The National Prado Museum has announced the temporary loan of the work Ecce Homo by Caravaggio, thanks to the transfer of a private individual. The art gallery located in Madrid will exhibit the painting for nine months (from May 28 to October 2024) in an individual installation. Subsequently, as the institution has told elDiario.es, it will be incorporated into the permanent exhibition, “predictably” together with the other piece they have by the Italian artist, David conquers Goliathalthough the definitive location is not yet confirmed.
The notice about the existence of this painting came out in April 2021, when the Casa Ansorena in Madrid put the painting up for auction. Ecce Homo, for a starting price of 1,500 euros. The canvas, painted around 1605-1609, was attributed at the time to a student of the Spanish painter José de Ribera.
“The Prado Museum sensed that that attribution was not correct and that we could be in front of a lost work by Caravaggio,” Miguel Falomir, director of the center, recalled in statements this Monday, “and informed the Ministry of Culture, which acted by declaring the unexportability of the work.” That is, he could not leave Spain. The Community of Madrid later supported the decision by declaring the painting as an Asset of Cultural Interest (BIC).
The study carried out by Maria Cristina Terzagh (professor of History of Modern Art at the University of Roma Tre and member of the scientific committee of the Museo di Capodimonte in Naples), Gianni Papi (art historian and writer), Giuseppe Porzio (professor of History of Art at the University of Naples) and Keith Christiansen (curator of the Metropolitan Museum of Art), concluded that the work had been painted by Caravaggio.
Miguel Falomir has indicated that during these years, its owners –the Pérez de Castro family– have carried out more studies and proceeded to restore the canvas, which has revealed that it arrived in Spain in the 17th century and that “it left the Royal Collection during the Napoleonic invasion.” Specifically, the oil painting has been in the custody of the Colnaghi gallery, in collaboration with Filippo Benappi (Benappi Fine Art) and Andrea Lullo (Lullo Pampoulides).
“Since then, since the 19th century it has been in a family in Madrid, which relatively recently sold it to an individual,” added the person in charge. The buyer, who prefers to keep his identity anonymous, was the one who informed them “of his interest in having the public presentation of the work take place at the Prado Museum.” “It has been through an agreement of good will between the parties, without an economic transaction,” the institution clarifies about the pact made between both parties.
The oil painting in question represents the historical motif of the Roman governor Pontius Pilate presenting Christ to the body with the words ‘Ecce homo’ (‘Behold the man’), one of the most dramatic passages of the Passion, collected in the Gospel of John . From the Prado Museum they describe it as “a powerful example of the mastery” of Caravaggio in terms of his conception process. “A skillful composition that presents a totally innovative three-dimensional and dynamic scene within the limits of a deep-rooted iconographic tradition,” they say.
