ART WORLD SHAKEN

Greymouth Evening Star, 25 February 1927, Page 3

ART WORLD SHAKEN

masterpieces not by master.

An art expert, named Maurice Goldblatt, has thrown a bombshell into the art world. He claims . that more than fifty famous paintings in European galleries which have hitherto been attributed to Leonardo da Vinci were really painted by Andrea Salaimo, one of the master’s favourite pupils. Mr Goldblatt declares that Da Vinci could not possibly have painted the pictures, because he was left-handed, and all the paintings have been done by a right-handed man. He accepts the famous Mona Lisa in the Louvre as an authentic masterpiece of "the great master, as the brush strokes are all from left to right, but he claims all the following paintings, now to be seen in London, for Salaimo :— “Christ Among the Doctors, National Gallery. . “Portrait of Woman,” Lord MuirMackenzie collection. “Christ,” Lord Northbrook collection. “Flora,” Hampton Court Palace. The other pictures he attributes to Salamo include: —“Leda ? ” Spiridon Collection. Rome; “Leda,” Borghese Gallery, Rome; “Bacchus, Louvre, Paris; - “Virgin and Child,” Louvre, Paris; “Martha and Mary,” Rothschild, Paris; and “Portrait of Woman,” Hermitage Gallery, Leningrad. The origin of many of these paintings has often been questioned, and some years ago Mi’ Goldblatt decided to make a thorough investigation into their history. ' He visited all the great galleries of Europe, he studied all of Da Vinci’s manuscripts—they are written by the left hand—he read all the contemporary historians, and he thereby uncovered the romance of Salaino, or Salai, whom he believes to be the author of the fifty-odd paintings that have always been attributed to the Florentine master. Salaino was the son of a Hungarian fighting man, who had entered the employ of the House of Naples in 1481, and there are many references to him in the old Italian chronicles. “At Milan Leonardo took as his pupil a Milanese named Salai, who was remarkable for his grace and beauty, and who had pretty curly hair that the master loved,” related Vasari, a contemporary historian. “He taught Salai much of his art, but several works that were attributed to Salai had been retouched by Leonardo. ’ ’

In his search through the great European galleries the expert found three paintings attributed to Salaino — -‘The Virgin and Child,” of Leningrad j “Saint John the Baptist,” of the Ambrosian Gallery at Milan ; and “Portrait of Woman,” in the MuirMackenzie collection in London. He studied the style of Salaino as shown by these three paintings . (the technique of them all is identical), and he declares that he can now recognise Salaino’s work anywhere he sees it. It is a historical fact that the “Virgin and Child” in the Leuchtenberg Gallery in Leningrad was painted by Salaino for the Santa Celse Church in Milan. By comparing the colours, shadows, and brushwork of this painting with the variations of the same subject in the Paris, Madrid, and Florence galleries, Mr Goldblatt found that they were undoubtedly by the same artist. “In the same way he compared the suspected Da Vinci’s with the three known works of his pupil, and he found more than fifty done in Salaino’s style. “There is an enormous difference between the work of the master and pupil,” Mr Goldblatt told the “Sunday Chronicle.” “Not only did Da/. Vinci do all his work with his left hand; _ whereas Salaino worked with his right, but Salaino’s technique and use of colours also differed from the master’s because he used warm colours with the blues underlined with red shadows, while Da Vinci used cold colour. “Salaino did not model his faces with lights and shadows like the master, who painted Mona Lisa without eyelashes and eyebrows, but with lines which gave a face a scultpured appearance.” . Mr Goldblatt considers “Christ Among the Doctors” in the National Gallery at London a particularly good example of Salaino’s work, and especialy interesting because of the figure in the painting which he believes to be a portrait of Da Vinci himself-