Christ before Caiaphas,
oil on canvas, 146.5 x 190 cm, framed

Provenance:
Palazzo Lazzaroni, Rome;
sale, Finarte Semenzato, Milan, 23 June 2003, lot 169 (as Attributed to Trophime Bigot the Elder);
Private European collection;
where acquired by the present owner

The composition is arranged symmetrically around the torch held by one of the soldiers: Christ is on the right, seen in profile with his hands bound, the high priest Caiaphas is enthroned to the left. The only source of light in this nocturnal scene comes from the torch, which clearly illuminates Christ’s profile, and flickers over the armour of the soldiers surrounding him, while it leaves Caiaphas in partial shadow. The picture’s composition is solemn and monumental. Its dramatic tension is heightened by the intensity of the chiaroscuro modelling the varied expressions of the characters, lit by fire light.

The present composition recalls the painting of the same subject by Gerrit van Honthorst, in the National Gallery, London (inv. NG3679). Indeed, the present painting is an example of the type of ‘candle light’ painting that developed between the 1620s and 1630s among Italian, Flemish, Dutch, Spanish and French artists on whom Caravaggio left a profound and lasting impression. Rejecting the artificiality of late Mannerism, these painters adopted an interest in realism, employing powerful compositions with dramatic contrasts of light and shadow.

The present painting appears to belong to Caravaggesque painting from the 1620s and there are direct citations from paintings by Caravaggio such as Caiaphas’s gesture of tearing at his robes when Christ asserts himself as the Son of God, taken from the Denial of Saint Peter in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (inv. no. 1997.167).

A painting with the same composition has been published by Gianni Papi as by Pietro Ricchi (see G. Papi, Entro l’aria bruna d’una camera rinchiusa: scritti su Caravaggio e l’ambiente caravaggesco, Naples 2016, pp. 234-239). According to Papi, Pietro Ricchi was impressed by the paintings of Honthorst and Caravaggio during his early years spent in Rome from 1627.