(by Francesca Pierleoni).
Two masterpieces by Michelangelo da
Merisi da Caravaggio, 'St. Francis in Meditation' and 'The
Flagellation of Christ' will be juxtaposed with two copies that
were likely made in the same era and are almost identical and
the center of complex attributions and diagnostic
investigations.
These are the four works of 'Caravaggio nel Patrimonio del
FEC, Il Doppio e la Copia', an exhibition curated by Giulia
Silvia Ghia that will be at the Rome's National Gallery of
Ancient Art at Palazzo Barberini from June 22 until July 16.
The exhibition, which celebrates 30 years of a fund for
buildings that serve as places of worship (Fondo Edifici di
Culto, or FEC) "is a very intelligent scientific operation,"
said Culture Minister Dario Franceschini, who visited the
exhibition at a preview with Interior Minister Marco Minniti.
"It was made possible through the Fondo Edifici di Culto,
which owns many churches (about 800 as well as many other assets
throughout the country, Ed.) and has an extraordinary number of
works of art. There is here, alongside the paintings, important
documentation that will help visitors to understand the
differences that led to their being attributed to the correct
artists".
The relationship between the two original Caravaggio works
and the copies is filled with discoveries and surprises.
The two works entitled 'St. Francis in Meditation', one from
the San Pietro a Carpineto Romano church (housed in the National
Gallery of Ancient Art) and the other from the Roman church
Santa Maria della Concezione (known as the Church of the
Capuchins) were for years at the center of a complex debate
about who they were painted by.
The painting of the Church of the Capuchins was attributed to
Caravaggio in 1908, but in 1968 another identical version of the
painting was discovered in the San Pietro a Carpineto church.
The restoration and technical research operations on the two
paintings brought to light that the original (painted in 1605)
was the one found in the San Pietro a Carpineto church
'The Flagellation of Christ', made between 1607 and 1608 and
coming from the Naples Museo di Capodimonte, was commissioned by
the De Franchis family and put in their chapel in the San
Domenico church. The 1928 restoration brought the work back into
the fold of Caravaggio studies thanks to diagnostic techniques
that brought to light many modifications including a figure that
was taken out of the final version.
Its copy, now located in the Rosario chapel of San Domenico,
was attributed after restoration in the early 1930s to Andrea
Vaccaro, well known for his Caravaggio copies. The attribution
was difficult and the latest diagnostic studies conducted for
the exhibition brought to light new elements to reflect on.
Since 1987, the FEC has been tasked with protecting heritage
included in the property of bodies set up by the 'eversive laws'
issued during the Unification of Italy, which suppressed many
ecclesiastical bodies and seized their assets.
The holy buildings that it is tasked with hold within them
innumerable works of art including ones by Michelangelo, Guido
Reni, Paolo Veneziano, Bernini, Tiziano and Cavalier d'Arpino.
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