Art lovers will have the chance to admire a portrait of Jesus Christ made by Caravaggio, which will be displayed at the Prado Museum in Madrid, after experts determined that the work really is by the Italian master.
The museum announced on Monday that it had reached an agreement with the new owner of the oil painting on canvas, an international collector based in Spain. Prado said “Ecce Homo” is one of the greatest discoveries in art history, as there are only about 60 known works by Caravaggio.
“Ecce Homo”, or here is the man, in Latin, was painted between 1605 and 1609 and is believed to have belonged to the private collection of King Philip IV of Spain.
In 2021, the European country blocked the auction of the painting — which was initially attributed to an unknown colleague of 17th-century Spaniard José de Ribera — after experts suggested it could have been the work of Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio.
Prado said this Monday that the results of the investigation into the painting’s authorship, carried out by the Colnaghi gallery, based in London and New York, reaffirm the initial attribution to the Italian master. The studies will be released to coincide with the unveiling of the painting on May 28 in a special one-piece exhibition. The work will be on display until October, the museum said in a statement.
