Governorate of Vatican City State and Vatican Museums

EL GRECO IN THE MIRROR

Two paintings compared

Saturday 14 March 2026, 16.00

Papal Palace of Castel Gandolfo

Speakers:

Sr. Raffaella Petrini, F.S.E. – President of the Governorate of Vatican City State

Barbara Jatta – Director of the Museums and Cultural Heritage

Andrea Tamburelli – Director of the Pontifical Villas

Lucio d’Alessandro – Rector of the Suor Orsola Benincasa University of Naples

Fabrizio Biferali – Curator of the Vatican Museums Department of Fifteenth and Sixteenth Century Art

Alessandra Zarelli – Painting and Wood Materials Restoration Laboratory

Press Release

Vatican, 10 March 2026 – The exhibition “El Greco in the mirror. Two paintings compared”, hosted at the Papal Palace of Castel Gandolfo, is intended to create a dialogue between two small masterpieces by the great artist. A previously unseen painting by the brilliant master, who was born in 1541 in Candia (now Iraklion) on the island of Crete and died in Toledo, Spain in 1614, will be presented to the public. The small oil painting on wood panel (45 x 29 cm), created around 1590-1595, is held in the Ambassadors' Hall of the Papal Audience Apartment of the Vatican Apostolic Palace. The exhibition is curated by Fabrizio Biferali, head of the Vatican Museums Department of Fifteenth and Sixteenth Century Art.

The Redeemer belonged to the collection of the Spanish Catholic intellectual and politician José Sánchez de Muniáin, who donated it to Paul VI in 1967.

The work, 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 Redeemer will be 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, 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 painting is modelled on a Titian invention and features Friar Leo, a figure who would be abandoned at the beginning of El Greco's stay in Spain, only to reappear in the final years of the Cretan master’s life.

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 “Music at the Museums” 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.

Programme

Saturday 14 March 2026

16.00 – Exhibition inauguration

Followed by the concert:

Il Dolore e la Preghiera (Pain and Prayer)

Giovanni Battista Pergolesi

Stabat Mater

Cento Città Chamber Orchestra, Eos Choir

Mirco Roverelli, Director

Organized by the Maria di Pasquale ETS Association

ACCREDITATION PROCEDURE

Journalists and media operators who wish to participate must apply via the Holy See Press Office online accreditation system, at: press.vatican.va/accreditamenti

All requests must be received no later than 24 hours before the event.

Info: stampa.musei@scv.va