Leonardo’s Paintings:  What’s in a Price?

Posted on March 8, 2018 by babbityjean

There are about 20 paintings by Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519) believed to exist today.  A precise number is impossible because there is a more or less constant stream of disputed attributions and recent attributions due to scholarship and technological advances in studying artwork. There are also studio works that Leonardo may or may not have had a hand in.  None of his paintings is signed.  The small number of surviving paintings is due in part to da Vinci’s sometimes disastrous experimentation with new techniques, his chronic procrastination, and, of course, lost works.

Most of his paintings are in major museums, including several at the Uffizi Gallery and several at the Louvre.  There is only one on public view in the Americas.  Ginevra de’ Benci is an oil-on-wood portrait of a Florentine aristocrat possibly painted to commemorate her marriage.  It was acquired by the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC, in 1967, for $5 million—a record at the time—from the princely house of Liechtenstein.

Recently another da Vinci painting came on the market.  Salvator Mundi, which depicts Christ as savior of the world, was sold at auction by a private owner for $450 million, the most expensive work of art sold to date.  The buyer was a Saudi prince.

Salvator Mundi has a complicated history.  Leonardo da Vinci supposedly painted it in France for Louis XII around 1500.  After it was believed lost for centuries, it was found in the early 2000s and sold for first time for $10,000 in 2005. From then on—once restored and authenticated—it was bought and sold by collectors and art dealers for higher and higher prices.  Then it came to the auction house Christie’s where the price far surpassed Picasso’s Women of Algiers, which sold for $179.4 million in 2015.

The enormous sum at auction is even more astounding because there are several highly respected art historians who question the painting’s authenticity and condition.  One Leonardo specialist claimed that “[da Vinci] preferred twisted movement.  It’s a good studio work with a little Leonardo at best, and it’s very damaged.”  Another said that the painting was “aggressively over cleaned…especially in the face and hair of Christ.”

The price is also remarkable at a time when the market for old masters is contracting because of collectors’ preference for contemporary art.   And the price also attests to the degree to which marketing drives the value of art.  Christie’s marketing campaign was unprecedented.   There were pre-auction viewings by 27,000 people in Hong Kong, London, San Francisco, and New York.  Christie’s enlisted an outside agency to advertise the work including the production of a video in which the presentation of the painting is likened to the “discovery of a new planet.”  Christie’s called the work “the last Da Vinci” and placed the artwork in the category of a contemporary sale, perhaps to try to circumvent the scrutiny of old masters’ experts.

But Salvator Mundi is not “the last Da Vinci” in private hands.  There are two paintings called “Madonna of the Yarnwinder”—one is known as the Buccleuch Madonna and the other as the Lansdowne Madonna.  They both have complicated histories.  But if one Yarnwinder came to auction and it was fully attributable to Leonardo, it would probably be the first $1 billion sale.

My friend, Anthony Panzera, an artist and art historian, read the above post and added the following interesting information about the two “Madoonna of the Yarnwinder” paintings:

“The first painting, owned by the Duke of Buccleuch and Queensberry, is housed with his collection in Drumlanrig Castle, Scotland.  The citation reads:

Madonna of the Yarnwinder

Workshop of Leonardo da Vinci

1501-1507 or later

The small panel, 48.3 x 36.9 cm, is extensively retouched and overpainted, with severe cracking, and with the “…pronounced distortions in the faces of the Virgin and the Child argue emphatically against an attribution to Leonardo.”

The second panel is referred to as the New York Madonna of the Yarnwinder; I’m not sure where the tile Lansdowne comes from.  It’s citation reads:

Madonna of the Yarnwinder

 Giacomo Salai

1501 – 1507

50 x 36.4

Salai was one the studio assistants and is a beneficiary in Leonardo’s will.  It is considered a workshop product with the possibility of Leonardo’s hand in the painting of the face.  The infra-red reflectography  “…make it clear that it is not a copy executed at a much later date.”  Meaning that parts of the painting (the landscape in the background including the design) was probably also by the hand of Leonardo.  Two contemporary letters, dated 1501 and 1509,  refer to a small panel of the same subject, but with a small basket of yarns on which the child’s feet (hence the name) is resting.  As neither of the current Yarnwinder paintings show any signs of the basket of yarns it must be assumed that the original painting by Leonardo is lost.

All we have to do now is to find that little painting.”

This information comes from the book:

LEONARDO da VINCI

1452 – 1519

The Complete Paintings and Drawings

by Frank Zollner

Taschen, London

2003

 

Posted in Abitudini, Arte, English, Firenze, Foto, Italia, Storia | 2 Comments

Le due donne che hanno sfidato il crimine organizzato

Posted on February 22, 2018 by babbityjean

(È stato estratto e tradotto da un lungo articolo dal New Yorker intitolato “Sangue e giustizia”)

Una volta considerato poco più di un gruppo di banditi dalla campagna in Calabria, in Italia, la ‘Ndrangheta (pronunciato “n-drahng-ghe-ta”) divenne uno dei più potenti sindacati del crimine nel mondo dopo il 1990.  Alla fine del 2010, gestiva il 70% del commercio di cocaina in Europa; ha estorto miliardi di euro alle imprese e ha truffato l’Italia e l’UE per un totale di miliardi attraverso contratti per strade, porti, energia eolica e solare, e persino lo smaltimento di scorie nucleari, che ha scaricato in mare al largo della Somalia.  I capi gestivano un impero che operava in 50 paesi.

Come altre organizzazioni mafiose, la “Ndrangheta (dal greco che significa “uomini d’onore”) ruotava attorno alla struttura familiare.  Ogni famiglia era un feudo in miniatura, in cui le donne erano poco più che schiave.  I padri facevano sposare (matrimonio organizzato) le loro figlie da adolescenti per suggellare alleanze di clan.  Le donne venivano picchiate quando dicevano la loro, e le mogli infedeli venivano uccise, di solito dai loro parenti maschi più stretti.

I pubblici ministeri italiani hanno convenuto che le donne della ‘Ndrangheta conducevano una vita drammatica.  Ma non consideravano le donne di grande utilità nella loro lotta … fino a quando la procura della mafia Alessandra Cerreti arrivò in Calabria.  Credeva che i funzionari giudiziari, che erano per lo più uomini, sottovalutassero l’importanza delle donne ‘ndrangheta perché “gli uomini italiani sottovalutano tutte le donne”.  La squadra che si è unita in Calabria è stata un’eccezione; credeva che, in un’organizzazione criminale che è incentrata sulla famiglia, le donne dovessero avere un ruolo sostanziale.  Il loro compito più importante era quello di crescere la generazione successiva con una stretta convinzione nell’omertà e l’odio verso gli estranei.  Ma molte donne sono anche state coinvolte nel business.  A volte, facevano da messaggeri tra fuggitivi o compagni imprigionati, passando  piccole note piegate—pizzini—scritte in codice.  Alcune donne fungevano da tesorieri e contabili.  Alcune hanno preso parte alla violenza.

Cerreto riteneva che gli informatori femminili fossero una fonte inestimabile di informazioni, ma che avrebbero richiesto un enorme coraggio per la cooperazione.  Quando l’Italia ha dichiarato guerra alla ‘Ndrangheta nel 2010, ha ottenuto la sua prima opportunità.  A seguito di incursioni in diverse città, sono state arrestate 30 persone, tra cui 7 donne.  Giuseppina Pesce, il cui marito era già in prigione, sapeva che avrebbe dovuto affrontare più di un decennio in prigione.  Ma quello che la preoccupava davvero era che lei avesse una relazione, e il giornale ha riportato che era stata detenuta con un uomo.  Probabilmente sarebbe stata uccisa e i suoi tre figli sarebbero stati cresciuti dalla ‘Ndrangheta.  Finalmente si decise a parlare con la procuratrice Cerreti, e alla fine strinse un accordo.  “Tutto ciò che testimonio ora, lo faccio per dare ai miei figli un futuro diverso”.

Le prove di Pesce sono arrivate a più di 1.500 pagine.  Comprendevano diagrammi della gerarchia della ‘ndrangheta, descrizioni di rituali, prove di omicidi, la posizione di bunker (dove vivevano i criminali), resoconti dettagliati di contrabbando di cocaina, racket di estorsione, riciclaggio di denaro, frodi con carte di credito, e corruzione pubblica.  Le prove hanno sostenuto casi esistenti e ne hanno aperti molti di nuovi.  Il tradimento di Pesce ha scosso la ‘Ndrangheta e ha mobilitato la sua famiglia che ha pensato che se aveva collaborato per il bene dei bambini, si sarebbe anche fermata per loro.  Poi una lunga serie di minacce ha iniziato ad usare i figli di Pesce come pedine.  Pesce ha ritirato la sua testimonianza.

Dopo l’omicidio di una sua amica che era diventata un informatore, Giuseppina Pesce ha riacquistato la sua risolutezza.  Il processo a 64 membri della ‘ndrina di Pesce è iniziato nel 2012 ed è durato 5 anni.  Alla fine, le sue prove ha portato al crollo di una delle famiglie criminali più potenti d’Europa.

Per Cerreti e Pesce, è stato un coraggioso viaggio in una vita caratterizzata dall’isolamento, senza amicizia, e pieno di paura.  La procuratrice ha una porta dell’ufficio in acciaio, guida in un’auto blindata e ha 4 guardie del corpo ma pochissimi amici.  L’identità di suo marito è un segreto e non ha bambini per il terrore che potessero perdere la vita.  Pesce e i suoi figli saranno tenuti sotto il programma di protezione dei testimoni per il resto della loro vita.  Conducono un’esistenza noiosa.  Un giorno in cui il fratello di Giuseppina uscirà di prigione, cercherà di trovarla per ucciderla.  “Tutte queste esperienze mi hanno rafforzato come donna.  Conoscevo i rischi, ma alla fine l’ho fatto”.

 

Posted in Abitudini, Calabria, Italia, Italiano, Mafia | Leave a comment

The Two Women who Defied Organized Crime

Posted on February 22, 2018 by babbityjean

(Abstracted from a lengthy article in the New Yorker entitled “The Women Who Took on the Mafia”)

Once considered little more than a group of country bandits in the Calabrian region of Italy, after the 1990s the ‘Ndrangheta (pronounced “n-drahng-ghe-ta”) became one of the most powerful crime syndicates in the world.  By 2010, it ran 70% of the cocaine trade in Europe; it extorted billions of euros from businesses and swindled both Italy and the EU of billions more through contracts for roads, ports, wind and solar power, and even the disposal of nuclear waste, which it dumped at sea off Somalia.  The bosses ran an empire that operated in 50 countries.

Like other mafia organizations, the ‘Ndrangheta revolved around family structure.  Each family was a miniature fiefdom, in which women were little more than slaves.  Fathers married their daughters off as teenagers to seal clan alliances.  Women were beaten for speaking their minds, and unfaithful wives were killed, usually by their closest male relatives.

Italian prosecutors agreed that ‘Ndrangheta women led tragic lives.  But they didn’t consider women of much use in their fight…until the Mafia prosecutor Alessandra Cerreti arrived in Calabria.  She believed that judicial officials, who were mostly men, missed the importance of ‘Ndrangheta women because “Italian men underestimate all women.”  The team she joined in Calabria was an exception; it believed that, in a criminal organization structured around family, women had to have a substantial role.  Their most important duty was to raise the next generation with a strict belief in omertà and a hatred of outsiders.  But many also became involved in the business.  At times, they acted as messengers between fugitives or imprisoned comrades, passing along tiny, folded notes—pizzini—written in code.  Some women acted as paymasters and bookkeepers.  A few took part in the violence.

Cerreti believed that female informants were an invaluable source of information but that it would take enormous bravery for them to cooperate.  When Italy declared war on the ‘Ndrangheta in 2010, she got her first break.  Following raids in several towns, 30 people were arrested, including 7 women.  Giuseppina Pesce, whose husband was already in jail, knew that she faced more than a decade behind bars herself.  But what really bothered her was that she was having an affair, and the newspapers reported that she had been detained with a man.  She would probably be killed and her three children would be raised by the ‘Ndrangheta.  She finally asked to speak with prosecutor Cerreti and they eventually made a deal.  “Everything I testify to now, I do to give my children a different future.”

Pesce’s evidence ran to more than 1500 pages.  It included diagrams of the ‘Ndrangheta hierarchy, descriptions of rituals, evidence of murders, locations of bunkers (where the criminals lived), detailed accounts of cocaine smuggling, extortion rackets, money laundering, credit-card fraud, and public corruption.  It supported existing cases and opened up many new ones.  Pesce’s betrayal shook the ‘Ndrangheta.  And it mobilized her family who thought that if she were collaborating for the sake of her children, she would stop for them too.  Then a long series of threats began using Pesce’s children as pawns.  Pesce recanted her testimony.

Following the murder of a girlfriend who had become an informant, Giuseppina Pesce regained her resolve.  The trial of 64 members of the Pesce ‘ndrina (clan) began in 2012 and took 5 years to complete.  In the end, her evidence brought down one of Europe’s most powerful crime families.

For both Ceretti and Pesce, it was a brave journey in a life characterized by isolation, friendlessness, and fear.  The prosecutor has a steel office door, drives in an armor-plated car, and has 4 bodyguards but very few friends.  Her husband’s identity is a secret and she has no children for fear of their lives.  Pesce and her children will be kept under the witness protection program for the rest of their lives.  They lead a tedious existence.  They move at least once a year and cannot communicate with anybody in their prior life.  One day Giuseppina’s brother will get out of jail and will try to find her and kill her.  “All of these experiences strengthened me as a woman.  I knew the risks, but in the end I did it.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Posted in Abitudini, Calabria, English, Foto, Italia, Mafia | Leave a comment