Controversies have swirled around the Salvator Mundi, attributed to Leonardo da Vinci, ever since the painting was sold for $450.3m in 2017 to the Saudi royal family. Arguments have revolved around the picture’s price tag, restoration, attribution and even its current location, but now there is a new debate.
The Christ figure in the world’s most expensive painting “is wearing women’s clothes”, according to a new study by Philipp Zitzlsperger, a professor of Medieval and Modern art history at the University of Innsbruck, Austria, whose specialities include the symbolic meaning of clothing in Renaissance art.
In “The Meaning of Leonardo’s Salvator Mundi”, an article in the latest edition of Artibus et Historiae, a semi-annual journal published by the Institute for Art Historical Research, Zitzlsperger analyses the garments in detail. He argues that the “low-cut, rectangular neckline” of Christ’s tunic is unprecedented both for a Renaissance depiction of Christ and for a male sitter “of an elevated social status”. He says that in all other paintings of Christ of the period, Christ’s tunic has a much higher collar close to the neck, and that a low-cut and embroidered neckline are typical for female portraits of the period such as Leonardo’s La Belle Ferronnière (around 1493-94) in the Musée du Louvre and Raphael’s Portrait of Elisabetta Gonzaga, Duchess of Urbino (1502) in the Galleria degli Uffizi.
Blue on blue
The identical blue colour of Christ’s tunic and himation (a kind of cloak) also points to a female prototype, the Austrian art historian claims. He says that in almost all other contemporary depictions of Christ of the 15th and 16th century in which the Saviour has a tunic and cloak, the tunic is painted red and the cloak blue, and that the blue-on-blue combination is a typical wardrobe choice for images of the Virgin Mary “from the 12th century onward”.
Zitzlsperger’s “working hypothesis” is “that the monochrome blue of the Leonardo Salvator’s himation and tunic signifies the union of Christ and the Virgin in the person of the Salvator Mundi… the cross-gender elements extend even to the colours of the vestments”. He even claims to observe a “slight elevation [of the tunic] suggesting the beginnings of a breast revealed by the low neckline”.
Zitzlsperger places Leonardo’s Salvator Mundi within the context of the “aesthetics of gender fluidity” in Renaissance Italy, citing Mario Equicola’s Libro di natura de amore (1525). In that book, the Italian Renaissance humanist declared: “The visage of a woman is praised if it has the features of a man; the face of a man if it has feminine features.”
“A little too sensationalist”
Other Leonardo scholars have questioned Zitzlsperger’s conclusions. Frank Zöllner, a professor of art history at Leipzig University and the author of several articles on Leonardo’s Salvator Mundi, says the paper is “an important contribution” but “a little too sensationalist”.
Zöllner adds: “To paint a dress that is similar to women’s dress does not make Christ female. Furthermore, there are Byzantine images of Christ Pancrator in which Christ is dressed entirely in blue—for example, in the Hagia Sophia mosaics in Istanbul—and Giotto painted a ‘blue Christ’ in his Stefaneschi altarpiece. Either way, dress is a key issue for our understanding of the painting.”
“It simply looks better”
Matthew Landrus, a supernumerary fellow at Wolfson College at the University of Oxford, points out there is an occasional single-colour red-on-red choice for Christ’s apparel in 14th- and 15th-century Flemish painting. “One reason for the choice of a blue tunic and himation could be that it simply looks better emerging from a black background,” he says. “It’s stylistically a smart choice. Is there a deeper meaning for this choice of colour? I have not seen enough evidence for that claim.”
Martin Kemp, an emeritus professor of art history at the University of Oxford and a leading Leonardo scholar, says: “If it were to be true that the ex-Cook version [Leonardo’s Salvator Mundi] is unique in the colour of Christ’s garments, this would support Leonardo’s authorship.”
Zitzlsperger defends his theory. “The Salvator’s attire does not make Christ female, but it does not make him male either. That’s why I speak about androgynous depictions of Christ. The rule (two colours) is confirmed by the exceptions (one colour). From my experience as a scientist, I know that critics are very happy to falsify the rule by emphasising the exceptions.”