A rare painting by Caravaggio, the tormented genius of chiaroscuro, is exhibited for the first time from Saturday in a Roman museum having obtained an exceptional loan from the private collection which owns it.
“The portrait of Maffeo Barberini” represents the future Pope Urban VIII, from the great Roman noble family of the Barberini. Born in 1568, this extremely wealthy humanist, a figure of high Roman society, was elected in 1623 to the throne of Saint Peter, which he occupied until his death in 1644.
The painting was authenticated in 1963 by the Art critic Roberto Longhi, a great specialist in the work of Caravaggio, the nickname given to Michelangelo Merisi (1571-1610). According to him, the painting, lacking documentation, was part of the Barberini family collection for centuries before passing into a private collection when its assets were dispersed in the 1930s.
The portrait is exhibited at the Barberini Palace, the historic home of this family and now home to the National Gallery of Ancient Art. This museum already permanently houses four works by Caravaggio: “Judith beheading Holofernes”, “Narcissus”, “Saint John the Baptist” and “Saint Francis”.
“Of very great value”, this painting “has never been loaned to an exhibition, it has never been seen in a museum, it is therefore an absolute preview”, rejoices the director of the gallery, Thomas Clement Salomon, in an interview with AFP. “The portraits painted by Caravaggio can be counted on the fingers of one hand, so being able to show one to the public and experts is exceptional.”
He also underlines the interest of the subject: Maffeo Barberini was “not only an extremely powerful man of power, but also a great and refined intellectual”.
The portrait, with its bare and little-colored decor, “plays on light and shadow” and “the heart of the painting lies in the hands: the left hand which clutches a letter (…) and the right hand which sticks out of painting, enters our space,” Paola Nicita, art historian and curator at the Barberini Gallery, explains to AFP.
“It’s a painting that expresses itself through gestures,” she observes, marveling at “modern hands almost evoking (the 19th-century French realist painter Gustave) Courbet.” “This marvelous gesture of the outstretched right hand is very reminiscent of the gesture of Christ in +The Vocation of Saint Matthew+”, one of Caravaggio's most famous works, which is located in the Roman church of Saint-Louis des Français.
“Caravaggio – The portrait revealed” – From November 23 to February 23 at the Barberini Palace (https://barberinicorsini.org/en/events/exhibitions/)
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