By Fernando Alfonso III - updated 3:43 pm, Thursday, October 19, 2017


Not even $100 million can solve a newly discovered mystery within Leonardo da Vinci's "Salvator Mundi (Savior of the World)."
The painting, which is being sold on Nov. 15 by Christie's New York, features Jesus Christ holding what appears to be an orb in his left hand.
What is puzzling about the spherical object is how the image in the orb is not inverted, as should be the case, states da Vinci biographer Walter Isaacson in a soon-to-be published book, "Leonardo da Vinci: The Biography", the Guardian reported.

"Leonardo failed to paint the distortion that would occur when looking through a solid clear orb at objects that are not touching the orb," Isaacson writes. "Solid glass or crystal, whether shaped like an orb or a lens, produces magnified, inverted, and reversed images. Instead, Leonardo painted the orb as if it were a hollow glass bubble that does not refract or distort the light passing through it."
Isaacson contends that if da Vinci intended for the orb to exist in reality, Christ's robes and arm would have been inverted within it.
In the book, Isaacson wonders if da Vinci "chose not to paint it that way, either because he thought it would be a distraction... or because he was subtly trying to impart a miraculous quality to Christ and his orb."
The painting is currently owned by a European art collector, the New York Times reported.
There are only 15 da Vinci paintings in existence, the Times added. "Salvator Mundi" was created sometime in 1500 with oil.

Source: http://www.chron.com/entertainment/a...i-12291400.php