Hi All,
This is my first post, and I hope it has impact.
Recently, a painting was discovered in a French attic. Lost for 400 odd years. Caravaggio (a known swordsman and brawler,) has been named the painter of said piece. There are concerns, however, with a multi-million price-tag at stake. After seeing a photo of the work, I found a few things to unsettle. One is the blade. This forum has the best arms and armour historians in the world, so I am calling upon your collective expertise to speculate if the image is valid without prejudice.


http://www.nydailynews.com/news/world/caravag...-1.2600236

Sorry here is an image of the found painting.[/img]

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the "found painting"

And here is the image I studied in art history 201...

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Also the "gaze," looking at the camera or viewer was only popular in portraits, not in scenarios.

Well, the sword kind of sorta maybe resembles the one used by Artemisia Gentileschi's Judith , although her's terminates differently, and the hilt furniture appears to be different, it certainly could have been a model for a possible forger of this "Caravaggio", as both artists were roughly contemporaneous.

You make an interesting point about the figure directly gazing at the viewer.

Sorry, late night posting. I was refering to the short sword in this one: http://www.wga.hu/art/g/gentiles/artemisi/judith.jpg

The point about the theatrical confrontation of the viewer with the subject;s gaze is an interesting one, resembles in some ways his paintings of various youths as Bacchus, John the Baptist and so forth, but those all feature a single figure.

It will be interesting to see the results of further study on this piece.

PS. Everytime I look at the Judith of the new painting I'm reminded of Jesus from, "The Supper at Emmaus." Apart from the closed eyes, they're so close that...

Yes, the new painting could be a forgery and I welcome a TON of scientific sleuthing to nail down the facts, but it looks like a Caravaggio to me. That's totally unscientific, of course, and a gut reaction, but its how it looks to me. Now, back to that nice red blend.

If it was a Carravagio, it would have to be one of his earliest, it's so bad. Holofernes is downright cartoony. It's quite a contrast with the other example. It almost looks to me as though Holofernes was painted by another hand than that which painted the women.