“The Taking of Christ,” by the 17th century Italian painter Caravaggio, has been a crown jewel in the gallery’s collection for the last decade.
Along with the gallery’s sole Vermeer, currently being exhibited at the Brice Museum in Greenwich, Conn., Caravaggio’s famed work has ensured that the National Gallery, in Dublin’s Merrion Square, is an obligatory stop on the worldwide masterpiece trail.
When the painting was discovered in Dublin in 1990, the government of the day proclaimed it “one of Ireland’s long-hidden treasures.”
But art experts in Italy are now saying that the Dublin Caravaggio is a copy and that the original is actually in Rome.
The Irish Independent reported that tests on the Rome work had produced “cast-iron proof” that a painting in the possession of an Italian art dealer was the original painting dating from 1602.
Art expert Maria Letizia Paoletti was quoted in the report as saying that six months of testing using modern technology had led experts to agree that the work in Rome is “without question” the original.
She told the paper that the British art historian, Sir Denis Mahon, considered the foremost expert on Italian art of the period, had examined the painting and was in “full agreement” with her position.
“His reaction was immediately positive. He had no doubt now that this was the original work,” Paoletti told the Independent.
But her claim was immediately disputed by the National Gallery of Ireland.
In a statement released Tuesday, the gallery’s director, Raymond Keaveney said that the gallery was “confident” that the painting in its possession was the authentic work by Caravaggio.
The attribution had been “unanimously accepted” by experts ever since its discovery by Sergio Benedetti, an acknowledged expert on 17th century Italian art, in August 1990, Keaveney said.
Benedetti had carried out the primary research on the painting and published his findings in November 1993. No major authority has questioned the attribution.
Keaveney said that the National Gallery was aware of the existence of the Rome painting. He said that Benedetti has proposed that the two paintings be put on display at an exhibition in Milan to which the Dublin painting is being loaned later this year.
Given the differing views in what is now an artistic standoff, the likely involvement of more art experts in the weeks ahead is certain to heighten the debate.
The Dublin Caravaggio was hanging in the dining room of a Jesuit house in the city. It had been in the possession of the order since the 1930s.
It was initially attributed to Dutch painter Gerard von Honthorst, a follower of Caravaggio. But after a cleaning, it was identified as the original by Benedetti, the art expert and also head curator at the National Gallery of Ireland.
Caravaggio (1571-1610) was the working name of Michelangelo Merisi. He is credited with about 70 works and is one of the most popular and praised artists of the Italian baroque period.
“The Taking of Christ” vanished in the late 18th century. The painting depicts the betrayal of Christ by Judas Iscariot in the Garden of Gethsemane.
In the manner of other Italian master painters such as Botticelli, Caravaggio depicted himself in the painting as a witness to the act of betrayal.
The Rome Caravaggio was itself ruled a copy back in the 1940s when it was last subjected to expert examination.
However, the recent tests, reportedly including x-ray and infrared examination, have again muddied the waters with regard to a painting that has proven to be as perplexing in plain sight as it was when it was lost to public view.