The Italian state purchased a rare Caravaggio portrait for €30 million, one of the largest sums it has ever paid for a single artwork.
The painting, known as the Portrait of Maffeo Barberini, has been acquired by the Ministry of Culture after more than a year of negotiations. Now, it will enter the permanent collection of Palazzo Barberini in Rome.
Culture Minister Alessandro Giuli described the work as “of exceptional importance”, saying the purchase forms part of a broader strategy to strengthen Italy’s public cultural heritage and prevent significant masterpieces from disappearing into private collections.
Painted around 1598, the portrait depicts the cleric Maffeo Barberini, who would later become Pope Urban VIII in 1623. At the time of the portrait he was in his early 30s and rising quickly within the Roman Catholic Church.
The work shows Barberini as a bearded churchman wearing a dark clerical robe, with his right hand extended in a gesture that appears to be giving instructions or emphasising a point. The composition is relatively restrained compared with many of Caravaggio’s dramatic religious scenes but still displays the painter’s characteristic use of light and shadow.
Caravaggio – whose real name was Michelangelo Merisi – was renowned for his revolutionary use of chiaroscuro. This technique creates the dramatic contrast between light and darkness that gave his paintings a striking sense of realism and psychological intensity. His style also had a profound influence on Baroque art across Europe.
Caravaggio portraits rarest of his works
Only around 60 to 65 paintings by the artist are known to survive worldwide, and portraits are particularly rare among them. The Barberini work is therefore considered especially significant for understanding Caravaggio’s early Roman period and his approach to portraiture.
The painting had long remained in a private collection in Florence and was largely inaccessible to scholars for decades. It was first identified as a work by Caravaggio in 1963 by the influential Italian art historian Roberto Longhi.
Despite its importance, the portrait had not appeared in major exhibitions until it was shown publicly for the first time in 2024 at Palazzo Barberini. It was displayed in the palace’s Landscape Hall as part of an exhibition dedicated to newly studied works by the artist.
Barberini himself became one of the most powerful figures in 17th-century Rome after his election as pope. As Pope Urban VIII, he was a major patron of the arts and played a central role in shaping the artistic landscape of the Baroque era, supporting architects and artists including Gian Lorenzo Bernini.
The acquisition means the portrait will now be displayed in the historic home of the Barberini family, alongside other works by Caravaggio already held in the museum’s collection.
