Rubens and Caravaggio: I to Prado and you to Rome

The picture, of large dimensions (oil on canvas, 306 by 216 centimeters), was performed between 1638 and 1639. It is a masterpiece of the final period of Rubensfinished only one year before his death. At that time I also worked on the ambitious project for the Stop Tower. ‘The martyrdom of San Andrés’ is off the chapel of the foundation with care, in a perfectly synchronized choreographyby half a dozen Employees of SIT. It is placed on some tables, it is separated from the frame and installed in a box.

The frameof the seventeenth century, painted in blue cerúleo with golden stucco, it is the original. Carried out at Abraham Lers and Julian Beymar’s workshop, Ebanistas by Felipe IV, according to Rubens himself, was found in a woodsectioned in numerous pieces. The transfer of the painting to the Prado (just 2.7 kilometers) is done in truck. Travel in two boxes with all guarantees: In one goes the canvas, in another the frame, separated into four fragments. They are the same boxes used on previous trips.

He was in the witch in 1958, in Antwerp in 1977, on the occasion of the IV Centenary of the birth of Rubens; In the Palace of Fine Arts of Brussels In 1985, in the Belgium Pavilion in the Universal Exhibition of Seville In 1992, in the Museum of Fine Arts of Lille (France) In 2004 … in 2018 he moved to the Rubens de Antwerp house to participate in the exhibition ‘The teacher returns home’. In October of that year he traveled to Japan for a sample about the painter at the Western Art Museum of Tokyowhich gathered more than 60 works by Rubens. After his stay in Antwerp and Tokyo, ‘The Martyrdom of San Andrés’ was able to contemplate himself in the Thyssen Museum Between March and April 2019. In May of that year he traveled to Mexico to expose himself at the International Baroque Museum of Puebla. From September to December 2019, it was presented at the National Museum of Art of Mexico (Munal).

Will hang at the Prado since March 3 in the ROOM 16B OF THE VILLANUEVA BUILDING. This painting was already in the Museum from 1978 to 1989, when he returned to the Carlos de Antwerp Foundation, whose headquarters, rehabilitated, was inaugurated in 1992 by Don Juan Carlos and Doña Sofía, accompanied by the kings of the Belgians.

According to A 2016 Sotheby’s house report (It offers a sales proposal that recommends it to the Prado), to which ABC has had access, the estimate in the market at that time of ‘the martyrdom of San Andrés’, by Rubens, declared BIC and inexportableit was from about 20 million euros (Minimum price or reservation, 18 million), although if it was auctioned in London, it could reach or exceed 28 million. According to this report, “a more noticeable and more valuable work”, ‘The Countess of Chinchón’, from Goya, was acquired by El Prado in 2000 for 24 million euros. And “considerably more valuable”, ‘The innocent massacre’ by Rubenssold in Sotheby’s-London in 2002 for 49.5 million pounds (about 79.7 million euros), artist’s record.

‘The martyrdom of San Andrés’ was commissioned to Rubens by Jan van Vuchta flamenco that resided in Madrid as agent of the famous printer Balthasar Moretusof the Plantiniana Printing of Antwerp. He wanted to bequeathed after his death in 1639 to the Royal Hospital of San Andrés de los Flamencos, origin of the current Carlos de Antwerp Foundation. It was intended for the main altar of the Church. In the Testament, signed on April 24, 1639, a frame for the painting was entrusted, which is the current one. The painting represents the moment of the torture, with the holy crucified in Aspa, and his eyes elevated to heaven.

The Hospital and Church of the Carlos de Antwerp Foundation were created at the beginning of the 17 San Marcos street from Madrid; then in the Claudio Coello Streetheadquarters since 1877.

In 1848, due to the economic problems of the institution, the canvas was transferred to Monastery of San Lorenzo de El Escorial, where it remained until the inauguration of the new headquarters, with temporary permanence in the Real Tapices Factory. On December 10, 1858, the public auction of the table was announced in several newspapers. It was suspended. Years later, an American march that worked for andL Metropolitan Museum in New York He made a purchase offer for 15,000,000 of the old pesetas. The sale was suspended again.

At the beginning of December 1936 A howbils fell on the vault of the churchabove the main altar, making it rubble. The canvas was intact and was transferred to one of the side chapels. In March 1937, an envoy from the Artistic Treasury Board, in charge of the conservation of art objects, advised the Belgian consul to put Rubens put in a safe place and proposed Take it to the meadowwhere the small damage caused by the way was restored and was guarded by the museum.

In 1977 the Rubens was restored by the Ministry of National Education and Culture of Belgium, on the occasion of the commemorative exhibition of the IV Centenary of the birth of the painter. In 1991 it was the turn of the framework, intervened at the Institute for the Conservation and Restoration of Cultural Property of the Ministry of Culture of Spain. In 2014, the frame was restored again and the canvas was cleaned commissioned by the Carlos de Antwerp Foundation to María Jofre. Between April and May 2019, the work was subject to a process of Preventive conservation in the restoration workshops of SIT Spain.

While ‘the martyrdom of San Andrés’ by Rubens arrived in Prado yesterday, the ‘Ecce Homo’ of Caravaggio left the museum towards Rome: will be part of the artist’s great monograph, which will open its doors in the Palazzo Barberini, from March 7 to July 6as part of the jubilee year. ‘Caravaggio 2025’, curated by Francesca Cappelletti, Maria Cristina Terzaghi and Thomas Clement Salomon, will gather More than 40 paintings of the artist, including some of the most famous, assigned by museums in Europe and the United States. The Thyssen has ceded his ‘Santa Catalina de Alexandria’. One of the attractions will be the presence of ‘Ecce Homo’ and the ‘Maffeo Barberini’ portrait – Before becoming the Urban Pope VIII–, a painting only known by scholars and that is part of a private collection.

The ‘Ecce Homo’, from Caravaggio, who was going to auction in the Ansorena room in Madrid in 2021 as a ‘coronation of thorns’, from the Ribera circle, and left with a price of 1,500 euros‘in extremis’ was paralyzed. It was the Prado who warned the Ministry of Culture of erroneous attribution. Culture reacted quickly to decree its inexportability, the same with which the Community of Madrid acted to initiate its qualification as BIC.

After its restoration and study and the attribution of its authorship to Caravaggio, its new owner (a British collector with residence in Spain, who acquired it by 36 million euros To the brothers Pérez de Castro with Colnaghi as an intermediary) he deposited it in 2024 in the Prado for nine months. By express desire of the owner, the picture was exhibited from May to October 13 alone in a Museum Room (La 8a) as a chapel. Since then and until last Sunday, February 23, hung in the European naturalistic painting rooms of the Prado, next to the only caravaggio of the museum: ‘David winner of Goliath’. Yesterday he was off and set up to Italy.

Being bic and inexportable, for his departure to Rome the owner has had to ask for a Special temporary export permit to the Board of Qualification, Valuation and Export of Assets of the Historical Heritage, under the Ministry of Culture. Asked about whether the picture will return to the Prado after the exhibition in Rome, the director of the museum, Miguel Falomirhe said in January that he had not yet been informed of the owner’s plans: “We do not know what will happen when he returns to Spain.”

Coinciding with the exhibition in Rome, it will be released in Italian cinemas on March 10, 11 and 12 THE DOCUMENTARY ‘THE SLEEPER. The Lost Caravaggio ‘directed by Álvaro Longoria (The preview will be in Rome on March 5). Rolled in Spain, Italy, Great Britain and Monaco, it has been produced by Morena Films, Mediacrest and Audiovisual Strategy, Fandango. On March 15 it will be screened in the Malaga Film Festivalwhere it will compete as the best documentary in the official section. In Spanish cinemas it will premiere on May 13, distributed by Elastica Films.

It includes interviews with Jorge Coll and his partners in the authentication and sale of the painting, Andrea Lullo and Filippo Benappi; the restorative of the ‘Ecce Homo’, Andrea Cipriani; the director of Ansorena, Jaime Mato; specialists in the artist’s work, such as María Cristina Terzaghi, Gianni Papi or Nicola Spinosa … in telephone conversation with ABC, Longoria explains that during three years The discovery of ‘Ecce Homo’ followed, its restoration, the attribution of its authorship and its sale. This ‘Documentary thriller’a real story, tells the mysterious world of The ‘Sleepers’ (Sleeping)works of art of great value that remain hidden or erroneously attributed. I already knew Jorge Coll before and, when the news jumped, he saw the possibility of making this documentary. As for the owner of Caravaggio, he maintains his anonymity and has not wanted to participate, although Longoria has been able to talk to him.