It is an honour for us to introduce this catalogue that presents—or rather unveils, finally restored—Caravaggio’s long-awaited Ecce Homo.

Since its initial dazzling emergence in a Madrid auction catalogue in late March 2021, despite being concealed beneath oxidized varnish and credited to an anonymous painter from the “circle of Ribera,” the image of this profoundly intense depiction of Christ, captured between two astonishingly truer-than-life figures, began to spread, first like a secret whispered in the ear, then as an unstoppable viral story in the press.

Upon first encountering this image, we too were stunned: our eyes widening in wonder, our mouths falling open in an expression of incredulous surprise. As if in a strange play of reflections between art and life, we were “mirrored” in the astonishment of the young henchman who appears behind Christ in the painting. What sets Caravaggio’s genius apart is his ability to capture an instant of reality and present it to the viewer, transcending the constraints of time and cultural differences.

Since its appearance, the image of the painting thus spread through the international press, from gossip sites to the most authoritative newspapers, to art history journals, attracting and maintaining an unprecedented attention in terms of the quantity and quality of the contributions.

Everyone, or almost everyone, immediately realised that the canvas would represent one of the greatest discoveries in the history of art, and the outcome of the restoration, presented here for the first time, can only confirm and reinforce these initial impressions.

It is quite exceptional that, in our typically competitive environment, multiple galleries have chosen to put aside all forms of rivalry in order to synergically combine their resources and expertise. And yet, in our case, this is not a new occurrence. Indeed, back in 2017, we had collaborated on the rediscovery— and publication—of a “sleeper” (a term used for a “dormant” work that enters the market uncleaned and misunderstood in terms attribution and value): the splendid Still Life by Bartolomeo Cavarozzi. At that time we never anticipated that our collaboration would reunite us a few years later on the occasion of the discovery of a painting of such historic significance as this Ecce Homo.

The collegial nature of this enterprise is also reflected in this publication that gathers together the contributions of four of the most authoritative specialists of Caravaggio and Baroque painting, brought together to offer scholars of today and tomorrow a starting point for the understanding of this new, fundamental, addition to Caravaggio’s œuvre.

In the light of Claudio Falcucci’s valuable diagnostic investigations and the results of the restoration carried out by Andrea Cipriani and his team, Maria Cristina Terzaghi, Gianni Papi, Giuseppe Porzio and Keith Christiansen tackle the interpretation of the painting, moving along different trajectories: the circumstances of its discovery, the illustrious Spanish provenance, the stylistic, technical and iconographic aspects of the work, but also its critical fortune and the legacy left by the master in Naples.

In the last hundred years, no artist more than Caravaggio, with his adventurous biography and recognisable style, has fascinated audiences of all ages and engaged scholars from halfway around the world. Yet, despite the endless publications and the many exhibitions dedicated to the painter, there is no field of artistic historiography as intricate and debated as the chronology of Caravaggio’s works, due to the difficulty of defining and framing the rapid evolution of his style over a very short period marked by radical changes.

Following different paths, and with different approaches, the four essays collected here offer the reader a plurality of interpretations that constitutes the true added value of the publication. Although arriving at datings that differ slightly, within the five adventurous years that elapsed between the last Roman period and the master’s death in 1610, all the scholars involved came to the same passionate certainty: the Ecce Homo is a masterpiece by Caravaggio and, as such, still has much to tell us about its author.

With pride, but also with sense of responsibility, we have become for a limited period of time the “custodians” of this exceptional work, which has given us the opportunity to exercise our profession at the very highest level. The most exciting aspect of our work has always been precisely this: intercepting and bringing back to light works considered lost and obscured by the neglect of time, in order to reintroduce them into the flow of collecting, or return them to public display.

This extraordinary opportunity has been made possible solely through the trust placed in us by the owners of the painting and by the Spanish institutions that have deservedly protected the work, and with whom we have been in constant contact. Finally, our most heartfelt thanks go to the professionals and scholars who have worked on this project with enthusiasm, making possible the publication of this unrepeatable find destined to become, we are certain, a true icon of our times.