In this artwork, how is the Attribution discussed?
Although the attribution to Leonardo had been controversial in earlier centuries, modern art historians now regard the Portrait of a Musician as one of his original works. Doubts about ascribing the work to Leonardo have existed for almost as long as the painting has been known. Its first appearance in a 1672 catalog for the Pinacoteca Ambrosiana listed it as by Leonardo, but a 1686 inventory of the collection attributed it to Bernardino Luini. This was quickly crossed out and changed to "or rather by Leonardo". In 1798, the Ambrosiana attributed the portrait to the "school of Luini", but it was soon relisted as by Leonardo. When first listed in 1672, it was described as having "all the elegance that might be expected of a ducal commission", which implies that the subject was thought to be Ludovico Sforza, Duke of Milan, who was Leonardo's employer when the painting was executed. This was accepted until the 20th century, when scholars believed it to be a pendant to the Portrait of a Lady in the Ambrosiana, now attributed to Giovanni Ambrogio de Predis but at the time thought to be a portrait by Leonardo of Beatrice d'Este, Ludovico's wife. In the mid-20th century, the Leonardo specialist Angela Ottino della Chiesa identified eleven scholars who supported an attribution to Leonardo; eight who ascribed the work to Ambrogio de Predis; two who were undecided and one who considered it the work of Giovanni Antonio Boltraffio, another of Leonardo's students.There is no extant record of the portrait's commission. Its attribution to Leonardo is based on stylistic and technical similarities to other works by him, notably the face of the angel in the Louvre Virgin of the Rocks and that of the titular figure in Saint Jerome in the Wilderness. The dark background of the portrait, a style popularized by Leonardo, furthers this attribution as it appears in later paintings by him, such as the Lady with an Ermine, La Belle Ferronnière and Saint John the Baptist. The Lady with an Ermine in particular has shown many stylistic similarities to the Musician from X-ray testing. Other characteristics typical of Leonardo's style include the melancholic atmosphere, the sensitive eyes, the ambiguous mouth (which seems to have just closed or is about to open), and curly hair reminiscent of his earlier portrait, Ginevra de' Benci. Also characteristic of Leonardo is the use of walnut wood, a medium he favored and recommended, but which was not commonly used by other artists in Lombardy at the time. The attribution is further supported by a comparison of the pupils of the musician's eyes, which dilate to different degrees; a connection has been noted to the following passage in Leonardo's notebooks:
The pupil dilates and contracts according to the brightness or darkness of the objects [in its sight]; and since it takes some time to dilate and contract, it cannot see immediately on going out of the light and into the shade, nor, in the same way, out of the shade and into the light, and this very thing has already deceived me in the painting of an eye, and that is how I learned it.
Challenge to the painting's attribution stems from its rigid and stoic demeanor, which is uncharacteristic of Leonardo's usual paintings. While some scholars consider this a result of the painting's unfinished state, others have proposed that the clothing and torso were painted by a student. If Leonardo was assisted by another artist, the most frequently cited candidates are Boltraffio and Ambrogio de Predis, due to their style being closer to the hard and rigid qualities of the portrait. According to the art historian Carlo Pedretti, Boltraffio and Marco d'Oggiono, another student of Leonardo, depict eyes in the same way as the portrait, suggesting that either might have collaborated with Leonardo on the work. The art historian Pietro C. Marani noted that it is unlikely that Leonardo would have had assistants in the mid-1480s, and even if so, they would not likely have assisted on a portrait for an official or a personal friend. Despite Marani's claims, the modern scholarly consensus on whether Leonardo was assisted remains unclear: Zöllner stated that it is "now accepted that Leonardo executed the face, while Boltraffio is credited with the entire upper body", whereas according to Syson only a "substantial minority" of scholars disagreed with a full attribution. While there is debate on the authorship of the painting as a whole, most scholars are agreed that the face, at least, is entirely Leonardo's work.
Duke of Milan Milan Giovanni Antonio Boltraffio Giovanni Ambrogio de Predis Ludovico Sforza Bernardino Luini Lombardy Marco d'Oggiono La Belle Ferronnière walnut wood Saint Jerome in the Wilderness right commission Carlo Pedretti Beatrice d'Este Louvre pendant Lady with an Ermine Ginevra de' Benci Leonardo's students X-ray testing Pinacoteca Ambrosiana Portrait of a Musician Pietro C. Marani Virgin of the Rocks Saint John the Baptist walnut