The painting by the Renaissance master Sandro Botticelli depicting a tearful Jesus Christ was at Sotheby’s New York on Thursday for $45.4 million as part of the Master Paintings and Sculpture sale.
Though seemingly religious, it’s a painting of enormous humanity—a portrait of human suffering and spirituality that speaks a universal language.
The work, which dates from about 1500 and is titled The Man of Sorrows, depicts a bereaved and beleaguered Jesus Christ, and carried an unofficial presale estimate “in excess of” $40 million. It is housed in a fittingly elaborate frame, which Sotheby’s says is likely from the 19th century.
While a $45.4 million total is certainly nothing to sneer at, comparisons between this painting and Young Man Holding a Roundel, another Botticelli that sold for $92.2 million almost exactly one year ago, are inevitable. Last year’s Botticelli set a public sales record for the artist, whose previous record was just $10.4 million.
Carlo Orsi, an old masters dealer in London and Milan, speaking of The Man of Sorrows, said “Just think about how rare and famous it is.” Those two qualities alone managed to push the painting’s price to the second-highest public result for the artist.
The buyer of the work was not immediately known, but, speaking in advance of the sale, Apostle says that the buyer would be someone who is unafraid of a challenge.
“This is not a low-maintenance painting,” he says, speaking of its emotional subject matter. “His head is tilted slightly, his eyes are red from crying, he’s showing you the suffering and humanity of God.”
‘Man of Sorrows’
‘Man of Sorrows’ refers to a passage in Isaiah (53:3-6) that may prefigure the Messiah (aka Christ Jesus). In art historical terms, 'Man of Sorrows’ usually designates a representation of Christ showing his wounds and surrounding him with the instruments of his Passion (aka the Arma Christi, or all of those tools / items that inflicted pain upon him leading up to and including the Crucifixion).
In Botticelli’s painting (which is from his 'stoned period’), the instruments are presented clockwise starting at the top as follows: the cross, the column on which he was flogged, the pincers used to remove the nails, the Holy Sponge attached to a reed (with which Christ was offered gall and vinegar), the ladder used during the Deposition, the scourge (the whip used to flog Christ), and the Holy Lance used to pierce his side.
The hem of Christ’s garment in the painting reads “ISTO IESU NAZARENU[S] R[EX] [lUDEORUM],” meaning “This is Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews.”
Hidden composition revealed
Technical analysis undertaken by Sotheby’s in preparation for the sale revealed one unexpected discovery, an intriguing image of a Madonna and Child, buried beneath the paint layers.
The hidden image is believed it to be an abandoned composition of a "Madonna of tenderness" (a type derived from Greek icons), in which the Madonna intimately cradles the head of the baby Christ against her own, cheek to cheek. The facial features, particularly the nose, eyes and laughing mouth, which he identifies as belonging to the Christ Child, are very visible in the infrared image, if rotated upside down.
The head occupies a space beneath the Man of Sorrows' chest, while what appears to be an eye and an eyebrow, belonging to a female head, peep out from the area near Christ's proper right hand, according to Sotheby's. There is also evidence of some white underpainting, possibly in cadmium, in the lower part of the figure. Other visible parts of the abandoned composition include what looks like folds of a mantle, with decorative banding around the shoulder and part of a sleeve, and the Child's chubby arm is discernible as well.
-Sotheby’s, CNN