“Portrait of Monsignor Maffeo Barberini,” a rare painting created by Italian Baroque master Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio, recently went to public display for the first time ever.
Only one of a handful of surviving portraits painted by Caravaggio, the painting will be exhibited at Palazzo Barberini in Rome, Italy, through February 23.
“Portrait of Monsignor Maffeo Barberini” was first recognized as the work of Caravaggio in 1963 by Italian art expert Roberto Longhi. It is believed that it shows Florentine nobleman Maffeo Barberini as a 30-year-old, 25 years before he would become Pope Urban VIII, although art experts say that can’t be claimed with absolute certainty.
The painting has been privately owned by a family in Florence and hasn’t been part of any major Caravaggio exhibition in the past. Additionally, scholars never properly examined the piece.
However, thanks to the persistence of Thomas Clement Salomon, the director of Italy’s National Galleries of Ancient Art, the owners of the painting eventually decided to allow the painting to be displayed at Palazzo Barberini. The next step will be to try to convince the owners to sell it.
“Our first dream was to put it on show, and we were able to do that, and then it’s obvious that the idea to buy it is a dream,” Salomon told the New York Times. “It’s a challenge, but it’s something we’ll work on, if possible.”
