Three years ago, ”Salvator Mundi,” a controversial painting thought by some to be by Leonardo da Vinci, was sold at auction for a record-breaking amount.
Now, a chalk drawing that one art expert calls the ”true face of Salvator Mundi” has surfaced, and that expert attributes the work to da Vinci.
Annalisa Di Maria, a scholar who has worked with UNESCO’s Florence division, believes the image of Jesus, which was in a private collection, is a da Vinci original. A collector, who is not named, found the drawing in the city of Lecco, and brought it to her, ArtNews reported, citing a report in the Italian newspaper La Stampa.
The drawing “recalls everything in the drawings of Leonardo: it is his language, and speaks loud and clear,” Di Maria insisted. She actually believes that Salvator Mundi, which sold at Christie’s for $450.3 million in 2017, is unlikely to be a true da Vinci because the newly-discovered drawing has a much different look to it.
The red chalk drawing had been held privately for years. Di Maria is working on an extensive report about the work.
Not all experts share Di Maria’s view, however. Art historian Martin Kemp, who has written about da Vinci, said he would need to examine the drawing personally.
“I would need to see if it is drawn left-handed,” Kemp told the Telegraph. “Leonardo drew everything with his left hand.”
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