Caravaggio, the genius of light and shadow, continues to fascinate. After decades of mystery, a work by one of the greatest Baroque painters, among the most influential in the history of art, has appeared. The history of this painting, which was believed to have disappeared for more than half a century, by Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio (Milan, 1571-Porto Ércole, 1610) is fascinating. It is about the ‘Portrait of Maffeo Barberini’before becoming Pope Urban VIII, a painting only known to scholars.
It was part of a private collection that has temporarily transferred it. For the first time it will be exhibited in Rome, at the Barberini Palace, known for its grandiose architecture and rich art collection. It will be an individual exhibition, among the baroque wonders of the Roman palace that bears the same surname as the pontiff Urban VIII, elected in 1623. The palace was built from 1625 for the family Barberiniof the Roman nobility, especially influential in the times of Urban VIII, lover of pomp and great patroncultured and art collector.
Nepotistic Pope, who strengthened the Inquisition, after his death in 1644, his family was forced to leave Rome during a long exile to avoid reprisals. The large canvas (124 x 90 centimeters) will be shown for the first time in Rome from November 21 to February 23, 2025, and will then be part of the great exhibition on ‘the cursed painter’scheduled for March 2025, on the occasion of the Jubilee.
ID
It was Roberto Longhi, critic and professor of Art History, a great expert on Caravaggio and internationally famous, who identified the painting in the shop of a Florentine antique dealer. Public a photograph of it for the first time in 1963, in his magazine ‘Paragone’, obtaining the unanimous consensus of the scientific community that it was an authentic Caravaggio.
Since then, that shot, later also reproduced on the web, remains the only test of the existence of the work. For experts, it could only be a painting by Caravaggio: The image of the cardinal, about thirty years old, who suddenly turns around and points his finger, is a portrait in motion, a prodigy of 17th century painting in constant competition. with sculpture.
Not only is the style of the ‘Portrait of Maffeo Barberini’ identified with Caravaggio’s classic chiaroscuro, but also several historical sources agreed with Roberto Longhi when linking the fates of Michelangelo Merisi and the Barberini family. According to Longhi, the work, which resurfaced in Rome without documentation, remained in the family collection for centuries, before ending up in a private collection, probably during the dispersal of the Barberini assets in the 1930s.
“A beautiful find”
Italian media explain that the portrait of the man who would become Urban VIII seemed to have been vanished into thin air. Very few managed to see the canvas in person. The private collection in which it was found was in Florence. The same city where Longhi had identified it more than sixty years ago. The negotiations so that the work could finally showing themselves to the public were not easy. But finally, after an agreement mediated by the Ministry of Culture, the time has come for the exhibition of the painting. In the art world there is talk of “a beautiful discovery, a painting that must be seen.” It will, therefore, be an event of extraordinary interest for both scholars and the general public, because seeing an authentic Caravaggio painting for the first time in public is a rarity.
The link with the Roman scene of the painter’s youth increases its value. It was above all the Rome of the cardinalsof patrons, of collectors, in the heart of baroque Rome, with Caravaggio treasures in San Luigi dei Francesi, Borghese Gallery, Odescalchi Palace. But it was also the seediest Rome, that of the narrow streets of Campo Marzio, populated by penniless artists and prostitutes, where the painter lived and signed his sentence, killing a man on May 28, 1606. Then came the exile and flight to the south from Italy to avoid conviction after the murder: to Naples and Syracuse (Sicily), where he also left wonderful traces of his passage.
Painted autobiography
In a way, his paintings are an autobiography not written but painted, and constitute some of the most important masterpieces of Western art. Among others, it is worth highlighting ‘Judith beheading Holofernes’, the cycle dedicated to Saint Matthew, the self-portrait as Bacchus and ‘The Conversion of Saint Paul’.
After a turbulent life, Caravaggio died at the age of 39 in Tuscany, on July 18, 1610, under mysterious circumstances. What happened during the artist’s last days is one of the most debated cases in the history of art. It is still talked about and written about. Last Wednesday, November 13, in prime time, on La7 television, the well-known writer and journalist Aldo Cazzullo dedicated a program about the mystery of death of one of the greatest painters in the history of art.
Obviously, an authentic Caravaggio such as the ‘Portrait of Maffeo Barberini’ cannot be put up for sale in the international market. The regulations of the Ministry of Cultural Assets prevent this. Hence its price is lower in the Italian market. But at least it’s worth thirty million euros. This is demonstrated by the recent case of Ecce Homo, discovered in 2021 in Madrid, sold for around 36 million to a British resident in Spain. It is expected that Ecce Homo will also be part of the great exhibition dedicated to Caravaggio in Rome in 2025.
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