The Strange Case of the Caravaggio Discovery

The Telegraph reports that the ebook claiming to have re-attributed a cache of works owned by the City of Milan as works by Caravaggio has been withdrawn from Amazon (though it remains for sale on lulu.com.)

The claim itself was outlandish but some of the reaction is ante-diluvian in its starched skepticism that any valid claim could be made outside of the academic establishment:

The withdrawal of the book raised questions about why the historians’ claims, which garnered worldwide media attention, had not been peer-reviewed. […] A panel of heritage experts from Castello Sforzesco, the castle where the archive of sketches and drawings is kept, would scrutinise “with rigour the ideas advanced by the authors of the e-book,” he said. […]

Maria Teresa Fiorio, the former director of the castle’s collection, said last week that she was “perplexed” by the claims made in the book. “A serious scholar doesn’t produce an e-book – they would publish their findings in the appropriate journals. Everyone who has studied the collection has asked themselves – is it possible that some were drawn by Caravaggio? No one has drawn that conclusion.”

The authors claim their work’s many images are essential to making their case. Of course, the publication and publicity surrounding it has generated exactly the sort of “peer review” one would want if your case was convincing.

Amazon Withdraws Controversial Caravaggio Book (Telegraph)