Caravaggio continues to make headlines this year (which
celebrates the 400th anniversary of Caravaggio's death). You may have noticed my recent tweet that
scientists believe that they have found Caravaggio's bones (see left). This is really exciting news, although I wish that we could determine the exact cause of Caravaggio's death through analysis of these bones. If only bones could talk...
In other exciting news, Caravaggio's painting
The Taking of Christ (also known as "The Kiss of Judas," c. 1602, see right) was recently recovered (see
here). This painting was stolen from Ukraine two years ago, and it recently appeared in Berlin. Two thieves have been apprehended; they apparently tried to sell the painting to a German collector. The recovery is really exciting, but its really disheartening to see the damage incurred by the theft (see image of the damaged canvas at the end of
this post).
(FYI: There is another version of
The Taking of Christ which is located in the National Gallery of Ireland, Dublin. Don't be confused if you're recently seen this painting on display!)
UPDATE: This recovered painting has been reexamined by experts and determined to be a 17th century copy of Caravaggio. See
this post for more information.
