The Vatican is preparing to present to the public an exceptional and previously little-known work by the Spanish painter El Greco. Titled "The Redeemer," this oil painting on wood, created between 1590 and 1595, was long concealed under a skillful forgery before being recently identified by experts from the Vatican Museums.
On Saturday, March 14, the Apostolic Palace of Castel Gandolfo will host the exhibition "El Greco in the Mirror. Two Paintings in Comparison." This event will mark the first public appearance of this canvas, which has been kept until now in the Hall of the Ambassadors of the Pontifical Audience Apartment. The work, initially incomplete and marked by the wear of time, was the subject of fraudulent manipulation in the 1960s. At that time, the growing enthusiasm for the master from Toledo had favored the appearance of forgeries on the art market. An anonymous forger then covered the original layers of the painting to deliver a more conventional representation of Christ, thus masking the authentic work of the artist.
The journey of this painting is closely linked to the history of the contemporary papacy. "The Redeemer" once belonged to the collection of José Sánchez de Muniáin, a Spanish Catholic intellectual and politician. In 1967, he donated it to Pope Paul VI. It was only very recently, during restoration work carried out by the Painting Laboratory of the Vatican Museums under the direction of Paolo Violini, that the true nature of the work was revealed.
The restorers uncovered what they call a "pictorial palimpsest." Beneath the reworked surface, cleaning operations revealed the original layers as well as preparatory sketches for other compositions by El Greco. These technical discoveries allowed for the formal confirmation of the attribution to the master who died in 1614.
The exhibition, under the responsibility of Fabrizio Biferali, head of the 15th and 16th-century art department of the Vatican Museums, will propose a dialogue between this rediscovered Christ and a small tempera on wood depicting Saint Francis of Assisi. This iconographic choice carries a particular symbolic dimension: the presentation of these two works is intended as a tribute to Pope Leo XIV, as the Church celebrates the eighth centenary of the death of the "Poverello" of Assisi.
The inauguration will take place in the presence of Sister Raffaella Petrini, Secretary General of the Governorate of the Vatican City State, and Barbara Jatta, Director of the Vatican Museums. To conclude this presentation, the Orchestra da Camera delle Cento Città and the Eos choir will perform Giovanni Battista Pergolesi's Stabat Mater. This musical moment will also mark the opening of the Vatican Museums' cultural season, placed under the sign of interaction between different forms of art in the service of beauty and faith.