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Some respected experts on Renaissance art question the full attribution of the painting to Leonardo. Jacques Franck, a Paris-based art historian and Leonardo specialist who has studied the Mona Lisa out of the frame multiple times, stated: "The composition doesn't come from Leonardo, he preferred twisted movement. It's a good studio work with a little Leonardo at best, and it's very damaged. It's been called 'the male Mona Lisa', but it doesn't look like it at all."Michael Daley, the director of ArtWatch UK, doubts the Salvator Mundi's authenticity and theorizes that it may be the prototype of a subject painted by Leonardo: "This quest for an autograph prototype Leonardo painting might seem moot or vain: not only do the two drapery studies comprise the only accepted Leonardo material that might be associated with the group, but within the Leonardo literature there is no documentary record of the artist ever having been involved in such a painting project."Carmen Bambach, a specialist in Italian Renaissance art at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, questioned full attribution to Leonardo: "having studied and followed the picture during its conservation treatment, and seeing it in the context in the National Gallery exhibition, much of the original painting surface may be by Boltraffio, but with passages done by Leonardo himself, namely Christ's proper right blessing hand, portions of the sleeve, his left hand and the crystal orb he holds." In 2019, Bambach criticised Christie's for its claim that she was one of the experts who had attributed the painting to Leonardo. In her 2019 book Leonardo da Vinci Rediscovered, she is even more specific, attributing most of the work to Boltraffio, "with only 'small retouchings' by the master himself".Matthew Landrus, an art historian at the University of Oxford, agreed with the concept of parts of the painting being executed by Leonardo ("between 5 and 20%"), but attributes the painting to Leonardo's studio assistant Bernardino Luini, noting Luini's ability in painting gold tracery.Frank Zöllner, the author of the catalogue raisonné Leonardo da Vinci. The Complete Paintings and Drawings, writes:This attribution is controversial primarily on two grounds. Firstly, the badly damaged painting had to undergo very extensive restoration, which makes its original quality extremely difficult to assess. Secondly, the Salvator Mundi in its present state exhibits a strongly developed sfumato technique that corresponds more closely to the manner of a talented Leonardo pupil active in the 1520s than to the style of the master himself. The way in which the painting was placed on the market also gave rise to concern.
Zöllner also explains that the quality of Salvator Mundi surpasses other known versions; however,[It] also exhibits a number of weaknesses. The flesh tones of the blessing hand, for example, appear pallid and waxen as in a number of workshop paintings. Christ's ringlets also seem to me too schematic in their execution, the larger drapery folds too undifferentiated, especially on the right-hand side ... It will probably only be possible to arrive at a more informed verdict on this question after the results of the painting's technical analyses have been published in full.
In a subsequent interview for the 2021 documentary The Lost Leonardo, Zöllner said: "You have the old parts of the painting which are original—these are by pupils—and the new parts of the painting, which look like Leonardo, but they are by the restorer. In some part, it's a masterpiece by Dianne Modestini".In Paris, the Louvre's request for the Salvator Mundi to be exhibited in its Leonardo da Vinci exhibition of 2019–2020 was reportedly met without response. The New York Times reported in April 2021 that the non-appearance was because the French were unwilling to meet Saudi demands that the painting be hung alongside the Mona Lisa. The Louvre's inability to comment on the matter in the interim, however, led to speculation that its absence was due to doubts over its full attribution to the artist.In November 2021, scholars at the Museo del Prado included the painting under "attributed works, workshop of authorized and supervised by Leonardo" in the catalogue for Leonardo and the Copy of the Mona Lisa. The Prado curator Ana Gonzales Monzo wrote in the catalog that the Ganay-collection copy of the Salvador Mundi was likely the closest to Leonardo's original design, and that it was likely done by the same artist that painted the Prado copy of the Mona Lisa. The curator of the Louvre's 2019–20 Leonardo exhibition, Vincent Delieuvin, wrote in the Prado catalog that the painting had "details of surprisingly poor quality", and that "It is to be hoped that a future permanent display of the work will allow it to be reanalyzed with greater objectivity".
Bernardino Luini Leonardo da Vinci Oxford Vincent Delieuvin catalogue raisonné ArtWatch UK Prado copy Carmen Bambach copy Christie's Boltraffio sfumato Salvator Mundi Renaissance National Gallery Louvre The New York Times Frank Zöllner Mona Lisa Metropolitan Museum of Art crystal Museo del Prado Prado University of Oxford orb The Lost Leonardo