“The exhibition at the Vilnius Picture Gallery refutes the opinion, once expressed with considerable skepticism by Théophile Thoré-Bürger, that “the museum is the cemetery of art”. The painting from Ukraine interprets the museum as a living space of research and dialogue, where the objects in the spotlight are interwoven with questions, and the answers are patiently molded from intuition, technological analysis and factual fragments, where identities are formed and won, where cultural paths that have been known for centuries cross and new ones are created.
Therefore, the visitors of the gallery are waiting for a story not only about the painting, its plot and authenticity. Here we are talking about how knowledge is born and why sometimes the greatest value lies in doubt”, says Dr. Aistė Bimbirytė, one of the curators of the exhibition, director of the Vilnius Picture Gallery.
“The most important mission of us and the project partners in Ukraine was to take the painting out of the war zone. Now the museum exhibit is in the hands of researchers, restorers, and museum workers. We will exhibit the painting for two years in the Vilnius picture galleries and Pranas Domšaitis galleries,” says the head of the International Cooperation Department of LNDM. project curator Skaistis Mikulionis.
Photo by Antanas Lukšėnas/LNDM/Attributed to Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio (1571–1610). “The Arrest of Christ”, 17th century. Canvas, oil. Odessa Museum of Western and Eastern Art.
In the Shadow of Caravaggio: A Four-Century History of Original and Copy
in 1602 The Mattei family’s collection was complemented by Caravaggio’s The Arrest of Christ, a dramatic scene in which Judas betrays Christ with a kiss, and on the right side of the composition is believed to be the artist himself holding a lantern.
The artist was paid 125 scudas for this work. More than a decade later, Giovanni di Attilio created a copy of the painting for the same family, costing just 12 scudi. Both works are mentioned in Mattei collections as early as 1729, but later they parted ways. One of these canvases ended up in Dublin and was associated with Caravaggio only in the 20th century. at the end
19th century Works attributed to Caravaggio have repeatedly appeared on the Paris art market. in 1868 the Ukrainian diplomat and collector Alexander Bazilevsky became the owner of such a work. It is believed that this may have been one of the canvases stored in the Mattei collection. Thus began an intriguing puzzle in the history of art, about which researchers still disagree.
Photo by Gintarės Grigėnaitė/LNDM/LNDM General Director dr. Arūnas Gelūnas and Igor Poronikas, director of the Odesa Museum of Western and Eastern Art
Currently, at least twelve versions of “The Arrest of Christ” are known in the world. One of the most popular hypotheses is that the painting stored in the Museum of Western and Eastern Art in Odessa is the earliest copy of Caravaggio’s original.
Not only the story of the origin of the work, but also the fate of the last decades is dramatic: in 2008 the painting was cut out of the frame and stolen, two years later it was found badly damaged in Berlin, and a decade after the theft, restoration began in Ukraine.
This year, after the trial due to the statute of limitations, the work was presented in Kyiv, and after a difficult journey through the war-torn country, it reached the restoration center of LNDM Pran Gudyna. Here, a team of restorers and researchers – Linas Lukoševičius, Regimantas Paulionis, Lukas Rakauskas, Tomas Ručys, Jūratė Senvaitienė, Algimantas Vaineikis and Rolandas Vičys – took care of the safe display of the work and performed physical tests.
Gintarės Grigėnaitė/LNDM photo/Head of the International Cooperation Department of LNDM. project curator Skaistis Mikulionis
Now the painting is being presented to the Lithuanian public for the first time, and it is given a rare opportunity to closely observe how the history of art is born, checked and rewritten. The atmospheric architecture of the exhibition created by Łola Žebrauskaitė-Malinauskė and the design solutions of Dominyka Gurskaitė that respond to it will also invite you to experience the work.
In search of the secrets of the painting – events accompanying the exhibition
The multi-layered history and iconography of the painting is also presented in the Vilnius Picture Gallery. The exhibition invites you to explore the scene of Judas’ kiss, the meaning of which over the centuries has gone beyond the limits of the biblical story and has become a symbol of betrayal and deception. Visitors will be able to get up close and personal with the baroque chiaroscuro that decorates the painting (it. chiaroscuro), unexpected iconographic solutions and other details that help reveal the uniqueness of this work.
In order to solve the puzzles posed by the painting, the exhibition will be accompanied by a rich educational program. In the creative workshops “The Story of One Picture”, “Laboratory of Light and Shadow”, “I’m Watching a Picture”, visitors will be invited to delve into the depicted plot and the artistic language of the work. There will also be guided tours with exhibition curators, a museum guide and a restorer.
September 10 at 5 p.m. in a special lecture-excursion, former employee of the Special Operations Board, author of the book “Judas’s Kiss” Denisas Fomičiov will tell about the theft of the painting and the operation to recover it.
October 15-16 The Vilnius Picture Gallery will host an international scientific conference “The same, only different: copy, imitation and forgery in visual art”.
