Salvator Mundi

This painting repeats the composition of what has become one of the most famous pictures in the world: Leonardo da Vinci’s Salvator Mundi, which was sold at Christie’s in 2017 for a record-breaking $450 million – the highest price ever achieved at auction for a work of art. Christ is presented here as Savior of the World, as characterized in the Gospel of John (4: 14): rigidly frontal, holding a crystal orb in one hand and with the other raised in benediction, Christ is profoundly human (lacking as he does a crown or halo). The enduring popularity of the image is attested to by the existence of numerous copies after Leonardo’s original: roughly twenty contemporary copies are known, some of which are considered to be by Leonardo’s pupils or followers, almost certainly emanating from his workshop.