Caravaggio. The Mystery of the Two Saint Francis in Meditation

Two Caravaggios coming from Italy are for the first time on show in Stockholm, on the 400th anniversary of the master's death (1571-1610).
This book, published to accompany this event, aims at clarifying a true enigma that has surrounded up to today two Caravaggio's paintings having the same subject - Saint Francis in meditation - on which a lively debate has arisen among art critics and authoritative scholars on Michelangelo Merisi who, on equally founded scientific reasons, supported in different ways the authenticity of one work or of the other.
The two paintings are the Saint Francis in meditation coming from the Church of San Pietro in Carpineto Romano, currently in deposit at the Gallery of Ancient Art of Palazzo Barberini, and the one coming from the Chiesa dei Cappuccini in Via Veneto in Rome: two paintings that seem at first sight exactly alike, but the production of which was so far unknown.
The study of the painting techniques of the two works, highlighted thanks to the recent restoration work that has been carried out in parellel on the two paintings and thanks to the analysis connected to it, along with the study of the documents in the Church in Carpineto, has allowed the author, who is actually one of Caravaggio's specialists, to identify the painting in Carpineto as the original one and the one in Rome as a copy by a XVII century follower of Caravaggio.
This hypothesis in the attribution, while submitting to the attention of the public the problems regarding restorations, could finally clear the doubts that has characterised so far these two important, and mysterious, twin works.