Portrait of a gentleman (Scipione Borghese?)

This canvas – belonging to the collection of Francesco Crociani, archpriest of Montepulciano presumably before it came into the Montepulciano municipal collections (1861) – has been for a long time covered by a repainting on the entire background and darkening. Thanks to the recent restoration (2010) and the studies of some scholars, the portrait has been attributed to the first Roman career of Caravaggio. The most convincing elements for such attribution are the modernity of the shadow projected diagonally on the wall, now visible once again, and the supposed protagonist as Scipione Caffarelli Borghese, one of the central figures in Caravaggio’s life and one of the leading art collectors of his time.
The portrait is conceived in a simple, unadorned form, without any objects, symbols or gestures which could allude to other conceptual or moral contexts. Even the indications of social rank that could be drawn from the sitter’s clothing are reduced to a minimum: his elegant attire plays on various shades of black and is fashionably cut, with a capped effect over the right shoulder, while the left side presents a higher profile corresponding with the man’s cape.