Author: Ben Lewis
Publisher: Ballantine Books
ISBN: 1984819267
Category : Art
Languages : en
Pages : 402
Get Book Here
Book Description
An epic quest exposes hidden truths about Leonardo da Vinci’s Salvator Mundi, the recently discovered masterpiece that sold for $450 million—and might not be the real thing. In 2017, Leonardo da Vinci’s small oil painting the Salvator Mundi was sold at auction. In the words of its discoverer, the image of Christ as savior of the world is “the rarest thing on the planet.” Its $450 million sale price also makes it the world’s most expensive painting. For two centuries, art dealers had searched in vain for the Holy Grail of art history: a portrait of Christ as the Salvator Mundi by Leonardo da Vinci. Many similar paintings of greatly varying quality had been executed by Leonardo’s assistants in the early sixteenth century. But where was the original by the master himself? In November 2017, Christie’s auction house announced they had it. But did they? The Last Leonardo tells a thrilling tale of a spellbinding icon invested with the power to make or break the reputations of scholars, billionaires, kings, and sheikhs. Ben Lewis takes us to Leonardo’s studio in Renaissance Italy; to the court of Charles I and the English Civil War; to Amsterdam, Moscow, and New Orleans; to the galleries, salerooms, and restorer’s workshop as the painting slowly, painstakingly emerged from obscurity. The vicissitudes of the highly secretive art market are charted across six centuries. It is a twisting tale of geniuses and oligarchs, double-crossings and disappearances, in which we’re never quite certain what to believe. Above all, it is an adventure story about the search for lost treasure, and a quest for the truth. Praise for The Last Leonardo “The story of the world’s most expensive painting is narrated with great gusto and formidably researched detail in Ben Lewis’s book. . . . Lewis’s probings of the Salvator’s backstory raise questions about its historical status and visibility, and these lead in turn to the fundamental question of whether the painting is really an autograph work by Leonardo.”—Charles Nicholl, The Guardian “As the art historian and critic Ben Lewis shows in his forensically detailed and gripping investigation into the history, discovery and sales of the painting, establishing the truth is like nailing down jelly.”— Michael Prodger, The Sunday Times
Author: Martin Kemp
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
ISBN: 019881383X
Category : Art
Languages : en
Pages : 418
Get Book Here
Book Description
A study of Leonardo da Vinci's Salvator Mundi, the world's most expensive painting; this volume recounts the story of the painting's modern-day discovery and restoration, but also delves into the collecting of Leonardo's works at the courts of Charles I and Charles II--éd.
Author: Joanne Snow-Smith
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Art
Languages : en
Pages : 104
Get Book Here
Book Description
A proposito del Salvator Mundi di Leonardo e delle varie copie dello stesso soggetto attribuite alla scuola leonardiana.
Author: Luke Syson
Publisher: National Gallery London
ISBN:
Category : Art
Languages : en
Pages : 330
Get Book Here
Book Description
A new examination of Leonardo's career that illuminates his time as court painter to the Duke of Milan, an experience that fundamentally changed his outlook and his legacy
Author: Martin Kemp
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0192543288
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 418
Get Book Here
Book Description
The Salvator Mundi is the first Leonardo painting to be discovered for over a century. Following its re-emergence, it played a leading role in the landmark Leonardo exhibition at the National Gallery in London in 2011, after which it was purchased by a Russian oligarch. In 2017 it was auctioned by Christie's in New York, fetching the world record price of $450m, and now forms part of the collection of Louvre Abu Dhabi. The Salvator Mundi may be seen as the devotional counterpart to the Mona Lisa, having an extraordinary, communicative presence. The artist has reformed the very traditional subject matter in a number of ways. The elusiveness of Christ's expression suggests his spiritual origins beyond the world of the senses. The traditional sphere of the earth has been transformed into a rock-crystal orb and signifies a crystalline sphere of the heavens. In addition to its spiritual dimension, the image exploits Leonardo's optical knowledge and his growing sense of the illusiveness of seeing. Only the blessing hand is in reasonably sharp focus, with his features softly veiled. The scintillating curls of his hair are characterised in line with his theory that the physics of the curling of hair is analogous to vortex motion in water. This book looks at evidence of Leonardo's Salvator Mundi in the collections of Charles I and Charles II. It explores the appraisal of works by Leonardo at the Stuart courts, and proposes that how works attributed to Leonardo were first encountered and understood in seventeenth-century Britain would shape the wider evolution of Leonardo as a cultural icon. This volume gives a dramatic first-hand account of the modern-day discovery of the painting, from its purchase in a minor New Orleans auction house, to the cleaning of the picture that would disclose it as Leonardo's startling original, and the research processes that would uncover illustrious and obscure former owners. The book presents the definitive study of the new masterpiece.
Author: Michel Menu
Publisher: Editions Hermann
ISBN: 9782705684556
Category : Art and science
Languages : fr
Pages : 286
Get Book Here
Book Description
"Leonardo's work is universally recognized: it arouses enthusiasm, causes astonishment, and provokes lyrical descriptions as well as inflammatory debate. A particular approach in appreciating Leonardo's work is to understand its material aspects more fully (the materials used by the artist, the manner of their preparation, associations between them and ways of combining different materials) so that artistic intention can be studied in depth, while at the same time revealing technical mastery and inventiveness. In addition, studying the way in which works age allows them to be better conserved and preserved. These are precisely the aims of the CHARISMA project, which brings together the expertise and experience of major European institutions that specialize in the examination and conservation of cultural heritage. This book is the result of contributions made by art historians, scientists and conservators during an international meeting held in early 2012 at the National Gallery, London, organized by CHARISMA to coincide with the exhibition 'Leonardo da Vinci: Painter at the Court of Milan' which included the newly-conserved London version of the 'Virgin of the Rocks.' The workshop was devoted to the study of the artistic technique of Leonardo and his workshop. The juxtaposition of different perspectives on the paintings and drawings of one of the most iconic artists of the Italian Renaissance highlights the need to take account of multidisciplinary points of view in order to build a more complete history of the works of art. The various articles illustrate the influence that Leonardo had not only on his students and those with whom he shared his workshops, but also on his contemporaries."--Back cover.
Author: Ruth Scheps
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
ISBN: 1786306816
Category : Art
Languages : en
Pages : 194
Get Book Here
Book Description
Art and science are not separate universes. This book explores this claim by showing how mathematics, geometry and numerical approaches contribute to the construction of works of art. This applies not only to modern visual artists but also to important artists of the past. To illustrate this, this book studies Leonardo da Vinci, who was both an engineer and a painter, and whose paintings can be perfectly modeled using simple geometric curves. The world gains intelligibility through elegant mathematical frameworks – from the projective spaces of painting to the most complex phase spaces of theoretical physics. A living example of this interdisciplinarity would be the sculptures of Jean Letourneur, a specialist in both chaos sciences and carving, as evidenced in his stonework. This book also exemplifies the geometry and life of forms through contemporary works of art – including fractal art – which have never before been represented in this type of work.
Author: Alexandra Bregman
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781733834520
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 224
Get Book Here
Book Description
Understanding the art fraud battle that waged between Russian oligarch Dmitry Rybolovlev and Swiss art magnate Yves Bouvier
Author: Martin Kemp
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780500292693
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 336
Get Book Here
Book Description
'Kemp is a natural storyteller... This book leads you on a journey through the life, work and legacy of one of history's most intriguing figures.' The TimesIn an engaging personal narrative interwoven with historical research, Martin Kemp discusses a life spent immersed in the world of Leonardo, and his encounters with great and lesser academics, collectors and curators, devious dealers and unctuous auctioneers, major scholars and authors, pseudo-historians and fantasists. He shares how he has grappled with swelling legions of 'Leonardo loonies', walked on the eggshells of vested interests in academia and museums, and fended off fusillades of non-Leonardos, sometimes more than one a week. Examining the greatest masterpieces, from the Last Supper to Salvator Mundi, through the expert's eye, we learn first-hand of the thorny questions that surround attribution, the scientific analyses that support the experts' interpretations, and the continuing importance of connoisseurship. Throughout, from the most scholarly interpretations to the popularity of Dan Brown's Da Vinci Code, we are reminded of Leonardo's unique genius and wonder at how an artist from 500 years ago continues to make such compelling posthumous demands on all those who engage with him.
Author: Jean-Pierre Isbouts
Publisher: Apollo Publishers
ISBN: 1948062356
Category : Art
Languages : en
Pages : 279
Get Book Here
Book Description
For the 500th anniversary of Leonardo da Vinci’s death comes an immersive journey through five centuries of history to define the Leonardo mystique and uncover how the elusive Renaissance artist became a global pop icon. Virtually everyone would agree that Leonardo da Vinci was the most important artist of the High Renaissance. It was Leonardo who singlehandedly created the defining features of Western art: a realism based on subtle shading; depth using atmospheric effects; and dramatic contrasts between light and dark. But how did Leonardo, a painter of very few works who died in obscurity in France, become the internationally renowned icon he is today, with the Mona Lisa and the Last Supper the most visited artworks in the world, attracting nearly a billion visitors each year, and Salvator Mundi selling as the most expensive artwork of all time, for nearly half a billion dollars? This extraordinary volume, lavishly illustrated with 130 color images, is the first book to unravel these mysteries by diving deep into the art, literature, science, and politics of Europe from the Renaissance through today. It gives illuminating context to both Leonardo and his accomplishments; explores why Leonardo’s fame vastly overshadowed that of his contemporaries and disciples; and ultimately reveals why despite finishing very few works, his celebrity has survived, even thrived, through five centuries of history.
