Processing
Oil-on-canvas pictography "Essential" category. Retouching with Maimeri colors. Manual retouching is carried out to give the appearance of the original. Florentine solid wood box frame, with Umbrian/Tuscan gold decorations, prepared with red bole and gilded with gold leaf. Aged solid wood board.Preparation with plaster and 3-layer natural glue. Picture size: 62x43 cm. Frame size: 83x64 cm approx.
History
Jesus Christ is portrayed frontally, half-length, as is typical of classical iconography (think, for example, of Antonello da Messina's famous ‘Salvator Mundi’). With his right hand raised in a gesture of blessing and his left holding a globe, symbol of his universal dominion, the image seems to follow tradition. However, there is one detail that arouses curiosity: that globe is not what it seems. It is not the usual calcite sphere, but an optical instrument, a hollow glass sphere filled with water, an ancient magnifying glass, used since antiquity to sharpen vision. This unusual detail opens a window on a Christ who not only rules the world, but observes it with almost scientific precision. When the painting arrived in the hands of the National Gallery restorers, it was almost unrecognisable, blurred by centuries-old repainting and layers of varnish that made it look more like a workshop piece than a masterpiece. Beard and moustache, non-existent in the original painting, had perhaps been added after the Counter-Reformation, in an attempt to align the image of Christ with the official physiognomic canons of the time. But beneath those additions, the restoration revealed an astonishing pictorial quality, with a chromatic richness that, according to expert Pietro Marani, can rival the magnificence of the Last Supper. In particular, blues and reds have emerged in the drapery of an unexpected vividness. A comparison with the pigments used in the National Gallery's Virgin of the Rocks showed a surprising compatibility, and reflectographs together with other scientific analyses confirmed similarities with the preparatory drawings, suggesting that the work conceals more than the eyes can grasp at first glance.
Leonardo da Vinci, Salvator mundi (ESSENTIAL)