Italy buys Caravaggio painting for €30m

The oil-on-canvas painting Portrait of Monsignor Maffeo Barberini by Italian Baroque painter Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio (Alessio Panunzi and Alberto Novelli/Gallerie Nazionali di Arte Antica, Ministero della Cultura via AP, HO)

Italy has bought a rare portrait by baroque painter Caravaggio for €30m, one of the largest state investments ever for a single artwork, the country’s Culture Ministry said.

The portrait, painted in around 1598 and attributed to Caravaggio in 1963, depicts Maffeo Barberini, a nobleman who later became Pope Urban VIII.

The painting was acquired from a private collection by the Italian state after more than a year of negotiations and will now enter Rome’s Palazzo Barberini permanent collection.

The oil-on-canvas painting Portrait of Monsignor Maffeo Barberini by Italian Baroque painter Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio (Alessio Panunzi and Alberto Novelli/Gallerie Nazionali di Arte Antica, Ministero della Cultura via AP, HO)

“This is a work of exceptional importance,” culture minister Alessandro Giuli said in a statement, noting the painting was a turning point in Caravaggio’s modern rediscovery and its purchase has helped strengthen the presence of his works in Italian public collections.

The new acquisition follows a recent one of Antonello da Messina’s Ecce Homo, and is part of Italy’s broader project to strengthen the national cultural heritage, making some art history masterpieces accessible to scholars and the public.

Portrait of Monsignor Maffeo Barberini depicts the future pope in his 30s, dressed as a cleric of the Apostolic Chamber, at a crucial moment in his rise to power.

The work was made famous by art critic Roberto Longhi in his 1963 article The True ‘Maffeo Barberini’ Of Caravaggio, and has since been widely recognised by critics as a work by Caravaggio, also known as Michelangelo Merisi.

Longhi called the painting “one of the founding moments of modern portraiture”, emphasising how Caravaggio ushered in a new psychological intensity.

Caravaggio revolutionised painting at the turn of the 17th century by introducing a dramatic use of light that became the cornerstone of the Baroque style.

He is currently one of the most studied artists in the world, yet the number of his confirmed works remains extremely limited.

At Palazzo Barberini, the portrait will be displayed alongside Caravaggio’s other works – one of the world’s most important collections – in particular alongside another of Caravaggio’s masterpieces, Judith Slaying Holofernes, also purchased by the Italian state in 1971.