The painting “Portrait of Maffeo Barberini” will be on public display for the first time. Photo: Getty Images

The public can admire the painting “Portrait of Maffeo Barberini” from November 23 to February 23, 2025 at the Palazzo Barberini – which houses the national classical art collections, once owned by the Barberini family. Maffeo Barberini, who later became Pope Urban VIII, was a powerful figure and one of the great patrons of the arts of the 17th century.

Caravaggio - real name Michelangelo Merisi - was a master of the “chiaroscuro” technique (using light and shadow to highlight the subject in a painting), and the portrait of Maffeo Barberini is one of the few surviving works of Caravaggio's portraits, as most of his others have been lost or damaged over time.

The “Portrait of Maffeo Barberini” was identified as a Caravaggio in 1963, by art critic Roberto Longhi, a major authority on Caravaggio's work.

The painting, believed to have been painted in the early 17th century, depicts Maffeo Barberini sitting and seemingly giving orders with his right hand raised. According to Thomas Clement Salomon, director of the Galerias Nacionales de Arte Antiguo, the portrait is “of great value” not only because it is one of the few surviving Caravaggio portraits, but also because it has never been loaned or publicly exhibited before.

"Very few experts have had the opportunity to see it in person. Seeing the painting in real life gives you a sense of the almost hypnotic power it has," said Paola Nicita, an expert at the museum.

The painting is notable not only for its use of light and shadow – Caravaggio’s signature technique – but also for the powerful gestures of the figures. In particular, Maffeo Barberini’s right hand extends out of the painting, seemingly reaching into the viewer’s physical space, a gesture reminiscent of Caravaggio’s famous work “The Calling of Saint Matthew.”

According to baotintuc.vn