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The Resurrection of Matthew and the Angel

Reviving Lost Art - New Technology and Old School

Digital Masterpieces
Great fanfare was given (and deservedly so) to Factum-Arte in their conscientious care and application to enlist every means at their disposal using digitally technology to reproduce Caravaggio's Nativity for presentation at the Oratorio of San Lorenzo. With applied imaging expertise, software and computer magic coupled with the best methodology available involving the precision application of colors dyes, paints and coatings they created a canvas icon reminiscent of an old master. The current paradigm in this cutting edge approach would be difficult to contest.

Rewind the clock back 30 years.
Hardly any of today's technology was available for use in reproducing such a refined level of art short of matching paint formulas, badger hair brushes and palette knives used in an era of the masters, 400 years ago. Even hoping to reflect accurately, the 'feel' and character of a master, with close attention to a refine deft touch and matching brush stroke application, separates a resplendent creation from the mundane. Authenticity is another subject where spectral analysis, X-ray and pigment content began playing a part in forgery detection. Some of that technology helped in fine tuning Factum Arte's creation.

Matching a master with ‘a fine finishing touch' is a challenge. The quality of a reproduction without the original references takes research to almost “trial by ordeal” in gathering relevant information.

Old School - Research in Depth
Noel Baron contacted the state museum organization, Prussian Cultural Heritage (Staatlich Museen
Preussischer Kulturbesitz) inquiring about any information on obtaining a color photo, artist's copy or transparency of the Caravaggio's first rendition “Matthew and the Angle” created prior to its destruction. That original Caravaggio painting in question was destroyed in 1945 by the allied bombing of the Kaiser-Friedrich-Museum’s art stored in a fortified antiaircraft tower during the Second World War.                     

Dr. Erich Schleier a museum director, had remarked in a letter to her that nothing in color was available but it was known and that there were a few photos in black and white possibly still available from the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin in The German Democratic Republic (East Germany)  

The Staatliche Museen zu Berlin –
Kaiser-Friedrich-Museum custodian, H. Nutzmann responded to the inquiry as well and said that they have in their Germaldegalerie archives a negative of the painting on a broken glass plate taken many years ago. They graciously sent her a precision black and white contact photograph from that negative of the Caravaggio painting. Also, they later included a very concise color description depicted in the painting written in 1909 by a German Art critic, historian and museum curator, Hans Posse. Hitler utilized Posse’s historic background and art expertise to help vet works of art for the Reich before the beginning of the war.

On 21 June 1939, Hitler set up the Sonderauftrag Linz (“Special Commission: Linz”) in Dresden and appointed Dr. Hans Posse, director of the Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister, as special envoy. The Sonderauftrag not only collected art for the Führermuseum, but also for other museums in the German Reich, especially in the eastern territories.

Research indicates that Noel may have indeed been the first person to faithfully recreated the Caravaggio with the best possible descriptive input available, in color. You may see the description in German and translation in letters to Noel, supplied by the museum.

Letters - Communications and Notes of Provenance

The Details
The photographic glass plate had a crack in a corner that can be seen (right image below) – The resolution is so precise, by looking carefully, the actual individual strands of hair can be seen on Mathew as well as an undulating wave of craquelure finish reflecting the rippling age of the underlying canvas weave. The finest detail of the feathers in the angel wings are stunning and very explicit.

With that information and experience in studying Caravaggio’s 3-D techniques (like chiaroscuro) has produced, what is believed to be the first truly accurate color reproduction of the first version of that painting since its destruction. The only controversy in the faithful color reproduction is the exact color of the angel's hair. That color was never described. Color referencing other angels Caravaggio had painted, a medium light mahogany brown was applied. St. Matthew and the Angel second version was influential in this decision. The photo sensitivity to certain light frequencies in old black and white panchromatic film actual gives a clue to color selection when colors like red reflect and create more density in the captured image rather than the older orthochromatic material. Early films with varying degrees of sensitivity prior to the refinement of Panchromatic film gave a wide range of results like rendering darker complexions in the faces of the people in mid 19th century scenes. German film makers like Perutz pioneered early sensitized Panchromatic plates as early as 1902. Information on the back of the photo indicates the photo plate could have been used up until 1938. A museum or similar institution would certainly acquire the best material that was available for documentation.

The Floor Anomaly
Additionally, an anomaly in the lower left corner commonly believed to be a crack or separation in the floor of the painting has been misinterpreted from the only Black and White photos that remained of the painting. In reality, a crack in the photographic glass negative plate conveyed to a print with that break causing a misinterpretation in the details of the painting’s image. A master print produced by the museum reveals the crack in such detail, that the adhesive used to join the two pieces is visible. The refractive index of the negative made the positive print appear to have a crack in the floor transposed into the final renditions of what is now, mistaken attempts to reproduced the Caravaggio accurately.

A corrected color reproduction of Caravaggio’s Matthew and the Angel is now hanging in an Oil Company executive’s home. A photo of the painting in situ is shown here.