Caravaggio masterpiece considered lost for centuries to be unveiled

June 13, 2024 8:11 PM

Caravaggio masterpiece considered lost for centuries to be unveiled. The painting is one of only 60 known Caravaggio pieces in existence and is considered one of the most valuable old master artworks in the world.
posted by chariot pulled by cassowaries (12 comments total)

I watched way too much White Collar. My immediate thought was, what if it's a masterful forgery?
posted by limeonaire at 10:28 PM on June 13 [2 favorites]

I once imagined all Caravaggios being painted on black velvet and now I can't unsee that.



'til we meet again!
posted by alex_skazat at 10:38 PM on June 13 [1 favorite]

This is a once in a generation thang? "We" discovered a lost Caravaggio in 1990. It was hanging, misattributed, in the dining room of some Dublin Jesuits. As often in these reveals, the back-story is a) important for establishing authenticity b) long and winding.
posted by BobTheScientist at 11:35 PM on June 13 [3 favorites]

The painting was due to be auctioned with a starting price tag of 1,500 euros ($2,400).

Not quite a fiver-in-a-charity-shop find, but wouldn't have been far off.

Caravaggio is a great reminder that artistic genius is no defence against being a total jerk. Still, who wouldn't kill to paint like that.
posted by rory at 2:26 AM on June 14 [2 favorites]

one of the most valuable old master artworks in the world
Prado also has a Mona Lisa
posted by HearHere at 3:27 AM on June 14 [1 favorite]

Yes, "throwing a plate of artichokes at a waiter" was just a warm up for this punk.
posted by R. Mutt at 4:37 AM on June 14

This is a once in a generation thang? "We" discovered a lost Caravaggio in 1990. It was hanging, misattributed, in the dining room of some Dublin Jesuits. As often in these reveals, the back-story is a) important for establishing authenticity b) long and winding.

It gets more interesting than that and the details are in the Wikipedia article for The Taking of Christ. Including:

Sir Denis Mahon, who had in 1993 authenticated the Dublin version, in 2004 stated that the Sannini version was Caravaggio's original, but that the Dublin version was a copy by Caravaggio himself.
...
The Sannini version was the subject of a legal dispute and was taken into official custody, where pigment analysis by Maurizio Seracini found Naples yellow, which was not known in painting before 1615. Seracini said this proved it was not the original; Paoletti disagreed. Jonathan Harr's book about the Dublin painting accepts Seracini's argument, while Michael Daley of ArtWatch was not convinced.

My mother-in-law is a Caravaggio completist. She has been on a quest for years to see every Caravaggio. Luckily many of them travel for exhibitions. Thats how she saw the beautiful St. John the Baptist that sits in Kansas City.

But not all of them travel. Thats how we ended up in Malta with her and, more recently, out in the suburbs of Rome to see the Sannini Taking of Christ. I don't know if the Sannini is the original but, my god, is it a gorgeous painting. Here's a detail I took with my phone.

She has a trip scheduled next month to Madrid of course.
posted by vacapinta at 4:43 AM on June 14 [10 favorites]

I can’t believe people are viewing this criminal and murderer’s work.
posted by Captaintripps at 6:15 AM on June 14 [1 favorite]

The BBC recently aired a three-part documentary, Rob and Rylan's Grand Tour, in which two gay men made famous by daytime TV follow the path of the cultural circuit through Italy beloved by young British aristocrats of a few centuries ago. Rob Rinder is a criminal barrister and aesthete; Rylan (just 'Rylan') is a former model and failed X-Factor contestant who, as the trailer puts it, 'doesn't know his arts from his elbow'.

It had all the makings of just another celebs-on-a-jolly travelogue, but Rylan's artistic awakening is genuinely moving as he's drawn into Rinder's world. Watching him spend half an hour in front of Botticelli's Venus (alone--the privileges of celebrity) is fascinating. And of course there's a fair amount of Caravaggio and discussion of his life in the third episode (Rome), where among other things they try to recreate Goliath. It's not life-changing telly but it's a lot more highbrow and insightful than it has any right to be. And two gay men's perspective on Caravaggio was perhaps a surprising choice for a primetime BBC show.
posted by Hogshead at 6:26 AM on June 14 [3 favorites]

Hogshead: And two gay men's perspective on Caravaggio was perhaps a surprising choice for a primetime BBC show.
The 1st episode of John Berger's 1972 BBC series Ways of Seeing, showed a group of children discussing gender and sexuality in Caravaggio's Supper at Emmaus. It really opened my eyes at the time.

vacapinta: My mother-in-law is a Caravaggio completist.
You have my sympathy! In retirement my mother became an autodidact expert in the iconography of saints and then went on culture cruises round the Med. The poor tour-guides were corrected if they confused St Lucy [two eyeballs on a plate] with St Agatha [two breasts ditto].
posted by BobTheScientist at 6:49 AM on June 14 [2 favorites]

Didn't know his personal stuff. And not a huge fan of those old-timey paintings much. But Caravaggio could fucking paint. His work certainly strikes a chord with me.
posted by Windopaene at 5:32 PM on June 14

Seconding the plug for Rob and Rylan's Grand Tour. This review steered me towards it and I was glad it did - well worth watching all three instalments. Both men came across as warm and relatable, but Rylan's definitely the biggest surprise for anyone who knows him only as a TV celeb with very white teeth, or as that bloke on the Cinch billboards. Much respect.
posted by rory at 6:38 AM on June 15 [1 favorite]