Four Caravaggio self-portraits
'Adoration of Shepherds' may show master at different age
11 February, 17:22
(ANSA) - Rome, February 11 - Four shepherds in one of
Caravaggio's final works could be self-portraits of the artist
at different stages in his life, an expert said on Thursday.Unveiling the newly restored Adoration Of The Shepherds, Michelangelo scholar and Rome Museum Superintendent Rossella Vodret suggested the master may have used himself as a model for the work. ''For Caravaggio, the presence of a self-portrait in his paintings became almost a kind of trademark,'' said Vodret. However, Vodret also acknowledged that the master, exiled in Sicily at the time, may have painted himself into the piece simply because he did not have enough other models. Most scholars agree that Michelangelo appeared in several of his paintings. His Young Sick Bacchus (1593), completed at the age of 22 while recovering from a long illness, is widely accepted as a self-portrait. In his painting of David And Goliath (1609), he gave the giant's severed head his own face, and he also appears as a background figure in the Martyrdom Of Saint Ursula (1610).
Last year, researchers scanning another early painting, Bacchus (1595) discovered a tiny self-portrait invisible to the naked eye. The image appears as a reflection in the glass goblet in the young god's hand, and shows the artist working at his easel.
The Adoration Of The Shepherds has just undergone a public four-month restoration at the Italian parliament. During this period, visitors were able to visit the room allocated for the restoration and watch experts at work. The painting shows Mary sitting on the stable floor, propped up against a wooden box, with the Baby Jesus in her arms. There are four men in the picture, traditionally interpreted as Joseph bringing three shepherds to worship the baby.
Mary's slumped position, the donkey and ox in the background, the straw and tumbledown wooden furniture all create a sense of simplicity and display the realism that Caravaggio was famous for. The painting was commissioned by the Senate of Messina, Sicily, for the Capuchin church of Santa Maria degli Angeli.
Michelangelo was paid 1,000 scudi for it - the highest sum he ever received for a single work. The painting will remain on show in Rome until Sunday, after which it will return briefly to its usual home at the Regional Museum in Messina, before joining several other exhibitions over coming months commemorating 500 years since Michelangelo's death.
