True Caravaggio? Two Caravaggios - Fortune Teller

This is the last of the four paintings from MFA Boston's exhibit - Fotrune Teller, done in 1594. The lady on the left is a gypsy and the foppish man on the right is being duped by her - she's telling his fortune by reading his face and hand, but she's also stealing his ring in the process. (The ring is extremely hard to see and according to author Rosella Vodret, its presence was only discovered during restoration work done on the painting in 1985.)

X-rays show that Caravaggio painted it on a used canvas. There are also existing records that prove our 'starving artist', sold it in desperation for only 8 scudi (roughly the amount an office worker needed to live on for a week in Renaissance Rome.) But he likely sold it to an important banker (some details are fuzzy on this), and then it was seen by Cardinal Francesco Maria Del Monte, a supporter of the arts who later became Caravaggio's patron, inviting him to live and work in his luxurious home for several years (during which time Caravaggio completed some amazing works and became justifiably famous). Del Monte liked this painting so much, he asked Caravaggio to paint a second version of it so he could have one too- so here's his second attempt, below.

Art Historians say the second version of Fortune Teller shows a much more mature style, but to my untrained eye, I don't really see it. Yes, the white collar of his shirt and feather in his hat are much fancier (although we may not give Caravaggio credit for the feather - see below) The light is more dynamic here too. There's also some differences with the drapery and the hands - hers are held differently and he's wearing one glove here. But I prefer the face of the girl in the original - there's something more enigmatic there (or possibly, I just like her clothes better since she doesn't have that ridiculous white sash under her chin that makes her look like she has a toothache.) This painting hangs in the Louvre, in Paris, and it's thought to have been done three years later, in 1597.

Technical fun fact: Louis XIV owned the Paris version at one time (I guess that's why it's in France), and had an extra strip of canvas added along the top so that it would be the same size as another painting he owned that was hanging alongside it. Whoever added this strip apparently also embellished the feather. You can see the strip in person - here's a detail I took with my iphone (at right) when I visited Paris in 2012. Look to the left of the feather...there's a bit of a visible line.

Content fun fact (at least, it's fun for geeks like me): This is a 'genre painting' which means it was a rare, non-religious work that was probably depicting comedic actors from commedia dell'arte, which was very popular entertainment in Italy in 1600. They were performing at the same time that Shakespeare was doing plays in England, although there, women weren't allowed on the stage like they were in Italy - we know that Shakespeare's plays had all female parts played by male actors. Also, female depictions by other Italian artists from the same time period (like Titian), almost always showed a lot more female flesh- whereas Caravaggio is positively chaste - the girls in both versions of Fortune Teller couldn't be wearing any more clothing than they already are. But don't think that this means Caravaggio was a supporter of women's rights - as Francine Prose points out in her book Caravaggio: Painter of Miracles: "Whenever a male and female appear together in Caravaggio's secular paintings....the implications of their connection are unfortunate, even dire: The man is being cheated or killed." Oh dear.

Ok, one more thing: Caravaggio may have used this same yellow outfit and hat, and even the same model from the Paris painting (thought to be Mario Minniti, a painter himself) in the painting that truly made him a star - Calling of St. Matthew, which still hangs in San Luigi Dei Francesi in Rome. It's one of my favourites.

Here's the final word: it was common practice in 17th century Rome for poets to write poems about paintings they liked, and to circulate them, almost like a movie or book review. Gaspare Murtola wrote one about the gypsy in Caravaggio's Fortune Teller. It translates to:

I don't know who is the greater magician,
The woman, who deceives,
Or you, who paint her