On the left before restoration, on the right after restoration.
After seven months of renovations, one of Caravaggio's most evocative works, "The Resurrection of Lazarus", will return to public view in Rome's Palazzo Braschi. The painting suffered over the years from being kept in damp conditions in the church of the Crociferi fathers in Messina, in eastern Sicily.
Painted in 1609, shortly before the artist's death, the image is a departure from his usual tightly-framed subjects, featuring a horizontal line of people against an indistinguishable brown background, perhaps a church, which enhances the focus and drama of the piece. Caravaggio, who had just fled a Maltese prison, painted this work as an assignment from the merchant Giovanni Battista de' Lazzari for the main chapel at the Church of Padri Crociferi in Messina.
The painting was unscathed in the great Messina earthquake of 1908, which killed some 200,000 people and destroyed thousands of buildings in Sicily and Calabria.
"The Resurrection of Lazarus" will be on view in Palazzo Braschi through the 15th of July before transferring permanently to the Region Museum of Messina, where it will go on display on the 25th of July.
