The unknown commissioner

An elegant man in black clothes and a white ruff kneels among the believers. He looks out at us over his right shoulder and seems almost to be losing his balance against the force of their fervour.

This is Caravaggio’s portrait of the sponsor and commissioner, whose name has remained a mystery to this day. As does the Dominican monastery or church for which the work appears to be intended. The circumstances of the commission are also unclear. There is no information about this large altarpiece in the Roman or Neapolitan inventory archives. This could have been a commission from Northern Italy, possibly for a Dominican church in Genoa, Siena or Florence.