The Location of ‘Salvator Mundi’

https://news.artnet.com/opinion/kenny-schachter-on-the-missing-salvator-mundi-1565674

by everbody • 7 years ago

20 19 7 years ago

news.artnet.com

plink• 7 years ago

What Kool-Aid has convinced anyone that’s a DaVinci I cannot guess.

Bayart• 7 years ago

Marketing, confirmation bias and price tag. Nobody would pay half a billion for a ruined painting with interesting hands... right ?

toss1• 7 years ago

All that, plus high "values" (prices) make them convenient objects for money-laundering

dagw2• 7 years ago

Basically nobody seriously thinks it's an actual Da Vinci, but at this point it doesn't really matter. The narrative around the painting makes it a far more interesting work than any second rate actual Da Vinci could ever hope to be.

povertyworld• 7 years ago

The surrounding narrative bit also worked wonders for another Da Vinci hit "The Mona Lisa". Had it not been stolen it would still be relatively obscure.

wl2• 7 years ago

I never liked the explanation for the crystal orb. Oh, Leonardo knew about optics, but he painted the orb naïvely to show some sort of miracle.

HiroshiSan2• 7 years ago

Why don't you like that explanation? Leonardo was obsessed with detail, and he would study things intensely, it's not that much of a stretch.

Deimorz• 7 years ago

This was a good (long) article from a couple of months ago that goes through the story: https://www.vulture.com/2019/04/salvator-mundi-leonardo-da-v...

It's an interesting story, anyway.

anoncake2• 7 years ago

You don't even have to be an expert to tell it isn't. Compared to Leonardo's paintings, Salvator Mundi is just boring.

Unless Leonardo just phoned it in. But I don't think there is a way to tell if a work was painted by a student or by Leonardo pretending to be a student anyway.

trimbo2• 7 years ago

There was a good podcast ("Against the Rules") by Michael Lewis about this painting, and the incentives towards certifying it as a Leonardo:

https://atrpodcast.com/episodes/the-hand-of-leonardo-s1!7616...

edit: fixed link

dagw2• 7 years ago

Link doesn't work. What's the name of the podcast?

trimbo2• 7 years ago

Fixed -- it's Against the Rules: The Hand of Leonardo

RcouF1uZ4gsC• 7 years ago

I find it fascinating that the de facto ruler of Saudi Arabia which is home to the holiest sites in Islam, paid so much money for a distinctly Christian art peace ("Salvator Mundi" is Latin for "Savior of the World").

teilo• 7 years ago

That's not likely be much of a consideration for anyone who would spend $450M on a painting.

spacegod• 7 years ago

Christ is a Muslim prophet

trhway• 7 years ago

I find it fascinating that the de facto ruler of Saudi Arabia which is home to the holiest sites in Islam

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Destruction_of_early_Islamic_h...

"The destruction of sites associated with early Islam is an ongoing phenomenon that has occurred mainly in the Hejaz region of western Saudi Arabia, particularly around the holy cities of Mecca and Medina. The demolition has focused on mosques, burial sites, homes and historical locations associated with the Islamic prophet Muhammad and many of the founding personalities of early Islamic history."

https://time.com/3584585/saudi-arabia-bulldozes-over-its-her...

"Over the last few years, mosques and key sites dating from the time of Muhammad have been knocked down or destroyed, as have Ottoman-era mansions, ancient wells and stone bridges. Over 98% of the Kingdom’s historical and religious sites have been destroyed since 1985, estimates the Islamic Heritage Research Foundation in London."

paid so much money for a distinctly Christian art peace ("Salvator Mundi" is Latin for "Savior of the World").

And even more funny is that the "Salvator Mundi" may very probably end up in the new royal palace being built on the site of the bulldozed Mohammed's birthplace.

The Location of ‘Salvator Mundi’

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