FOLLOWER OF MICHELANGELO DA MERISI, CALLED IL CARAVAGGIO

This picture is after Caravaggio's Incredulity of Saint Thomas (Potsdam, Sanssouci), executed in 1602 for the Roman banker Vincenzo Giustiniani (1564-1637), whose celebrated collection included no fewer than fifteen works by the artist. At the beginning of the nineteenth century, Caravaggio's picture was one of over 160 from the Giustiniani collection acquired by the King of Prussia and taken to Charlottenburg Palace before being moved to the Picture Gallery in Potsdam, where it remains today. Due to the popularity of this composition, attested to by the remarkable number of surviving old copies, it would seem likely that the present picture dates to the seventeenth century.