{"id":172425,"date":"2025-09-27T07:01:08","date_gmt":"2025-09-27T07:01:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/172425\/"},"modified":"2025-09-27T07:01:08","modified_gmt":"2025-09-27T07:01:08","slug":"ai-analysis-finds-71000-painting-dismissed-as-copy-is-a-caravaggio-caravaggio","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/172425\/","title":{"rendered":"AI analysis finds \u00a371,000 painting dismissed as copy is a Caravaggio | Caravaggio"},"content":{"rendered":"

He is one of the most revered artists in western art, yet just a few dozen works by Caravaggio<\/a> have survived. Now the 17th-century master\u2019s hand has been confirmed in a painting that Sotheby\u2019s and the Metropolitan Museum in New York had dismissed as a mere copy.<\/p>\n

Scientific analysis of The Lute Player, which was bought for Badminton House in Gloucestershire in the 18th century, has concluded that it is by Caravaggio, with a probability of 85.7%.<\/p>\n

Tests involving artificial intelligence showed a \u201cstrong match\u201d with verified paintings. The study was conducted by Art Recognition<\/a>, a Swiss specialist in authenticating artworks, collaborating on research with Liverpool University among others.<\/p>\n

Its head, Dr Carina Popovici, told the Guardian: \u201cEverything over 80% is very high.\u201d<\/p>\n

Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio is considered a revolutionary among artists, revered for his radical use of light and dark \u2013 chiaroscuro \u2013 and the realism of his compositions.<\/p>\n

Such is the rarity of his paintings that when one was discovered in 2019<\/a>, it was valued at around \u00a396m. But in 1969 Sotheby\u2019s sold the Badminton Lute Player as a copy \u201cafter Caravaggio\u201d for \u00a3750. In 2001 it sold it as \u201ccircle of Caravaggio\u201d for about \u00a371,000.<\/p>\n

The buyer then was the British art historian and gallerist Clovis Whitfield, a specialist in Italian old masters, who recognised its quality and the fact that it \u201ccorresponded exactly\u201d with a description by Giovanni Baglione in his 1642 Caravaggio biography.<\/p>\n

Whitfield said: \u201cBaglione mentions minutely observed details such as the reflection on dew drops on the flowers.\u201d<\/p>\n

His Lute Player is one of three versions. An undisputed one is in the Hermitage in Russia, and another \u2013 in which the lute player is a woman rather than a young man \u2013 is in the Wildenstein collection, having been displayed at the Met between 1990 and 2013.<\/p>\n

In 1990, Keith Christiansen, the Met\u2019s then head of European paintings, described the Wildenstein version as an original and the Badminton one as a copy.<\/p>\n

Whitfield made his purchase with Alfred Bader, a collector who died in 2016, to whom Christiansen wrote in 2007: \u201cNo one \u2013 certainly no modern scholar \u2013 has ever or ever would entertain the idea that your painting could be painted by Caravaggio.\u201d<\/p>\n

Whitfield said Christiansen and some Italian scholars were \u201ca bit stuck in the traditional mud\u201d in refusing to accept the attribution, even though other experts support it. \u201cThe AI result knocks Mr Christiansen off his perch,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Art Recognition\u2019s analysis also concluded that the Wildenstein was \u201cnot an authentic work\u201d. Popovici said: \u201cOur AI returned a negative result.\u201d<\/p>\n

Evidence includes the depictions of the lute. David Van Edwards, a leading lute maker and president of the Lute Society, said the Wildenstein instrument had \u201cmany faults\u201d, unlike those in the Badminton and Hermitage paintings.<\/p>\n

The Hermitage (left) and Wildenstein versions of The Lute Player.<\/p>\n

William Audland KC, a barrister and art lover who is writing a book on The Lute Player, said: \u201cAs a barrister and a litigator, I look at all the evidence in any case very forensically. Taking all the evidence into account, it seems to me that a manifest injustice is being done by any scholar who suggests that the Wildenstein version is autograph and the Badminton version is a poor copy.<\/p>\n

\u201cA holistic view of the relevant evidence points to the opposite conclusion, one which has now been corroborated by AI analysis, which is objective, unlike the subjective opinions of scholars which can get in the way. The Badminton version is an astonishing painting. It takes your breath away when you see it.\u201d<\/p>\n

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In 1597, Caravaggio had been living on the streets of Rome as an impoverished artist when he was given food and lodgings by Cardinal Francesco Maria del Monte, who became his most important patron. Shortly afterwards, Caravaggio painted The Lute Player, showing off his talent to his then prospective patron.<\/p>\n

In the late 1620s, the Del Monte collection was sold. Antonio Barberini, a future cardinal, bought five Caravaggios including The Lute Player, which was bought a century later by the 3rd Duke of Beaufort of Badminton House.<\/p>\n

Whitfield and Popovici will discuss the painting in a new podcast titled Is It?<\/a>, the first of a series that launches on 27 September. It is presented by Dr Noah Charney, who is preparing an academic paper on the painting.<\/p>\n

Geraldine Norman, a leading art market expert, will explore the full story of the painting in a feature documentary that is in development.<\/p>\n

The Badminton painting is now in London. Whitfield would like it to go to a public collection, just as the National Gallery<\/a> has secured a landmark investment of \u00a3375m.<\/p>\n

In its 2001 sale catalogue, Sotheby\u2019s noted that it \u201chas been reasonably suggested\u201d that the painter may have been Carlo Magnone, who in 1642 was recorded as having painted a copy after Del Monte\u2019s Lute Player.<\/p>\n

George Gordon, a co-chair of Sotheby\u2019s Worldwide Old Master Paintings, described the \u201clengthy\u201d catalogue entry as \u201cthoughtful and comprehensive\u201d and noted that many of Caravaggio\u2019s paintings were copied by other artists, even in his lifetime, \u201cas early 17th-century Roman inventories and written sources show\u201d.<\/p>\n

He said: \u201cI don\u2019t think there have been significant changes in Caravaggio scholarship in recent years which would radically alter the 2001 consensus about this work.\u201d<\/p>\n

Christiansen declined to comment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"He is one of the most revered artists in western art, yet just a few dozen works by…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":172426,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[76,354,355,49,48,356,75],"class_list":{"0":"post-172425","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-arts-and-design","8":"tag-arts","9":"tag-arts-and-design","10":"tag-artsanddesign","11":"tag-ca","12":"tag-canada","13":"tag-design","14":"tag-entertainment"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/172425","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=172425"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/172425\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/172426"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=172425"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=172425"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=172425"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}