Il Disegno Anatomico di Leonardo ai tempi del Salvator Mundi

The Vinci exhibition of the rediscovered drawing from the Civico Gabinetto dei Disegni del Castello Sforzesco in Milan, which features copies of Leonardo’s anatomical studies on the recto, and the inscription SALVTOR MVNDI on the verso, induces to reconsider the chronology of the now-famous painting formerly Cook collection in Richmond, and currently in a private Saudi collection. The reproductions of the anatomical drawings represented in the artwork offer important hints for dating the painting. Evidently, at the time when the epigraphic inscription to be placed either under the painting or on its frame was being prepared, Leonardo’s original anatomical drawings were on the worktables of his workshop, and his disciples copied them. In both the volume and the exhibition, the parallel paths of the Salvator Mundi and the anatomical drawings are also traced through innovative colorimetric analyses, which allow the reconstruction of Leonardo’s drawing technique and the working method of his atelier at the beginning of the 16th century, adding significant new elements to the history of the enigmatic painting.