O Prado Museum in Madrid, unveiled this Monday (27) a painting of the Italian Baroque master Caravaggio which will go on public display for the first time this week, following what the museum described as one of the greatest discoveries in art history.
The trace of “Ecce Homo” (Behold the Man) had been lost since the 19th century before resurfacing three years ago when the painting, initially attributed to an unknown Spanish painter, was about to be sold in Spain for a fraction of its real value.
Died in his early thirties in 1610 after a turbulent life Caravaggio was a master in the use of “chiaroscuro” lighting technique to make his themes seem to come to life.
The depiction of the suffering Jesus Christ with a crown of thorns was painted between 1605 and 1609, shortly before Caravaggio's death, and is believed to have belonged to the King Philip 4th from Spain.
“Now we can fully enjoy all the nuances, all the subtleties, the enormous beauty that Caravaggio expresses through his version of 'Ecce Homo',” said David Garcia Cueto, head of the Museum's department of pre-1800 Italian and French painting. do Prado, in Madrid.
Its new owner, an international art collector based in Spain, reached an agreement with the museum to keep the work of art on display until October — a deadline that may be extended, as the owner's intention is to display it permanently.
In 2021, Spain blocked the auction of the painting after experts suggested it could have been the work of Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio and not from an unknown colleague of the 17th century Spaniard, José de Ribera .
Art history professor Maria Cristina Terzaghi traced the painting to its previous owners, the family of 19th-century politician Evaristo Perez de Castro.
Source: CNN Brasil
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