Caravaggio
Subtitle: the mystery of the two Saint Francis in meditation
By: edited by Rossella Vodret
Contributors: Nationalmuseum (Sweden); Sinebrychoffin taidemuseo
Publisher: Silvana
Published: 2009
Place of publication: Cinisello Balsamo (Milano)
Language: eng
Number of pages: 70
ISBN-13: 9788836616114
Description: "Two seemingly very similar paintings, both traditionally attributed to Caravaggio, have been at the centre of a heated debate that has taken on the semblance of a police investigation; an attribution enigma that has impassioned scholars and the public at large. This involves two canvases of more or less identical dimensions which portray the same subject: Saint Francis meditating on death; the first, traditionally attributed to Caravaggio, is housed in the Roman Church of Santa Maria della Concezione, also called the Church of the Capuchins; the second work was fortuitously discovered in 1968 in the Church of San Pietro at Carpineto Romano. Both conceal a series of significant differences, of important second thoughts concerning the composition and of variations in the execution technique, which emerged only during the course of restoration and which led to exclude the hypothesis of a single artist for both versions. The critical debate was resolved only in 2000, following scientific analysis simultaneously carried out on both paintings, which confirmed, without any shadow of a doubt, the work found at Carpineto as that of Caravaggio."--Page 4 of cover.
Notes: Catalog of an exhibition at the Nationalmuseum, Stockholm, Jan. 20-Mar. 14, 2010, followed by the Sinebrychoff Art Museum, Helsinki, Mar. 26-May 9, 2010.

Includes bibliographical references.