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A Salvator Mundi Global History

(9.5.2023) The workshop of Leonardo da Vinci is still active, with one branch office located in the Dafen artists’ village near Shenzhen, China, where unknown Chinese artists do paint on demand: copies or reproductions of European masters, or whatever a client may order (and this is exactly what the workshop of a Renaissance artist did as well). Thus we have the chance, in our days, to acquire a Salvator Mundi painting, painted in oil on canvas by an anonymous Chinese artist (the price seems to be 275 Euro, in case the special-offer price is offered; a Belle Ferroničre is more expensive), or to acquire, let’s say, one of these one-or-two-generations-after-Leonardo-versions that still seem to come on the market (as for example the Bertolami version, recently auctioned for some 90,000 Euro online). Salvator Mundi history, we have to realize, is or has become global history, or at least can be seen and be contemplated as being global history and from that particular angle for once. Which is what we do here.

1) A Global Perspective on Salvator Mundi History

After version Cook got auctioned for a sensational price in 2017, journalists did speculate for a while who might have been the buyer. I recall that one did not only think of American zillionaires, but also of Chinese ones. And some observers (of the global museums’ world) might have guessed that the region of a future home of version Cook might also be the Near or the Middle East, but the non-specialist would rather not have thought of that. And at that time certainly nobody would have guessed that even geopolitical implications would, one day, be part of the whole Salvator Mundi saga (France doing business with Saudi Arabia; Saudi Arabia cooperating with French museums, and so on).
A Salvator Mundi museum, which would be a museum dedicated more or less exclusively to a representation of Jesus Christ, would be an extraordinary thing in the Muslim world, given the cultural implications. But why not? And why not imagining and conceiving such museum as a museum for and of global Salvator Mundi history (of which European history would only be a part of it). If the central painting, respectively the painting in question, would not be seen as the one prototype-original by Leonardo anymore (and there is a certain likelihood that such deattribution will happen), it could still be a spectacular and a spectacularly interesting museum. Jules Verne might have imagined a museum on his propeller island (which is also a fascinating idea: a museum on neutral ›ground‹, respectively on an artificial island, which would be more like a giant ship). Cultural implications, geopolitical questions could also be contemplated there or from there, and the island could move from one ocean sea to the next (if solar energy would be used for energy supply there would be nothing wrong with it).

(Picture: catalogo.beniculturali.it)

2) The One Global Element in the Salvator Mundi Design: The Globe

The museum, let’s say, our museum, would focus, at least within one hall or wing (or on one deck), on the one global element in the Salvator Mundi design, which, obviously, is the globe.
I have come over the version shown here on the right recently, a version which is attributed to Lavinia Fontana, the first woman artist, as far as I can see, reaching prominence in Salvator Mundi history. And this is also the first globe of which I know, that also shows the continent of South America. The orb in Marco d’Oggiono, in contrast (shown on the left), reflects an earlier stage of European geographical knowledge. And we are reminded, perhaps, that Christ was thought, at the time, as being the ruler of the whole universe (which is the other aspect, as one might say, of the one global element in the Salvator Mundi design).

Speaking of globes or maps (Marco was a collector of maps), we are reminded of the fact that Salvator Mundi versions are kept by museums, scattered around the globe. Who would know of the one Rio version, for example. A parallel version (or copy?) of the Houston one, both of which seem to belong to the group of Franco-Flemish versions, of which we have identified as an important subgroup the Fontainebleau group (to which, in my view, neither Rio, nor Houston do belong). And I am assuming that many more, yet unknown version are scattered around the globe (just as the Hermitage version which is providing an important key for a future deattributing of version Cook).

3) Global Experts vs. Silent Artists’ Knowledge

As far as I can see exclusively Western Leonardo specialists (and amateurs) have contributed to the attribution and (very questionable, if not to say: erroneous) authentication of version Cook. I know of Leonardo specialists in Russia; I know of Leonardo specialists in various parts of the world, but one aspect in one of the two Dafen version that I have seen seems especially striking to me: the one, rather decent Dafen version has corrected the flaws in version Cook, not only the flaws that the restorer brought into the painting (the failed newly painted thumb of the blessing hand), but also some of the flaws of the original design: the anonymous, or at least unknown Chinese artist who painted this version had realized the asymmetry of the eyes in version Cook, with one eye being higher than the other, and the anonymous Chinese artist did correct it. If Western experts did see that asymmetry, they never did explain why Leonardo allowed such rather distorted anatomy in the face of Jesus Christ. If Western experts did not see the flaw (which is more probable), we have to state that silent artistic knowledge competes here, in global Salvator Mundi studies, with Western knowledge – with Western knowledge not looking particularly good in that particular respect (nor in others).

(Picture: Szdapanwen)

Some Salvator Mundi Resources

Here is an overview concerning my contributions to Salvator Mundi studies and research (since 2016). In 2021 I did publish my book A New Salvator Mundi History on this website (see the 32 chapters with the two annexes below). The essays and notes I did write earlier, as well as the essays and notes published since then, appear seperately, under the header ›Early Essays and Notes‹, respectively ›Recent Essays and Notes‹.