Droga5's Sublime Ad for Christie's Captures the Power of a Leonardo Painting Without Even Showing It

Sometimes, not showing an artwork can be as powerful as showing it. This was true in Grey London's story-rich campaign for the Tate Modern back in 2015. And it's especially true of Droga5's lovely, almost transcendental new spot for auction house Christie's—which promotes the upcoming sale of a long-lost Leonardo da Vinci painting by not showing it at all. Instead, the spot focuses on people's reactions to the painting. And they are fascinating to watch. Droga5 worked with portrait photographer Nadav Kander to place a hidden camera beneath the painting of Christ known as the Salvator Mundi ("Saviour of the World")—confirmed over the past decade as a Leonardo work, after centuries in obscurity—at Christie's New York, where it currently resides. As people walked past the painting, the camera captured their often visceral response to it—in Droga5's words, "painting a picture of the overwhelming emotion that this painting, its beauty and its divine subject matter stirred in all who came to see it." See the video here, which you'll notice includes a few famous faces: [kickout id="1"] Droga5 refers to the Salvator Mundi as "The Last da Vinci," a media-friendly affectation that recalls J. Walter Thompson Amsterdam's "The Next Rembrandt," a fascinating creative data project and a major winner on the ad awards circuit in recent years. The rediscovered masterpiece is going on sale this coming Wednesday, as the headline piece at Christie's Post-War & Contemporary Art Evening Sale in New York. Here's what Christie's has to say about the work, and Droga5's ad for it: More than 20,000 people from all walks of life have come to gaze at Leonardo da Vinci's Salvator Mundi. After centuries in the hands of royal and private owners, its return to the public consciousness has resulted in queues wrapping around Christie's exhibition spaces in London, Hong Kong, San Francisco and now in New York. The experience of setting eyes on a work described as the 'Divine Mona Lisa'—one of fewer than 20 paintings acknowledged as being from the Renaissance master's hand—is one that has moved people in many different ways, with those experiences being shared myriad times via social media. But what if the tables were turned and the Salvator Mundi could share with us what he has seen these last few weeks? Working with the world-renowned portrait photographer Nadav Kander, it was decided to honor the significance of Salvator Mundi—the greatest artistic rediscovery of the last 100 years—by documenting its profound effect on those looking and pointing their camera phones. This postmodern turning-the-tables idea comes full circle through the extension of the campaign into Instagram. While so many museum-goers are now Instagramming the artwork they see, the Salvator Mundi is Instagramming the people who come to see it. Photos of the visitors have been documented on Instagram @thelastdavinci. Each portrait is captioned with the first name of the visitor and the time of their visit, which Droga5 says is "a format reminiscent of a biblical scripture citation." Now that we've kept you in suspense, here's a look at what they were looking at: [kickout id="2"] CREDITS Christie's: The Last da Vinci Agency Droga5 NY Creative Chairman David Droga Chief Creative Officer Ted Royer Creative Directors Laurie Howell, Toby Treyer-Evans Senior Copywriter Tom McQueen Chief Creation Officer Sally-Ann Dale Co-Directors of Film Production Jesse Brihn, Bryan Litman Senior Producer, Film Jennifer Chen Producer, Film Isabella Lebovitz Associate Producer, Film Phillip Cheng Associate Producer, Film Kelly Appleton Associate Producer, Film Annie Vlosich Associate Producer, Film Carlos Valdivia Music Supervisor Mike Ladman Director of Integrated Production Business Affairs Jocelyn Howard Co-Directors of Interactive Tasha Cronin, Justin Durazzo Producer, Interactive Grace Wang Director of Art Production Cliff Lewis Senior Art Director George McQueen Associate Director, Art Production Bianca Escobar Producer, Print Nichole Katsikas Director of Print Services Rob Lugo Associate Director, Print Services Riely Clough Producer, Print Rose Mahan Retouching Manager Michelle Leedy Retouching coordinator Michael Mockler Retoucher John Clendenon Graphics Studio Manager Virginia Vargas Graphics Studio Coordinator Nereida Valles Studio Artist Joseph Barrile Studio Quality Control Manager Lisa Bishai Studio Quality Control Specialist Susanne Johansson Studio Quality Control Specialist Hoyu Yiu Global Chief Strategy Officer Jonny Bauer Group Strategy Director Will Davie Strategist Daniel Wenger Head of Communications Strategy Colleen Leddy Communications Strategy Director Ben Nilsen Chief Intelligence Officer Amy Avery Group Account Director Alex Woods Account Director Lauren Tomlinson Account Manager Sherry Cao Project Manager Hillary Jordan Client Christie's CMO Marc Sands Co-Chairman, Post-War & Contemporary Art Loïc Gouzer Business Coordinator, Post-War & Contemporary Art Louise Makowski SVP, Global Marketing Director Marissa Wilcox Marketing Manager, Post-War & Contemporary Art Anita Martignetti Production Company Chelsea Pictures Director Nadav Kander DOP Adam Beckman Executive Producer Pat McGoldrick Producer Jon Dino Editorial Cut and Run Editor Gary Knight Assistant Editor Natalie Kasling Executive Producer Lauren Hertzberg Senior Producer Eytan Gutman Telecine Company 3 Executive Producer Alexandra Lubrano Colorist Tom Poole Conform Jogger Executive Producer Yuko Lytle Flame Matt Dolven Flame Joseph Grosso Music Composer - Max Richter Song - On the Nature of Daylight Sound Sonic Union Mixer David Papa BTS Photographer Paul McGeiver

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Droga5's Sublime Ad for Christie's Captures the Power of a Leonardo Painting Without Even Showing It

When a masterpiece looks back

Tim Nudd

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Tim Nudd