Among the most fascinating discoveries in the history of art—and an unprecedented case in the critical history of Caravaggio, whose body of work has rarely inspired unanimous agreement among scholars—the Ecce Homo is an extraordinary painting that immediately attracted an incredible and unprecedented level of attention.
Three years after its discovery, and on the occasion of the exhibition at the Museo del Prado in Madrid, where the restored work was displayed from 28 May to 13 October 2024, Marsilio Arte published the first monograph devoted to the rediscovered masterpiece: Caravaggio. The Ecce Homo Revealed, edited by Maria Cristina Terzaghi, Keith Christiansen, Gianni Papi and Giuseppe Porzio.
In spring 2021, the Ecce Homo appeared in an auction catalogue in Madrid, implausibly attributed to a painter from the circle of Jusepe de Ribera and with a starting price of €1,500. As soon as an image of the work began circulating in the international press and quickly went viral, scholarly opinion converged on its attribution to Caravaggio and its recognition as a work of exceptional importance.
The painting has been dated to between 1605 and 1610 and is believed to have once formed part of the private collection of Philip IV of Spain. The Ecce Homo subsequently came under the care of Colnaghi, in collaboration with Filippo Benappi of Benappi Fine Art and Andrea Lullo of Lullo Pampoulides. It was restored by the specialist Andrea Cipriani under the supervision of experts from the Community of Madrid.
The results of this complex yet remarkable process are brought together and carefully described for the first time in Caravaggio. The Ecce Homo Revealed. Drawing on Claudio Falcucci’s invaluable diagnostic investigations and the findings of the restoration undertaken by Andrea Cipriani and his team, Maria Cristina Terzaghi, Keith Christiansen, Gianni Papi and Giuseppe Porzio offer a new interpretation of the painting from a variety of perspectives.
Beginning with the circumstances of its discovery, they explore the work’s stylistic, technical and iconographic aspects, as well as its critical reception and the legacy left by the master in Naples. Following different approaches and lines of reasoning, the editors’ essays offer readers a range of interpretations, which constitutes the publication’s true added value.
Within this framework of exceptionally thorough research and reflection, “the Ecce Homo is destined,” as Terzaghi emphasises, “to leave a profound mark on the literature devoted to Caravaggio—not only because it offers the unexpected opportunity to discover a new piece in the artist’s development, the history that has been reconstructed around the painting and the far-reaching questions it raises about the painter’s creative process, but also because it prompts reflection on the practice of connoisseurship in general and, in particular, within the field of Caravaggio studies.”