THE piercing gaze is reminiscent of the Mona Lisa while the beard and mouth bear a striking similarity to the artist’s portraits of himself. Italian researchers claim to have stumbled on the holy grail of the art world – a previously unknown work by Leonardo da Vinci, squirrelled away for centuries in a private collection. Read more
Last week in London, the painting, Christ as Salvator Mundi, went on show to the public for the first time as one of the star attractions of the National Gallery’s exhibition Leonardo da Vinci: Painter at the Court of Milan, where it was presented, with the backing of the world’s leading experts, as a lost masterpiece by Leonardo himself.
Seeing it on the walls of the gallery, between two preparatory drawings from the Queen’s collection and opposite the magnificent Burlington House Cartoon, was an “overwhelming experience”, Simon says.
“Just walking through the exhibition was emotional, seeing such great paintings and drawings brought together, each of which has been for me, and for many others, the subject of pilgrimages. But then seeing this picture on the walls of the National Gallery, something I have held under my arm in a bin liner, had in my house for a night and that I have worked on for probably an hour a day for six years, it was absolutely thrilling, an extraordinary feeling.”
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