Vatican Museums

Starting from 14 March, the Papal Palace of Castel Gandolfo will host “El Greco in the mirror. Two paintings compared”, an exhibition intended to create a dialogue between two small masterpieces by the great artist. A previously unseen painting by El Greco, the Redeemer (45 x 29 cm), held in the Ambassadors' Hall of the Papal Audience Apartment of the Apostolic Palace, is placed in relation to a small tempera on wood (28 x 20 cm) depicting Saint Francis, on loan from the A. and M.A. Pagliara Foundation of the Suor Orsola Benincasa University.
The exhibition is curated by Fabrizio Biferali, head of the Vatican Museums Department of XV-XVI Century Art.

The Redeemer was created around 1590-1595 by the brilliant master, born in 1541 in Candia (now Iraklion) on the island of Crete, and died in Toledo in Spain in 1614. The work belonged to the collection of the Spanish Catholic intellectual and politician José Sánchez de Muniáin, who donated it to Paul VI in 1967. The oil painting on panel, poorly understood due to a lack of research and studies to decipher the image and evidently unfinished, suffered inevitable deterioration until the 1960s, when it was presumably repainted. The re-evaluation of the great Cretan artist increased the demand for his works and with it the production of fakes. It is in this context that our painting was remade by an unknown forger, who concealed the original layers by roughly tracing the image of Christ.

The Redeemer has recently undergone restoration in the Vatican Museums Painting and Wood Materials Restoration Laboratory, directed by the Master Restorer Paolo Violini. The conservation work, carried out by the Master Restorer Alessandra Zarelli and accompanied by scientific analyses conducted by the Cabinet of Scientific Research directed by Fabio Morresi, has enabled the unexpected and exciting discovery of a true pictorial palimpsest beneath the surface of the painting, which features two underlying layers with sketches of two other works by El Greco.
The cleaning carefully recovered the original layers, gradually revealing even those whose presence was uncertain. All the data, compared with that of other paintings by the artist, confirmed the work's full authenticity.
The tempera on wood panel depicting Saint Francis is instead an early masterpiece by El Greco, dating from around 1570, when the artist was documented in Rome and had already passed through the Venetian workshops of Titian and Tintoretto.
The exhibition of the two paintings is intended as a tribute to the Pontiff Leo XIV, on the year of the eighth centenary of the death of Saint Francis of Assisi.
The inauguration will be followed by the first concert of the 2026 season of the “Musica ai Musei” programme: “The initiative with which the Pope’s Museums renew, again this year, their contribution to beauty through an interaction of the arts”, affirms Barbara Jatta, Director of the Vatican Museums.

The ticket for the Papal Palace of Castel Gandolfo includes access to all current exhibitions, the Garden of the Moor and the Secret Garden, with the option of a guided or self-guided tour.