Artificial intelligence has concluded that a painting long considered a copy of Caravaggio's "The Lute Player" is actually an authentic work by the baroque master himself. According to The Guardian, researchers utilized AI technology to analyze the version housed at Badminton House, with the system determining an 87.5% probability that the painting is genuine.
Three versions of "The Lute Player" by Caravaggio are known to exist, but only one has been consistently recognized as being from the hand of the great chiaroscuro master. That version, housed in the Hermitage Museum, was restored shortly before being displayed in Paris in 2018 during an exhibition at the Jacquemart-André Museum. Of the other two canvases, the one in the Wildenstein collection was long attributed to the baroque painter and was even considered to predate the Hermitage's "Lute Player."
The third version was sold by Sotheby's in 1969 for just a few hundred pounds sterling as a simple "copy after Caravaggio." It was later revalued in 1971 as the work of a painter "from Caravaggio's circle." In 2001, Sotheby's confirmed this attribution, specifying that it could be a copy made by Carlo Magnone, a painter active in Rome in 1642.
Carina Popovici, head of Art Recognition, a Swiss company specializing in artwork authentication through AI, told The Guardian that "any result above 80% is very reliable." The AI analysis also determined that the Wildenstein version is not authentic. Additionally, a lute specialist pointed out numerous errors in the instrument's representation in the Wildenstein version, which are not present in the Badminton and Hermitage paintings.
The Badminton House "Lute Player" was purchased in the 18th century by the third Duke of Beaufort for his residence in Gloucestershire. In 1971, Clovis Whitfield, a specialist in Michelangelo Merisi's work, bought the painting for £71,000. He noted in the precision of certain details - "dewdrops on the flowers" - and the intense rendering of the subject, strong concordances with the 17th-century artist's style. Since 2010, researchers have already considered the work to be authentic, and AI has now confirmed their hypotheses.
The rarity of surviving Caravaggio works is such that any news about the baroque master creates a sensation. In 2014, a "Judith Beheading Holofernes" was discovered in an attic and sold privately for likely more than one hundred million euros. Thanks to AI, the owner of the Badminton House "Lute Player" has certainly made an excellent deal.
A podcast in English recounting the adventure of this authentication has been made available online, and a documentary is currently in production. The use of artificial intelligence in art authentication represents a growing trend in the art world, offering new tools to verify the provenance and authenticity of masterpieces that have been debated for centuries.
