CIRCLE OF LEONARDO DA VINCI | Bust of Christ

To be published in a forthcoming article by Cristina Geddo (as by a Milanese pupil of Leonardo, circa 1511–13).

The following condition report is provided by Sarah Walden who is an external specialist and not an employee of Sotheby's: Circle of Leonardo da Vinci. Bust of Christ. This painting is on a fine panel, presumably of poplar, which has been thinned, backed and cradled. This doesn't seem to have been due to any innate cause such as evident warping or cracks, suggesting an essentially calm and stable background, although little is apparently known. Labels behind are undoubtedly recent and unconnected with the painting's history. The paint surface has certainly not been treated as dramatically as the back of the panel. Quite old varnish remains throughout, with various traces of past retouching visible under ultra violet light in some areas. Perhaps the oldest retouching appears to be in the blue drapery, which would inevitably have been the most vulnerable area, and there are fairly widespread little surface retouchings, probably dating quite far back. Other equally old retouching can also just be seen under ultra violet light in places at lower left. However in the red drapery there is also some recent retouching in the folds of the arm. The old varnish remains almost undisturbed in the background overall, and also remarkably, across much of the face. With the light coming in, as so often, from the left, there is a slight scattering of often minute retouchings on the more shadowy right side of the head. Minuscule touches in the eyes are rather more extensive on the right eye and just beneath it, with other little touches on the right cheek, in the beard and especially in the neck, with occasional touches in the hair on the right. The extraordinary delicacy of the detail in the hair, in the light catching the curl of single hair, can be seen for instance in the traces of hairs around the mouth. Whether it could have been called a moustache, the little fronds have naturally been vulnerable over time but still exist in places. The infinitely small craquelure visible in various parts for instance of the nose and forehead, seem to have had an occasional light past superficial retouching glaze. Clearly time has preserved these touches with the magnificent preservation of the painting as a whole. This report was not done under laboratory conditions.
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This arresting and refined image of Christ was painted by a close associate of Leonardo da Vinci around 1510. The frontality of the design and iconography of the painting fit well with the production of the great master and his workshop, and the soft modelling of Christ’s face finds direct parallels in many of Leonardo's followers such as Giampietrino. The soft curls of His hair, the fall of His ringlets resembling the motion of water, as exemplified by numerous Leonardo drawings, are also characteristic of the Leonardeschi.¹  A closely related treatment of the subject (fig. 1), signed and dated 1511 by Leonardo's student and intimate companion Gian Giacomo Caprotti, known as Salaì, was sold Sotheby's, New York, 17 January 2007, lot 34.² As Shell and Sironi have observed, ‘Salaì represents another kind of Leonardesco; the faithful replicator of Leonardo’s models and, by his own lights, executor of Leonardo’s intentions’.³ Since two very similar works are known, both painted in a spirit so close to that of the Master, it can be reasonably proposed that the design is directly based on a lost original by Leonardo himself. It is known that the Master's prototypes were often reworked by his followers on a smaller scale with some variants, such as in the choice of colours used, for example. Indeed, the Salvator Mundi, recently on the art market, inspired many derivations such as the panel of the same subject (fig. 2), formerly in the De Ganay collection, sold Sotheby's, New York, 28 May 1999, lot 20 (as circle of Leonardo) which Professoressa Cristina Geddo has recently attributed to the young Giampietrino.⁴

Professoressa Cristina Geddo has examined the painting in person and her study of the work provides the starting point for this catalogue note. She will publish the picture in a forthcoming article as by a Milanese pupil of Leonardo, circa 1511–13, around the same time as Salaì's aforementioned panel was painted.



1 See, for example, Leonardo’s sheet in the Royal Library at Windsor, inv. 12579.

2 Panel, 55 x 37 cm.; the hammer price was $550,000. The work was acquired by a private collector who subsequently donated it in 2013 to the Pinacoteca Ambrosiana, Milan, where it now hangs.

3 J. Shell and G. Sironi, 'Salaì and Leonardo’s legacy', The Burlington Magazine, vol. CXXXIII, no. 1055, February 1991, p. 106.

4 Panel, 68.6 x 48.9 cm.; the hammer price was $300,000.