In copertina, Images provided by the documentary ‘The Sleeper‘, directed by Alvaro Longoria and produced by Morena Films, Estrategia Audiovisual, Mediacrest, and Fandango. © Courtesy Museo Nacional del Prado. https://www.museodelprado.es/
Ecce Homo (durante el proceso de restauración)
1605-09
Óleo sobre lienzo, 111 x 86 cm
Imagen cortesía de colección privada
© Courtesy Museo Nacional del Prado
Nel 2021 stava per essere venduto per 1.500 euro in una casa d’aste di Madrid, dal 28 Maggio 2024 l’Ecce Homo certificato Caravaggio sarà esposto dal 28 Maggio al Museo Nacional del Prado. “The Prado played an important role in the recovery of this work by alerting the Ministry of Culture of its importance, which prevented its departure from Spain. Thanks to the generosity of its current owner, the Prado now makes an exceptional work by one of the greatest painters in history available to the public and the scientific.” – Miguel Falomir, Director of the Museo Nacional del Prado – (m.g.)
Ecce Homo (después de la restauración)
1605-09
Óleo sobre lienzo, 111 x 86 cm
Imagen cortesía de colección privada
© Courtesy Museo Nacional del Prado
PRESS RELEASE MUSEO NACIONAL DEL PRADO
The Museo Nacional del Prado and Colnaghi announce the unveiling and loan of Caravaggio’s masterpiece Ecce Homo
The Museo Nacional del Prado and Colnaghi are honoured to announce the loan of Caravaggio’s masterpiece Ecce Homo to the Spanish national museum in Madrid, on behalf of the painting’s new owner.
The Prado Museum will unveil the work on 28 May for a special one-piece exhibition, on display until October 2024.
Painted by the great Italian artist around 1605-09 and believed to have once been part of the private collection of Phillip IV of Spain, the painting is one of around only 60 known works by Caravaggio in existence, and thus one of the most valuable old master artworks in the world.
Since the Prado Museum alerted Spain’s Ministry of Culture of the relevance of the painting when it reemerged at Ansorena auction house in April 2021 attributed to a pupil of José de Ribera, the work has been under the custodianship of the art gallery Colnaghi, in collaboration with Filippo Benappi (Benappi Fine Art) and Andrea Lullo (Lullo Pampoulides). The painting was restored by specialist Andrea Cipriani and his team under the supervision of experts from the Comunidad de Madrid regional government. The results of this intricate process are featured in a comprehensive publication alongside texts by expert specialists including Keith Christiansen, Gianni Papi, Giuseppe Porzio and Maria Cristina Terzaghi, to be released to coincide with the unveiling.
Since its reappearance at auction three years ago, Ecce Homo has represented one of the greatest discoveries in the history of art, inspiring an unprecedented speed of consensus around its authentication. Following an in-depth diagnostic investigation by Claudio Falcucci – a nuclear engineer specialising in applying scientific techniques to the study and conservation of cultural heritage – restoration has been carried out in an informed and rigorous manner, allowing each decision to be based on an exhaustive assessment of the work’s constituent materials, their specific alteration processes, and the painting’s conservation history, reaffirming this initial attribution to the Italian master.
Specialist interpretation of the painting carried out by Maria Cristina Terzaghi (associate professor in History of Modern Art at University Roma Tre and member of the scientific committee of Museo di Capodimonte in Naples), Gianni Papi (art historian and author), Giuseppe Porzio (art history professor at the University of Naples) and Keith Christiansen (curator at The Metropolitan Museum of Art) is included in the publication, each moving along different trajectories. Specifically: the circumstances of its discovery, the provenance, the stylistic, technical and iconographic aspects of the work, its critical fortune and the legacy left by the master in Naples. Four of the most authoritative experts on Caravaggio and Baroque painting, they all share the same passionate certainty: that Ecce Homo is a masterpiece by the Italian artist.
The expressive oil on canvas depicts the art historical motif of the Roman governor Pontius Pilate presenting Christ to the people, with the words “Ecce homo!” (“Behold the man”) – one of the most dramatic moments of the Passion, recorded in the Gospel of John (19:5). The work is a powerful example of Caravaggio’s mastery of conception: a skilful composition presenting a three-dimensional and dynamic scene that is entirely innovative, yet within the confines of an established iconographic tradition.
The unveiling of the Ecce Homo and the announcement of this loan – an act of generosity by its new owner – is accompanied by a collaborative publication bringing together leading experts in the field with seminal essays by Christiansen, Papi, Porzio and Terzaghi, bearing testament to the work’s monumental importance. Titled Caravaggio: The Ecce Homo Unveiled, it offers an essential starting point for the understanding of this new addition to Caravaggio’s oeuvre.
PROVENANCE
Caravaggio’s Ecce Homo (circa 1605-09) was possibly first mentioned in a written undertaking in Rome between the artist and the aristocrat Massimo Massimi, signed on 25 June 1605. It was then listed in the collection of Juan de Lezcano – secretary to Pedro Fernández de Castro, Spanish ambassador to Rome until 1616, and later viceroy to the court of Palermo, brother of Francisco de Castro, viceroy of Naples – in 1631. The work is then mentioned in the inventory drawn up at the time of the departure of García de Avellaneda y Haro Delgadillo’s wife to Madrid. Delgadillo was the second Count of Castrillo (1588 – 1670), and Viceroy in Naples from 1653 to 1659.
Ecce Homo was subsequently included in the private collection of Philip IV of Spain in 1664, then mentioned as being on display in the apartment of his son, Charles II, from 1701 until 1702.
In 1789, the work is listed as one exhibited at Real Sitio de la Casa de Campo until 1816 when it is documented at the Palacio de Buenavista, Madrid, in the collection of Manuel Godoy (1767 – 1851), the Secretary of State to Charles IV and a famous art collector. Following Godoy’s death, it was bequeathed by to the Real Academia de San Fernando.
In 1821, Evaristo Pérez de Castro Méndez (1769 – 1849), the Spanish diplomat and honorary member of the Academia de San Fernando, received the Caravaggio in exchange for other paintings gifted to the fine arts academy. It has remained with the family until it changed ownership in 2024. Its rediscovery was followed by two years of intensive research and restoration.
A detailed authentication process led by the most authoritative specialists of Caravaggio and Baroque painting have shown the work is, without a doubt, a Caravaggio masterpiece.
Miguel Falomir, Director of the Museo Nacional del Prado, comments: “The Prado played an important role in the recovery of this work by alerting the Ministry of Culture of its importance, which prevented its departure from Spain. Thanks to the generosity of its current owner, the Prado now makes an exceptional work by one of the greatest painters in history available to the public and the scientific community.” Jorge Coll, CEO of Colnaghi, comments: “In the last hundred years, no artist more than Caravaggio, with his adventurous biography and unmistakable style, has fascinated audiences of all ages and engaged scholars from halfway around the world. This work therefore presents one of the greatest discoveries in the history of art, and the sale marks the culmination of two years of collaborative work with many leaders in their respective fields. I’m honoured to have been part of this process and to have supported the incredible research and restoration process, which confirmed and reinforced our initial impressions that this work is a masterpiece of its time, and ours.’’
Maria Cristina Terzaghi, Caravaggio scholar, comments: “The speed of consensus around the work being a Caravaggio upon its rediscovery was absolutely unprecedented in the critical history of the painter, on whom scholars have rarely agreed, at least in the last forty years. To be part of this process has been in many ways a once in a lifetime opportunity, for which I am immensely grateful.”
Keith Christiansen, art historian, comments: “The attribution of the Ecce Homo and its placement within Caravaggio’s oeuvre required detailed demonstration across many leading international experts. To be a part of the team who explored this rare masterpiece has been a truly extraordinary experience.”
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