Does My Theory About Caravaggio's Paintings Hold Water? (or Wine?)

This portrait of Maffaeo Barberini is a disputed Caravaggio painting, and one of the ones being included in MFA Boston's Spring 2014 exhibit. Art historians think this portrait was done in 1596. Its subject later became Pope Urban VII; he was a supporter of the arts and a poet and there are records to show that he later commissioned a painting by Caravaggio, so the two of them are undoubtedly connected in history. I was lucky enough to see it last year at LACMA's Caravaggio exhibit, and it is lovely, but based on a very superficial observation, I have to doubt its provenance. Here's why: there are a number of other paintings known to be done by Caravaggio from the same time period - 1596-1602 - that also feature a vase that is exactly the same each time, but which is slightly different than the one in the portrait at the left (which, please notice, has grooves in it). Here they are:

This is called Boy Bitten by a Lizard (1596). Check out the shape and style of the vase of flowers he painted. No grooves.

There's also this one, entitled "Bacchus" (also 1596). There are a lot of similarites between Lizard and Bacchus, but let's focus on the vase for a second, which holds wine this time. The vase looks exactly the same as the one he used in Lizard.

There's also this one, Penitent Magdalen (1597). This time the vase may hold wine again, or perhaps perfume or oil, according to some art historians. It's the same one Caravaggio used above.

And finally, here's Supper at Emmaus(1602) again, which I posted in a previous blog. Again, with the same carafe (I know it's a little hard to see the vase on the crowded table, but it's the same shape and style).













So why use a vase with grooves in it, unless you are a lesser painter who might struggle with painting such clear relfection of light? Or unless you are someone else and it is the closest thing you can find to the shape of the vase Caravaggio repeatedly used? He was such an influential painter that were was a whole generation of artists who later imitated his style of painting in lights and darks. They were even given a name - the "Caravaggisti".

Caravaggio was a master of reflection - if you can squint and see in each of the other examples where the vase he is using is probably the same, you can see light or windows reflected very clearly in it each time. It makes you think of the flash in a photograph, but remember, it was well before flash photography. In the Maffaeo Barberini portrait, you can see light too, which might be why some art historians attribute this to Caravaggio, but I'm not sold.

Because I'm such a Caravaggio nerd, I cannot help but share one last detail about reflections and vases in Caravaggio paintings that is just so cool. The picture at left is a detail from Caravaggio's Barcchus that was only noticed after the painting was cleaned in the 1920's. It's a small person and an easel - a self portrait of the painter reflected in the glass. Apparently it's hard to see unless you're up close (I've never seen this painting in person, so I only know about it from my reading). Is there any doubt that Caravaggio was the most important Baroque painters when we uncover details like these?

Maybe there's a reflection in the Maffaeo Barberini portrait in Boston's exhibit- I'll check when I'm there....