by Tiziano our Salvator Mundi
According to a recent research by the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna, the Salvator Mundi of the Austrian museum, the one attributed so far to the workshop of Titian, is actually an autograph of the master.
The Kunsthistorisches Museum Of Vienna has completed an important study on Salvatore Mundi of its own collections, a long one attributed to the workshop of Tiziano Vecellio (Pieve di Cadore, around 1490 – Venice, 1576). According to the Austrian museum, the results of this research, financed by the Fonds für wissenschaftliche Forschung (“scientific research fund”), suggest that the work should instead be attributed to the hand of the great master himself, of which the Kunsthistorisches owns the second largest collection in the world, after that of the Prado in Madrid.
“Known for his unconventional approach to compositions,” reads a note, “Titian produced several images of the Salvator Mundi. All derive from 15th-century Dutch painting and see Christ raising his hand in blessing and holding a globe topped with a cross, central aspects of Christian belief. The Christ of Vienna, however, is an example of a new religious interpretation in this pictorial tradition. The hand of the Salvator Mundi of the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna rests on a transparent glass sphere, as if Christ were a temporal ruler, without the usual cross. The artist also omitted the raised hand as a sign of blessing. A Hebrew inscription on the Savior’s tunic suggests that Titian received the assignment from a Christian client, for the time being the unknown, who sympathized with the ideas of the Kabbalah, the Jewish secret doctrine ”.
The work was analyzed through radiographs and infrared reflectographs, and research was carried out on the technique and on the stroke. Under the Christ a composition with a Madonna and Child was discovered, very similar to others made by Titian, which reflects his typical way of working, which involved the modification of compositions already drawn. Furthermore, again according to the museum, the fact that we are faced with such an unusual composition, designed for the precise and particular requests of a client, is a clue that further comforts an attribution to Titian himself. The brushstroke and the quality of the pictorial technique used would also belong to Titian. The analyzes also found that the image was partially altered by previous restorations that in parts of the painting have changed the colors or some are darkened, thus making attribution more difficult. However, says the museum, it makes the work more readable and therefore establishes Titian’s autograph beyond any doubt, it requires a complex restoration.
If you liked this article or found it interesting,
subscribe to our free newsletter!
No spam, only one Sunday issue, plus any extras, to update you on all our news!
Your weekly reading on the whole art world
SUBSCRIBE TO THE NEWSLETTER