The deep gaze, the scarified hands tied to the heart, the forehead bloodied by the thorns, under a crown of angels, this Christ as a Man of Sorrows (The Man of Sorrows) would be one of the last masterpieces of Sandro Botticelli (1445-1510). On display since January 22 in the premises of Sotheby’s in New York, it should be the highlight of the sale organized on January 27.
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“It was probably painted [par Botticelli] in his late fifties [d’années] », around 1500s; “As you get older, you are more introspective, more metaphysical, spiritual. This is what we see deeply in this painting », explained to AFP Christopher Apostle, head of the old masters department at Sotheby’s.
Purchased in 1963 for £10,000
It is one of the rare works by the Florentine master circulating in private collections. “We estimate that there are only about five that we know of”, indique Christopher Apostle.
The painting, in very good condition, has been preserved since the middle of the 19th century.e century in the same family of collectors who shared their lives between England and Italy, before being sold to its current owners in 1963, at auction, for 10,000 pounds sterling at the time, according to information from Sotheby’s . It is now estimated at 40 million dollars, a value which can be explained in particular by the presence of the drawing of a Madonna and Child buried under the layers of paint, discovered thanks to infrared photography.
Will this portrait of Christ panic the auction? In January 2021, already at Sotheby’s, another painting by Botticelli, the Young Man Holding a Medallion, had been sold for $92.2 million. A record for the painter of Spring and some Birth of Venus.
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