In a landmark exhibition from November 23, 2024, to February 23, 2025, the National Galleries of Ancient Art in Rome will unveil a previously unseen Caravaggio masterpiece: the “Portrait of Monsignor Maffeo Barberini”. Housed in the Landscape Room of Palazzo Barberini, this painting emerges from a private collection, representing a significant addition to the understanding of Caravaggio's portraiture.

The work depicts Maffeo Barberini, the future Pope Urban VIII, in his early thirties, seated in a diagonally placed armchair. Characteristic of Caravaggio's revolutionary style, the portrait is defined by its dramatic chiaroscuro - a powerful light piercing the darkness, illuminating the subject's face and hands with extraordinary intensity. Dressed in green talar robes, Barberini is captured in a moment of dynamic tension, his left hand holding a folded letter, his right hand gesturing toward an unseen interlocutor.

The painting's attribution to Caravaggio has a rich historiographical background. First attributed by the renowned art historian Roberto Longhi in 1963, the work was initially discovered through a scholarly correspondence between Longhi and Giuliano Briganti. Longhi's critical analysis was groundbreaking, positioning the portrait as a pivotal moment in the evolution of portraiture. He argued that the work transcended mere resemblance, transforming the portrait into a dramatic representation of lived reality.

Critically, the painting fills a significant lacuna in Caravaggio's oeuvre. Portraits by the artist are exceptionally rare, with many lost to history. The work's significance lies not just in its rarity, but in its embodiment of Caravaggio's innovative approach to representation. As Longhi noted, the portrait becomes an "action"- a dramatic microcosm that captures the subject's psychological essence.

Scholarly consensus regarding the work's authenticity is robust. Distinguished scholars including Mia Cinotti, Federico Zeri, Francesca Cappelletti, and Keith Christiansen have unanimously confirmed its autographic status. Most scholars date the painting to around 1599, coinciding with Maffeo Barberini's appointment as a cleric of the Apostolic Camera—a crucial moment in his ecclesiastical career.

The painting's technical execution reveals Caravaggio's extraordinary painterly intelligence. The color palette is deliberately restrained: lead whites and earths for the complexion, copper greens for the dress and chair, with subtle chromatic variations achieved through masterful light manipulation. The eyes are particularly noteworthy, constructed with Caravaggio's distinctive technique of leaving a thin preparation outline and applying a robust white lead brushstroke to capture light's reflective quality.

Contemporaneous sources, including Giulio Mancini, provide context for Caravaggio's portraiture. Mancini noted that Merisi created portraits "without similitude," liberated from strict physiognomic representation. This approach allowed the artist to capture a more profound essence - a unity of vision, action, and emotion that transcended mere physical likeness.

The exhibition offers art historians and the public a rare opportunity to examine a previously unseen work by one of the most revolutionary painters of the Italian Baroque. As Thomas Clement Salomon, Director of the National Galleries of Ancient Art, eloquently stated, this is "the Caravaggio everyone wanted to see, but it seemed impossible."

By presenting this portrait, the exhibition not only fills a critical gap in our understanding of Caravaggio's artistic production but also provides a unique window into the social and cultural milieu of late 16th-century Rome. The work captures a moment of transition—both in Barberini's ecclesiastical career and in the evolution of portraiture itself.

The *Portrait of Monsignor Maffeo Barberini stands as a testament to Caravaggio's unparalleled ability to transform the genre of portraiture, rendering not just a likeness, but a complex psychological landscape illuminated by his revolutionary use of light and shadow.