Italian art historians discovered lost Caravaggio paintings

MILAN, ITALY — Italian art experts have reportedly discovered about 100 raw drawings and paintings by the Renaissance master Caravaggio. Those long lost paintings could be worth over $860 million (or 700 million euros) as of an report released last Thursday (July 5).

The cardsharps

Carravagio’s Abraham sacrifices Isaac.

After two years of thorough analysis, the Italian experts namely Maurizio Bernardelli Curuz and Adriana Conconi Fedrigolli, discovered the pieces among a collection held at Milan’s Sforza Castle since 1924 and said that they found “remarkable similarities” to Caravaggio’s latest work. The collection showcased art works by pupils of painter the painter Simone Peterzano with whom Caravaggio studied from the age of 11 as an apprentice.

According to Curuz, “The pieces were the work of a “strong, quick… hand” showing “the faces, bodies and scenes the young Caravaggio would use in later years.” (La Repubblicadaily)

His art works depict preparative anatomical sketches to religious scenes.

“It was impossible that Caravaggio had left no trace of his activity between 1584 and 1588 at the workshop of a painter who was famous and sought after at the time,” was Bernardelli Curuz quoted La Repubblica.

The two experts also claimed to have come into possession of a small scrap of paper with Caravaggio’s signature and say it has been authenticated by handwriting experts.

It is believed that the artist, whose actual name was Michelangelo Merisi, developed distinctive styles and techniques in those early years that created the basis for the rest of his career.

One of the most striking matches was between a sketch of an old man’s wizened, wrinkled face and a figure in Caravaggio’s ‘Judith Beheading Holofernes’, painted in 1598, which shows the widow Judith decapitating the Assyrian general Holofernes.

La Deposizione de Cristo

Caravaggio lived from 1571 to 1610, was notorious for his mercurial temper and penchant for brawling.

In his early years, he had to leave Rome for Sicily after a fight in which he killed a man. He later became involved in a brawl in Malta in which he wounded a knight.

He died at the age of 38 in Porto Ercole on the coast of Tuscany. Malaria, an intestinal infection and lead poisoning are said to be the causes, but rumor has it that the artist was murdered on the orders of the Knights of Malta to avenge the attack on one of their members.