The Taking of Christ (Caravaggio)

The Taking of Christ

Artist	Caravaggio
Year	c. 1602
Type	oil on canvas
Dimensions	133.5 cm × 169.5 cm (52.6 in × 66.7 in)
Location	National Gallery of Ireland, Dublin

The Taking of Christ is a painting by the Italian Baroque master Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio (c. 1602), originally commissioned by nobleman Ciriaco Mattei. It is housed in the National Gallery of Ireland, Dublin.

Description

There are seven figures in the painting, from left to right: St John, Jesus, Judas, two soldiers, a man (a self-portrait of Caravaggio), and a soldier. They are standing, and only the upper three-quarters of their bodies are depicted. The figures are arrayed before a very dark background, in which the setting is disguised. The main light source is not evident in the painting but comes from the upper left. There is a lantern being held by the man at the right (Caravaggio). At the far left, a man (St John) is fleeing; his arms are raised, his mouth is open in a gasp, his cloak is flying and being snatched back by a soldier. The fleeing figure of John in his terror contrasts to the entering self portrait of the artist thus making the point that even a sinner one thousand years after the resurrection has a better understanding of what Christ is than does his friend four days before. Two of the more puzzling details of the painting are, one, the fact that the heads of Jesus and St. John seem to visually meld together in the upper right corner, and, two, the fact of the prominent presence, in the very center of the canvas and in foremost plane of the picture, of the arresting officer's highly polished, metal-clad arm.

Loss and rediscovery

By the late 18th century, the painting was thought to have disappeared, and its whereabouts remained unknown for about 200 years. In 1990, Caravaggio’s lost masterpiece was recognized in the residence of the Society of Jesus in Dublin, Ireland. The exciting rediscovery was published in 1993.

The painting had been hanging in the Dublin Jesuits’ dining room since the early 1930s but had long been considered a copy of the lost original by Gerard van Honthorst, also known as Gherardo delle Notti, one of Caravaggio’s Dutch followers. This erroneous attribution had been made while the painting was in the possession of the Roman Mattei family, whose ancestors had originally commissioned it. In 1802, the Mattei sold it, as a work by Honthorst, to William Hamilton Nisbet, in whose home in Scotland it hung until 1921. Later in that decade, still unrecognised for what it was, the painting was sold to an Irish pediatrician, Marie Lea-Wilson, who eventually donated it in the 1930s (there is no evidence to suggest 1934) to the Jesuit Fathers in Dublin, in gratitude for their support following the shooting of her husband, Capt. Percival Lea-Wilson, a District Inspector in the Royal Irish Constabulary in Gorey, County Wexford, by the Irish Republican Army on 15 June 1920.

The Taking of Christ remained in the Dublin Jesuits' possession for about 60 years, until it was spotted and recognised, in the early 1990s, by Sergio Benedetti, Senior Conservator of the National Gallery of Ireland, who had been asked by Jesuit Father Noel Barber to examine a number of paintings in the Leeson Street Jesuit Community (of which Barber was superior) for the purposes of restoration. As layers of dirt and discoloured varnish were removed, the high technical quality of the painting was revealed, and it was tentatively identified as Caravaggio’s lost painting. Much of the credit for verifying the authenticity of this painting belongs to Francesca Cappelletti and Laura Testa, two graduate students at the University of Rome. During a long period of research, they found the first recorded mention of The Taking of Christ, in an ancient and decaying account book documenting the original commission and payments to Caravaggio, in the archives of the Mattei family, kept in the cellar of a palazzo in the small town of Recanati.

The painting is on indefinite loan to the National Gallery of Ireland from the Jesuit Community, Leeson Street, Dublin who acknowledge the kind generosity of Dr. Marie Lea-Wilson. It was displayed in the United States as the centerpiece of a 1999 exhibition entitled "Saints and Sinners" at the McMullen Museum of Art at Boston College, and at the 2006 "Rembrandt / Caravaggio" exhibition in the van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam. In 2010 it was displayed from February to June at the Scuderie del Quirinale, Rome, for the 400th anniversary of Caravaggio's death.

Cultural references

• A nod was made to the finding of the "The taking of the Christ" by Caravaggio in the film "Ordinary Decent Criminal" starring Kevin Spacey
• The Hands of Caravaggio, an album from 2001 by electro-acoustic improvisation group M.I.M.E.O. was inspired by the painting.
• The painting was the subject of a special Easter program in 2009 in the BBC series The Private Life of a Masterpiece.

See also

• Chronology of works by Caravaggio

References

• Benedetti, Sergio (1993). Caravaggio, the Master Revealed. National Gallery of Ireland. ISBN 0-903162-68-7. 
• Harr, Jonathan (2005). The Lost Painting: The Quest for a Caravaggio Masterpiece. Random House. ISBN 0-375-50801-5. 
• Mormando F, ed (1999). Saints and Sinners: Caravaggio and the Baroque Image. McMullen Museum of Art. ISBN 1892850001.