Saint Margaret resuscitating a Young Man

Ca. 1620. Oil on canvas. Room 006

This painting is both beautiful in appearance and enigmatic on account of its problems of attribution, its authorship having fluctuated between several artists, all belonging to the aesthetic environment of Michelangelo Merisi, Caravaggio. Indeed, although it is now definitely ascribed to Serodine, some critics still believe it to be the work of the latter. Its history can be traced back to 1647, the year Don Alfonso Enríquez de Cabrera, Admiral of Castile, presented it to Philip IV as a gift, considering it to be a Caravaggio. It was hung in the Monastery of San Lorenzo del Escorial, where it was mentioned by all travelers from Father Santos onwards (1657:) "it is held to be of the hand of Michael Angelo Caravaggio, as it is very good, and in his manner". This attribution, albeit with a certain amount of hesitation, was maintained until the period of Ponz, who repeats the expression: "it is held to be the work of Michael Angelo Caravaggio". It entered the Museo del Prado in 1827. In the early catalogues it was listed under Rutilio Manetti (1570/71-1639), a Sienese Caravaggist, who is better known today, and to whom it cannot be attributed. In 1933, taking up Voss’s authoritative opinion, which Longhi accepted unreservedly, it was catalogued as the work of Giovanni Serodine, and has been ever since. However the attribution to Caravaggio was proposed by a few experts: in 1927 Venturi noted its resemblance to works of Caravaggio’s last period; Zahn underlines the similarities with aspects of the Burial of Saint Lucy painted in Syracuse in 1608 by Caravaggio; and Volpe and other critics also point to Caravaggio, an opinion shared by Pérez Sánchez, especially after the long, careful restoration process the painting underwent. The paint layer has suffered certain alterations owing to the effects of powerful heat which has modified the appearance of the surface. Thick repainting covered certain parts and restoration revealed subtle transitions of light and shadow and a synthetic lightness of execution in places, as well as making the mysterious poetry of the very soberly ordered composition more understandable. The heads of the main figures, the dead boy whom the robust elderly man holds by the armpits and the saint leaning tenderly towards him, clasping his hand in a delicate gesture, are in the shadow. It is undoubtedly related to Serodine´s The Alms of Saint Stephen (Museo-Pinacoteca, Casamari Abbey) with which it displays similarities both in the composition and in details. Considering that it also recalls aspects of surviving paintings of his in the parish church of Ascona, the execution date of this painting could be somewhere between 1620 and 1625. If it were painted by Caravaggio it would be a late work, from the Sicilian period. This can be seen from the pensive, saddened expressions of the heads, in strict profile, the light contouring the wrinkled foreheads -similar to those of several figures from The Adoration of the Shepherds (Museo di Messina-) and the luminous folds and deep shadowed furrows of the dead boy´s clothing, which greatly resemble those of the fabric enveloping the Christ Child in the aforementioned painting. There is a further detail that supports the traditional attribution of the painting to Caravaggio: the inventory of the possessions of the Duke of Alcalá -viceroy of Naples between 1629 and 1631- drawn up in Genoa in 1637 lists a picture called Miracle of a Saint (female) by Caravaggio, which could be this same painting that is now thought to be by Serodine but was then concealed by the attribution to a much more prestigious artist.