Salvator Mundi by Leonardo da Vinci Card

Leonardo da Vinci 1500 Salvator Mundi note card ... Saviour of the World / Savior of the World ... The greatest painter in human history tried to paint Jesus Christ as appearing to him out of the darkness in about 1500 ... in a robe of brilliant Lapis Lazuli Ultramarine Blue ... his studio work shop had finely ground this rare expensive precious stone found only in Afghanistan ... at the time it was more costly than pure gold ... only the most wealthy patrons could afford to support its use ... Leonardo da Vinci's wealthy patrons included dukes of Florence and Milan, two kings of France, and Pope Leo X. The wealthy patron for this painting was King of France Louis XII. Leonardo da Vinci used his style of Sfumato ... a smoky hazy look Leonardo created using his own palm or thumb to soften image edges ... Leonardo used his intricate geometric pattern found in his notebooks on the leather strap ... Leonardo used his study of the Golden / Phi / Divine Proportion ratio (Leonardo famously had illustrated the Luca Pacioli book De Divina Proportione) ... Leonardo da Vinci was given protection and support in his last years of life by the French King Francis I ... 1516 - 1519 in a home adjacent to the king's palace Amboise connected by tunnel so the French king could at any time go visit Leonardo da Vinci and Leonardo's companion and care provider young Count Francesco Melzi. Leonardo da Vinci was gay, left-handed, artistic, scientific and geometric minded, wrote lists and notes in journals which Melzi inherited and protected the 51 years he lived beyond Leonardo da Vinci's death. Francesco Melzi was himself a count of noble birth but chose to willingly become Leonardo's companion, apprentice, and care giver ... Leonardo willed Francesco all his journals, notes, sketches of all Leonardo's many ideas and studies which Francesco organized and preserved and saved so that we now may read and study them ... some are in the possession of Queen Elizabeth II's royal collection yet today. The kings of France owned the Salvator Mundi until it passed by marriage of French Princess Henrietta Maria in 1625 to English Prince and King Charles I ... thence passing to their sons Kings Charles II and James II, VII. Salvator Mundi was a traditional frontal portrait of Jesus Christ, His right hand raised in the Blessing, His left hand holding the Crystal Orb representing the World or, alternately, the Heavenly Crystal Sphere the center of which lay the World. The popular spelling is Savior in the US or Saviour in the UK. The painting barely survived the more than 500 years since Leonardo's death in 1519. Discovered in near utter ruin it has been magnificently restored. The fine rare ground blue stone lapis lazuli was imported from the area now called Afghanistan ... used for thousands of years ... it was the same blue stone used in the Ancient Egyptian pure gold burial mask of Pharaoh King Tutankhamun (who died 1325 BC) for his eye liner and brows (the matching blue stripes in the Nemes headdress was blue glass). Renaissance artists who had wealthy patrons also used lapis lazuli for painting the blue robes of the Virgin Mary. Lapis Lazuli commonly was found with small flecks of gold through it. It was more expensive than gold by weight. While Leonardo da Vinci was not particularly religious himself, his wealthy patrons included kings 'anointed by God' and the Holy Pope of the Church. Leonardo was a man of great curiosity and intellect and artistic talent. He studied light, shadow, color, reflected light and reflected color, atmospheric perspective of distance, sfumato, perspective line drawing, geometric proportion, human and equine anatomy, human proportion, geometric solids, birds in flight, imagining how men could fly, how men could breathe under water, using mirrors to intensify Sun light to create heat or to use as a weapon, he invented war machines but hated killing and war, he cherished all living creatures, he studied swirling water currents comparing them to swirling hair in his sketches, he compared aging men portraits to those of youthful boys, he drew up plans for cities and cathedrals and castles. He was the best example of the Renaissance man.