Papi Links Dark Portrait to Caravaggio
An Italian art historian has attributed a previously Tuscan-school canvas to the Baroque master Caravaggio.
Updated on Nov. 9, 2026 in Fine Art
Gianni Papi attributed a dark portrait of a young man to Caravaggio, a canvas previously assigned to the 16th-century Tuscan school and sold at a 2017 Dorotheum auction for €3,810 ($4,300). Papi announced the hypothesis at a conference at the Pinacoteca Civica in Montepulciano on November 7.
Why it matters
A new attribution can reshape how a work is valued, exhibited and studied, and it adds to a growing body of recent scholarship on Caravaggio's early output. Papi has not yet released the full evidence behind his claim.
The attribution rests on a conference announcement, with the 2017 Dorotheum sale price of €3,810 ($4,300) showing the canvas's prior market value under its Tuscan-school label. Papi's evidence remains unpublished, and the proceedings that will disclose it have not yet appeared.
The players
Gianni Papi
Gianni Papi is an Italian art historian and Caravaggio scholar who has previously claimed to have identified the earliest known Caravaggio painting.
Maria Cristina Terzaghi
Maria Cristina Terzaghi is an Italian art historian and co-curator of the Caravaggio exhibition held at Rome's Palazzo Barberini, who traced the related painting to a French collection.
The details
Papi made his hypothesis public at the Pinacoteca Civica in Montepulciano on November 7. Scholar Maria Cristina Terzaghi, a co-curator of last year's Caravaggio exhibition at Rome's Palazzo Barberini, had traced a related composition, Young Man with a Vase of Roses, to a private collection in France.
Timeline
1592-93: Earliest known Caravaggio boy-peeling-fruit painting thought made
1593-94: The Boy Bitten by a Green Lizard believed painted
1596-97: Young Man with a Vase of Roses dated by Terzaghi
2017: Portrait sold at Dorotheum auction house
November 7, 2026: Papi announced attribution at Montepulciano conference
Big Picture
The attribution extends recent efforts to reconstruct the chronology of Caravaggio's earliest Roman works, such as The Boy Bitten by a Green Lizard, which is believed to date from 1593-94. Each new attribution adds a piece to a far larger reassessment of his early career.
Readers interested in Caravaggio can follow the attribution as scholarship develops, since the proceedings will disclose Papi's evidence. Any reattribution would also affect where the canvas is shown and studied.
The takeaway
Attributions in Caravaggio studies often change slowly, so the published proceedings will be the decisive test of Papi's claim. Readers following the story should wait for that evidence before treating the attribution as settled.
What happens next
Papi's findings will be made public when the conference proceedings are published, though no date for their release has been given.
Further reading
Explore more coverage in the Fine Art section.
Source note: This article includes information reported by artnet News.
