The National Galleries of Ancient Art present the exhibition Orazio Gentileschi and the image of Saint Francis from 27 January to 10 April 2023 at Palazzo Barberini . The Birth of Caravaggism in Rome , curated by Giuseppe Porzio , professor of modern art history at the University of Naples L'Orientale, and Yuri Primarosa , museum curator and adjunct professor of modern art history at Sapienza University of Rome.

In room no. 9 on the ground floor of Palazzo Barberini, intended for dossier exhibitions with insights into individual works or specific themes, a painting by Orazio Gentileschi depicting St. Francis in ecstasy will be exhibited for the first time , notified by the Italian State on the opinion of Yuri Primarosa as a work by exceptional historical-artistic importance.

The painting clearly constitutes a rare and relevant testimony of the moment in which Orazio Gentileschi approached the poetic and stylistic novelties elaborated by Michelangelo Merisi . It was in fact executed from nature and with the model posed: a working method that Orazio must have already learned around 1599-1600 directly from Caravaggio. In all probability the picture was painted in the same years as the famous trial that Giovanni Baglione had brought against Caravaggio, Onorio Longhi, Filippo Trisegni and Gentileschi himself; during the trial, and to be precise in September 1603, Gentileschi had declared that he had lent Caravaggio «a capuchin robe» and a «par d'ale». It is plausibly the same habit, distinguished by a peculiar pointed headdress, that Horace portrayed in the work presented here.

The unpublished painting by Gentileschi is compared with three important works conserved in Palazzo Barberini and with a painting from the Prado museum : the San Francesco in Meditation attributed to Caravaggio , the San Francesco supported by an angel by Gentileschi himself , the San Francesco in prayer by Cigol i and the San Francesco supported by an angel from Madrid, another masterpiece from Gentileschi 's youthful phase.