At Palazzo Barberini the new Fillide, perhaps it is by Caravaggio

ROME - The eyes scrutinize the observer magnetically. The hairstyle is high and cotton, as the Roman women of those years loved. The dark robe, with a small lace that turns on the neckline. And then that almost distinctive trait, of pearl earrings. It is the Portrait of a Young Woman (the girl with the tuft), oil on canvas unpublished and never seen, which came out of the collection of a private individual who inherited it and on which hangs the question of questions: is it really a new Caravaggio? The work is exhibited from 11 May until 30 July for the first time at Palazzo Barberini (during the exhibition L'immagine sovrana. Urban VIII and the Barberini), edited by the scholar Maria Cristina Terzaghi who will officially present it in a public meeting on Tuesday 16 May. Oil on canvas, mentioned for the first time among the works of Cardinal Antonio Barberini in 1644 and then in 1972 in the inventory of his assets drawn up post mortem, in which the "Portrait of a woman with tuft of palms approximately 3, with carved gilded frame, hand of Caravaggio" reappears. Considering the decidedly high figure of 80 scudi, the work seems to portray Fillide Melandroni (1581-1614), courtesan already muse of Caravaggio in the Portrait lost in the Second World War during the bombing of Berlin (of which Palazzo Barberini exhibits a black and white photo in comparison), but also model for Santa Caterina today at the Thyssen in Madrid, for Martha and Magdalene at the Detroit Institute of Arts and, perhaps, for Judith and Holofernes in Palazzo Barberini.
"We are not unbalanced. We want the picture to be studied by experts. It is also the mission of our museum", tell ANSA the director Flaminia Gennari Santori and the art historian Maria Cristina Terzaghi, who adds: "A restoration will say a lot. He is certainly an extraordinary face, also for how he emerges from the darkness". (ANSA).