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MICROSTORY OF ART ONLINE JOURNAL FOR ART, CONNOISSEURSHIP AND CULTURAL JOURNALISM The Yarborough Group

(11.4.2023) Salvator Mundi studies are in rapid development: we have a ›new version alert‹. A variant of the Yarborough version is for sale (no bidder yet, as I am writing). Which means that we have now four versions that all show the so-called Windsor sleeve (for which there is a reference among the Leonardo drawings at Windsor; see above), two of which have come up in 2023. And the color image of the new version is the first color image of a version that matches the Yarborough design as to sleeve, and also as to face type, but also has, as it seems, a more elaborate stole and garment ornament. We make a first attempt to make sense of that, respectively of a group that I am inclined to call the Yarborough group.

(Picture: twitter.com; Dr Martin Pracher)

(Picture: invaluable.com)

(Picture: onlineonly.christies.com)

Strictly speaking the Yarborough group consists of three versions (above). The old black and white image of the Yarborough version shows the version from which the name of the group is derived (above left). The second (rather inferior version) was the one that Martin Pracher tweeted in 2020 (above right); and the third is the one that is momentarily for sale (due to the seller I am calling it the Bertolami version; above center). But the Yarborough group could also be enlarged, since we have two versions that show a similar face type (Ganay and Online Only; left and right), of which only Online Only also has the Windsor sleeve (while on the other hand only Ganay has a blessing hand that, more or less, matches the hand of notoriously famous version Cook).

The mere fact that – with Yarborough – we had a version that, seemingly exclusively, has the Windsor sleeve had been reason enough to place the Yarborough version in the workshop of Leonardo. It seems to me that this is an outdated view. Not because the new version strikes out as to quality, no, because there are alternatives to think about. What if all five versions shown here are post-1519 versions? It still seems possible to me to, tentatively, place Ganay and Online Only into the workshop of Leonardo. But there is no necessity to do so. Neither is there a necessity to think that the mere existence of a Windsor sleeve is reason enough to place a version close to Leonardo. It is possible to think for example that Online Only and Ganay could be versions by artists of the generation of Giampietrino and Melzi, and that the other three – the Yarborough group, strictly speaking – are by artists one or more generations after Giampietrino and Melzi. And if I am speaking of group, I am always including the possiblity that there could be later derivatives, also such that one might be inclined to refer to as fakes.

Compared to Yarborough the new version (which seems to be in need of treatment by an able restorer) shows a rather elaborate stole and and garment ornament, which, to me, seems to be more elaborate than that of Yarborough itself (which seems to be rather somewhat simplified). And I would not be surprised, it it would turn out that the new version, in relation to Yarborough, is in fact a parallel version or even an earlier one. It is not my first thought to call it a possible fake, since the author of the new version, the Bertolami version, as I am calling it, matches the Yarborough design effortlessly, and at the same time, seems capable to vary the ornament, so that the ornament in Yarborough rather appears as the simplified one (better images of all pictures would be needed).

All in all it still seems to me that the Ganay version is the closest to Leonardo (the nose type matches the nose type in other pictures close to Leonardo). If Ganay is indeed young Giampietrino, it is also possible to think that Online Only could be Giampietrino or workshop, and that the Yarborough version is a subgroup for which associates of Giampietrino could be responsible or later imitators. Since it is not impossible to think that Giampietrino had several workshop models, cartoons and other aids, such as tracings, available, so that the mere appearence of the Windsor sleeve might be seen as a clue indicating family likeness, but not as a guarantee of proximity to Leonardo or his workshop.

PS (11.4.2023): Better pictures are to be found here.

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