Sandro Botticelli's rediscovered and arresting "Man of Sorrows," due to be auctioned at Sotheby's on January 27 -- with a guarantee of $40 million -- has yet to be studied extensively, as it has been in private hands since the 19th century.
But technical analysis undertaken by the auction house in preparation for the sale has already revealed one unexpected discovery: an intriguing image of a Madonna and Child, buried beneath the paint layers.
Chris Apostle, the senior vice president and director of Old Master paintings at Sotheby's in New York, who has had the opportunity to ponder the picture in depth, believes 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.
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