The Caravaggio Question: The Painting The Taking of Christ

9 June, 2026 – 2 May, 2027

1603. Rome. Ciriaco Mattei stood before yet another painting now gracing the walls of his palace. A commotion, faces emerging from darkness, the desperate cry of John, a quiet resignation — the emotional tension and the physical proximity of the figures are almost palpable, as though one were present in the Garden of Gethsemane, reaching to pull the betrayer from His face. The work was, once again, faultless. He had paid Michelangelo da Caravaggio 125 scudi for The Taking of Christ, with no inkling that a brief entry in his account books would, centuries later, become one of the greatest discoveries in the art world.

 

More than a decade on, with both Ciriaco and his protégé gone, the patron’s brother Asdrubale Mattei commissioned a copy of the work from the painter Giovanni di Attilio, promising a fee of just 12 scudi. Both the copy and the original remained in the Mattei family collection until at least 1729, when their paths finally diverged.

 

In 1802, Lord William Hamilton Nisbet was granted permission to remove from Rome a canvas attributed to Gerard van Honthorst, The Taking of Christ. In Scotland, the work remained quietly in place for nearly 120 years before eventually passing into the hands of the Jesuits in Dublin. Meanwhile, in the bustling Parisian art market of the 19th century, a work called The Kiss of Judas was presented on several occasions as an original Caravaggio. In 1868, the Ukrainian-born diplomat and collector Alexander Basilevski acquired one such work; in 1899, this painting entered the collection of the newly founded Odessa City Art Museum as a work by Caravaggio.

 

And what of Dublin? In 1990, the conservator Sergio Benedetti noticed a painting hanging in the Jesuit refectory and proposed the attribution to Caravaggio. That same year, art historians Francesca Cappelletti and Laura Testa located and published the 1603 account-book records in the Mattei family archive. By 1993, the Dublin painting was officially presented as a possible original.

 

At least twelve copies of The Taking of Christ are currently known worldwide. Scholarly debate continues over how much of the authentic Caravaggio survives in each. One of the most widely held theories identifies the Odessa painting as the earliest copy, made by di Attilio. Not all questions will be answered here, but the exhibition offers a rare opportunity to observe how art history is written.

 

 

Organisers: LNMA Vilnius Picture Gallery, The Odesa Museum of Western and Eastern Art

 

Project leaders: Director General of the Lithuanian National Museum of Art Arūnas Gelūnas, Director of the Odesa Museum of Western and Eastern Art Igor Poronyk, Director of the LNMA Vilnius Picture Gallery Aistė Bimbirytė

 

Exhibition curators and coordinators: Aistė Bimbirytė, Gabija Kasparavičiutė-Kaminskienė, Skaistis Mikulionis, Joana Vitkutė  

 

Architect Ūla Žebrauskaitė-Malinauskė 

 

Designer Dominyka Gurskaitė 

 

Translators: Raminta Bumbulytė, Džiulija Elena Fedirkienė, Ruslanas Skrobacas 

 

Editors Ilona Čiužauskaitė, Olha Proskura

 

Supervision by restorers: Linas Lukoševičius, Regimantas Paulionis, Lukas Rakauskas, Tomas Ručys, Jūratė Senvaitienė, Algimantas Vaineikis, Rolandas Vičys 

 

Educators: Augustina Ivanauskaitė, Jolanta Sereikaitė 

 

Tour guides: Dalia Kaladinskienė, Akvilė Murauskaitė 

 

Project partners: Lietuvos Respublikos ambasada Ukrainoje, Ukrainos ambasada Lietuvos Respublikoje, Lietuvos Respublikos ambasada Lenkijos Respublikoje, Lietuvos šaulių sąjunga,   Lietuvos šaulių sąjungos 1008 Šventaragio šaulių kuopa, Lietuvos šaulių sąjungos Vakarų (Jūros) šaulių 3-iosios rinktinės 313-os kuopa, Valstybės sienos apsaugos tarnyba prie Lietuvos Respublikos vidaus reikalų ministerijos, Ukrainos valstybės sienos apsaugos tarnyba, Lietuvos Respublikos muitinė,  Ukrainos valstybinė muitinės tarnyba, LNDM Prano Gudyno restauravimo centras, Ukrainos patrulinė policija,  Lietuvos kariuomenė, Lietuvos nacionalinė filharmonija.

 

Sponsor  UAB Ad Rem

 

Patron Honorary Consul of the Republic of Lithuania in Luhansk Region Robertas Gabulas 

 

Media Sponsor Lietuvos nacionalinis radijas ir televizija

 

 

 Special thanks: 

 

Ambasadorė Inga Stanytė-Toločkienė 

Ambasadorė Ольга Нікітченко

Ambasadorius Valdemaras Sarapinas 

Сергій Бурлаченко

Андрій Чернегa

Любомир Дем’янчук

Valdas Dovydėnas

Rita Grochovskienė

Tomas Ivanauskas

Renata Kanarskaja

Romas Klapatauskas

Mirijana Kozak

Леся Рожак

Narimantas Savickas

Andrius Šulskis

Agata Voleiko

Darius Zaura

Ieva Staškevičiūtė

Ірина Глєбова

Ольга Куцан

 

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