Caravaggio portrait goes on public display for the first time in Rome

By Cristiano Corvino and Alvise Armellini Caravaggio portrait goes on public display for the first time in Rome ROME, - A portrait by baroque painter Caravaggio held in a private collection since it was discovered more than 60 years ago is being shown to the public for the first time in a museum in Rome. His portrait of Monsignor Maffeo Barberini, who would go on to become 17th century Pope Urban VIII - a great patron of the arts who had sculptor and architect Gian Lorenzo Bernini among his proteges - was attributed to him in 1963. It is one of just a handful of surviving Caravaggio portraits, since most have been lost or destroyed, and it goes on display from Nov. 23 until Feb. 23, 2025, the museum said. The museum showing the artwork is housed in Palazzo Barberini, built during Urban VIII's papacy by Bernini and fellow baroque architect Carlo Maderno, and which remained in family hands until after World War Two.