modest price is due to the fact that the work was attributed in the auction catalog as a late copy of a painting by the High Renaissance artist Giovanni Boltraffio.

In 2005, Savior of the World was acquired by a group of art dealers (including New York-based Old Master Robert Simon) as a Leonardesque piece for just $ 10,000 at a small American auction. In 2013, a consortium of dealers sold the painting to Yves Bouvier for $ 80 million, who almost immediately resold it to Dmitry Rybolovlev for $ 127.5 million.

It is assumed that it was the gallery owner and art critic Robert Simon who first saw Leonardo's hand in an unnamed work. On his initiative, the necessary research and consultations with experts were carried out. At the same time, the work was restored. Six years later - the sensational appearance of "The Savior of the World" as a genuine painting by Leonardo da Vinci himself at an exhibition, and even in one of the most reputable museums in the world, the National Gallery in London.

Curator of the exhibition “Leonardo da Vinci. Artist at the Milanese Court ”(November 2011 - February 2012) Luc Sison, at that time the curator of Italian painting until 1500 and head of the scientific department, warmly supported the authorship of Leonardo. The work was included in the exhibition catalog edited by the same Sison as a work of Leonardo from a private collection. The catalog emphasizes that the most preserved part of the image is Christ's fingers folded in a blessing gesture. Here, the most characteristic techniques of the Italian genius are noticeable, in particular, the numerous changes that the artist made already in the process of work. In addition, other details point to Leonardo: the intricate draperies of the tunic, the smallest air bubbles in a sphere of transparent quartz, as well as how the curly hair of Christ is painted.

According to the online publication ARTnews, the then director of the National Gallery, Nicholas Penny and Luke Sison, before deciding to include the work in the exhibition, invited four experts to see the painting: the curator of the painting and graphics department of the Metropolitan Museum of art Carmen Bambach, the leading restorer of the fresco "The Last Supper »In Milan by Pietro Marani, author of books on the history of the Renaissance, including biographies of Boltraffio, Maria Teresa Fiorio, and Honorary Professor of the University of Oxford Martin Kemp, who has devoted more than 40 years to the study of the legacy of Leonardo da Vinci. It seems that the work was accepted, but only Kemp spoke publicly in favor of attribution of Leonardo's "Savior of the World" in an interview with Artinfo in 2011. Answering the questions of the journalist, he notes a special feeling of “Leonardo's presence” that one feels when looking at his works - one feels it in front of the Mona Lisa and in front of the Savior of the World. In addition, the professor spoke about the stylistic features characteristic of the master's manner.

In fairness, it should be noted that the art history analysis was not limited to - meticulous technical and technological research was also carried out. The Savior of the World has been restored and studied by Professor Dianne Modestini, who heads the Samuel Henry Cress Painting Restoration Program at the Institute of Fine Arts at New York University. The results of her research were presented at the conference "Leonardo da Vinci: Latest Technological Discoveries" in February 2012 in New York. However, Modestini is actually the only one who had access to the data of technological research, and without them it is not entirely correct to speak about authorship.

The Italian expert on Leonardo Carlo Pedretti, who in 1982 oversaw the artist's exhibition in his hometown of Vinci, publicly opposed attribution of Leonardo's "Savior of the World" master. In addition, the Guardian cites a number of theses from Walter Isaac's biography of Leonardo da Vinci, published in October this year. He draws attention to the image of the ball in the hand of Christ, which is incorrect from the point of view of the laws of physics. The publication also cites the opinion of the University of Leipzig professor Frank Zellner (author of the 2009 monograph on Leonardo), who in a 2013 article called "The Savior of the World" a high-quality work of the workshop of Leonardo or his follower. However, this article in the Guardian has already become the subject of a lawsuit by Christie’s International.

Photos from open sources

As soon as "Salvator Mundi", the name of which is translated into Russian as "Savior of the World", was auctioned for a fabulous sum of 450 million dollars, even greater passions flared up around her than they burned before. (site)

Some researchers, including the editor-in-chief of the President newspaper, scientist, excellent analyst and writer Andrei Tyunyaev, argue that this painting is a fake.

Firstly, the authors of such a loud statement argue that even the translation into Russian of the title of the picture is not correct, or, let's say, too free. "Salvator Mundi" would be more accurately translated as "The Ark by the Mountain." That is, the author portrayed Jesus Christ as an ark bearing both male and female sexual characteristics. By the way, from this belief in Europe, a mental religious illness is increasingly spreading and lesbians and gays are proliferating. And even this alone can serve as confirmation that the picture was painted not earlier than the 19th century.

Photos from open sources

Secondly, in the painting, Christ is holding a glass ball - a spherical model of our Earth. According to experts, the painting "Salvator Mundi" was painted at the end of the 15th century; Leonardo da Vinci himself died in 1519. However, the work of Nicolaus Copernicus on the heliocentric system of the world ("On the rotation of the celestial spheres") was published only in 1543, moreover, before the Earth took a spherical shape in the minds of scientists, it took centuries after this publication of the scientist. After all, at that time, please note, Nicolaus Copernicus himself was depicted in the same perspective as Christ on "Salvator Mundi". At the same time, Copernicus holds in his hand a flat model of the world, and Christ is already spherical, which Leonardo da Vinci could not simply know in principle, and therefore depict. The spherical model of the Earth became traditional only in the 18th-19th centuries. It is to this period that the writing of "The Savior of the World" can be attributed, from which it follows that the famous Italian artist had nothing to do with her ...

However, such "convincing" reasoning does not fit well-known data that Leonardo da Vinci drew drawings of helicopters, submarines, recently, for example, in his drafts they also found drawings of a modern smartphone, from which some brave minds even made the assumption that the famous artist and scientist was. If da Vinci drew helicopters in the 15th century, which would appear only in the middle of the 20th century, why could not he then depict a spherical Earth?

Be that as it may, watch the video below, in which a hidden camera captured the emotions of people viewing Leonardo da Vinci's painting "Salvator Mundi". It makes the impression on the audience, apparently, amazing. And although this cannot serve as one hundred percent proof that the canvas is genuine, it is not very convincing to speak of a fake either ...