After Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio, circa 1700

This is an accomplished replica of the celebrated painting by Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio in the Kimbell Art Museum, Fort Worth, dated to about 1595.¹ The number of extant period copies of this work are a testament to its popularity from its earliest history in Cardinal del Monte's collection and subsequently in the Barberini collection, Rome.

A version of this composition of comparable quality was sold at auction in 2022 for £264,600.²

^

¹ AP 1987.06; Oil on canvas; 94.2 x 130.9 cm.; https://kimbellart.org/collection/ap-198706 

² Anonymous sale ('Property from a Private Collection'), London, Christie's, 7 July 2022, lot 21. For a detailed account of the work and further discussion on whether Caravaggio made replicas of his own paintings, see R.E. Spear, Caravaggio’s Cardsharps on Trial: Thwaytes v. Sotheby’s, London 2020.