A Swiss artificial intelligence company is making bold claims that it has identified an authentic Caravaggio painting using only a photograph, directly challenging decades of research by leading art historians and major institutions. Art Recognition, the AI research firm, asserts that a painting long considered to be a copy of the Italian Baroque master's work is actually an original piece by Caravaggio himself, disputing attributions made by Sotheby's auction house, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and other prestigious art institutions.
The company's AI analysis of "The Lute Player," formerly housed at the Badminton Estate in Gloucestershire, England, concluded there is an 85.7% likelihood that the work is a genuine Caravaggio. This assessment was reported by The Guardian on Saturday, September 27. Art Recognition promotes on its website that its system can verify artwork authenticity within just a few days using only a photograph of the piece.
According to case studies listed on the company's website, Art Recognition claims to have successfully authenticated works by renowned artists including Raphael, Vincent van Gogh, and Anthony Van Dyck through collaborations with academic institutions such as Tilburg University and the University of Liverpool. Carina Popovici, Art Recognition's co-founder and chief executive officer, told The Guardian that "everything over 80% is very high," referring to the AI's alleged accuracy rate in determining authenticity.
The claim carries particular significance because very few paintings by Caravaggio are believed to have survived to the present day. The artist, who became famous for his masterful use of dramatic chiaroscuro lighting techniques and dynamic portrayals of violent scenes that reflected his own notoriously volatile lifestyle, died in 1610 at the young age of 38. His relatively short career and turbulent life have made authentic works extremely rare and valuable.
"The Lute Player" is one of three known versions of a painting depicting a brown-haired young man playing the musical instrument at a marble table decorated with flowers. The Badminton Estate version was originally acquired in the 18th century by Henry Somerset, the Third Duke of Beaufort. The other two paintings, both created around 1596, are currently housed in the State Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg, Russia, and in the private Wildenstein Collection, which is headquartered in New York.
The State Hermitage Museum version is widely accepted as an undisputed authentic Caravaggio and also features the characteristic marble slab with elaborate floral displays. However, the Wildenstein version, which includes a decorative table setting topped with various musical instruments, has faced skepticism regarding its authenticity, particularly from lute maker and Lute Society President David Van Edwards.
Between 1990 and 2013, the Wildenstein version was on extended loan to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. During this period, Keith Christiansen, who served as the museum's curator of European Paintings, declared the work's authorship and provenance "beyond any doubt" in an exhibition catalogue for the 1990 show titled "A Caravaggio Rediscovered: The Lute Player." The museum's research traced the painting's history back to the collection of Cardinal Francesco Maria del Monte, who was one of Caravaggio's most influential and important patrons during his career.
Based on their research and authentication of the Wildenstein version, the Metropolitan Museum of Art subsequently labeled the Badminton Estate version as merely "a copy after Caravaggio." This classification significantly impacted the painting's perceived value and historical importance in the art world.
Sotheby's auction house has consistently characterized the Badminton Estate painting as a copy when it offered the work at auction on two separate occasions, in 1969 and 2001. In the 2001 auction catalogue listing, Sotheby's theorized that the painting had likely been created by Carlo Magnone, a 17th-century artist who worked as an assistant to the painter Andrea Sacchi. The work ultimately sold for £71,000, which would be equivalent to approximately $129,883 in today's currency.
The buyer of the contested work was British art historian Clovis Whitfield, who has maintained his belief that the painting is an authentic Caravaggio. Whitfield argued that the painting corresponds exactly with a detailed description found in Giovanni Baglione's 1642 biography of Caravaggio. "Baglione mentions minutely observed details such as the reflection on dew drops on the flower," Whitfield explained to The Guardian.
In Baglione's historical text, the biographer wrote that Caravaggio "painted a youth playing a lute, and everything seemed lively and real, such as the carafe of flower filled with water, in which we see clearly the reflection of a window and other objects in the room, while on the petals of the flowers there are dewdrops imitated most exquisitely." This detailed contemporary description has been central to Whitfield's argument for the painting's authenticity.
However, the art establishment has remained skeptical of these claims. According to The Guardian's reporting, Keith Christiansen of the Metropolitan Museum wrote to Whitfield's late collecting partner Alfred Bader in 2007, stating that "no one — certainly no modern scholar — has ever or ever would entertain the idea that your painting could be painted by Caravaggio."
In response to inquiries about Art Recognition's AI analysis, Sotheby's issued a statement standing firmly by its original attribution of the painting. The auction house characterized the work as originating from "the circle of Caravaggio" rather than being created by the master himself. "While we follow keenly scientific advances in AI and broader technology, and collaborate with scientists who are pushing the boundaries in the technical study and understanding of paintings, we see no reason to question the way in which we researched and catalogued the painting we sold in 2001," the Sotheby's spokesperson said via email.
The spokesperson further added that they "do not have any reason to doubt the attribution to Caravaggio of the painting that was exhibited at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in 2013." As of the time of reporting, both Art Recognition and the Metropolitan Museum of Art had not yet responded to requests for comment from art publication Hyperallergic regarding the AI company's controversial claims.
This case highlights the ongoing tension between traditional art historical scholarship and emerging technological approaches to authentication. While AI technology continues to advance and find applications in various fields, its role in definitively attributing centuries-old artworks remains a subject of debate among experts, institutions, and collectors in the art world.
