Palazzo Barberini displays rare Caravaggio portrait until February.

A never-before-seen painting by Italian Baroque genius Caravaggio goes on public display, for the first time, at Rome's Palazzo Barberini gallery this weekend.

The painting is a portrait of Monsignor Maffeo Barberini, the future Pope Urban VIII who ruled the Catholic Church and the Papal States from 1623 until his death in 1644.

The work, on display until 23 February 2025, dates to the turn of the 17th century and is part of an exhibition curated by gallery director Thomas Clement Salomon and art historian Paola Nicita.

The painting, which depicts the cleric and patron of the arts in his early 30s, is believed to have been in the collection of the noble Barberini family for centuries before passing into private hands in the mid 1930s, around the time the estate was dispersed.

In 1963 the renowned art critic Roberto Longhi authenticated the painting as the work of Caravaggio who only completed a handful of portaits before his death, aged just 38, in 1610.

• Where to see Caravaggio paintings in Rome

"It is not a rediscovered painting, it has been known about since the 1960s, but since then it had only been seen by five or six specialists" - Nicita told news agency ANSA - "Not to mention that portraits of Caravaggio are extremely rare, some have been lost, others have never been traced".

The painting portrays a seated Barberini wearing a biretta and cassock, clutching a folded letter in one hand and pointing with the other, as he glances to his right.

The work makes strong use of chiaroscuro, a technique employing dramatic use of light and shadow, for which Caravaggio is famous.

"It is the Caravaggio painting that everyone has wanted to see for years" - Salomon told ANSA - "It has never been exhibited, lent, or the subject of exhibitions".

Palazzo Barberini is home to three other other works by Caravaggio: St Francis in Meditation (1606-1607), Narcissus (1597-1599), and Judith Beheading Holofernes (1598-1599).

Galleria Corsini, which together with Palazzo Barberini houses Italy's national gallery of ancient art, also has a Caravaggio work: John the Baptist (c. 1604).

For more details about Caravaggio's newly unveiled portrait, and visiting information, see Palazzo Barberini website.

Photos Alessio Panunzi, images courtesy Palazzo Barberini.