Wednesday, July 13, 2011

Important News

We interrupt our regularly scheduled litany of woes and horrors to bring you this important public service announcement.

They've found a new Leonardo!


Leonardo da Vinci's "Salvator Mundi"

An eerie painting of Christ holding a glass orb in one hand and making a benediction with the other, all the while leveling an otherworldly stare at the viewer, has been authenticated as a long-lost Leonardo da Vinci portrait, putting it "up there with any artistic discovery of the last 100 years," according to ARTnews. Called "Salvator Mundi" ("Savior of the World"), the painting will now go on view in a Leonardo show opening at London's National Gallery in November, and it is said to carry an asking price of $200 million.


Someone bought it at an estate sale in 1958 for £45. It is the first new Leonardo attribution since 1909 and one of only about 15 oils by him to have survived.

The painting was originally commissioned by Louis XII of France and completed in 1513. Somewhere along the line, it came to England as part of the collection of Charles I, but between 1763 and 1900, the painting's history is unknown and its attribution to Leonardo was forgotten.



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5 comments:

Lina said...

Amazing. And all I can do is stare at that glass orb and wonder, "how on earth did he paint that?"

Hilary Jane Margaret White said...

Leonardo da Vinci was an evil genius whose sole purpose in life was to make the lives of all art students for the next 600 years completely miserable.

He does this thing, called "sfumato" or "smokey", that means the plane changes and tonal values in all his figures have no defining edges or lines. It all just blends seamlessly and gently together, an effect that I will be spending the rest of my life trying to perfect.

The bastard.

The Crescat said...

evil genius indeed!

Unknown said...

This looks like Mona Lisa's brother.
It's eerie.
Deborah

hyoomik said...

If Da Vince had one of those airbrushes that they use to paint pictures on Harleys, he could have finished his sfumato in minutes, not years. Otherwise, I know of painters who use rags to remove paint and create highlights. The process repeated many times can yield a very convincing sfumato.
(verification word "tuscoun")