by Tom Gurney
Tom Gurney BSc (Hons) is an art history expert with over 20 years experience
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Email: tomgurney1@gmail.com / Phone: +44 7429 011000
The Fortune Teller by Caravaggio: The Louvre Version and Its Roman Counterpart
Caravaggio painted two closely related versions of The Fortune Teller. The primary painting discussed here is the version in the Louvre, Paris: a smiling young woman takes a fashionable youth's hand and appears to read his future. His feathered hat, sword and fine clothes signal confidence; the tiny action at their joined hands makes the encounter less simple. A second version is in the Musei Capitolini, Rome. Their dates, sizes and histories belong to separate canvases.[1][2][3]
The Louvre currently dates its painting to about 1595–98. It measures 99 × 131 cm and entered the French royal collection as a gift from Prince Camillo Pamphili to Louis XIV in 1665. The Capitolini picture is larger, 115 × 150 cm, and its museum dates it 1596–97. A reader who sees only the shared English title needs these object anchors to know which painting is being discussed.[1][2]
Caravaggio in context
The Cardsharps
c.1595Calling of Saint Matthew
1599–1600Supper at Emmaus
1601At a Glance
- Primary object on this pageCaravaggio, La diseuse de bonne aventure (The Fortune Teller), Louvre INV 55 / MR 105[1]
- Louvre datec.1595–98; oil on canvas, subsequently transferred to a new support; 99 × 131 cm[1]
- Louvre provenanceAlessandro Vittrici; Doria-Pamphili family; gift from Camillo Pamphili to Louis XIV in 1665[1]
- Other Caravaggio versionMusei Capitolini, Rome, La Buona Ventura, PC 131; 1596–97 in its owner catalogue; oil on canvas, 115 × 150 cm[2]
- Version discussed hereLouvre INV 55; the distinct Capitoline version is compared below.[1][2]
Contents
- What Happens Between the Two Figures
- The Hand-Reading and the Ring
- Why the Scene Mattered in Early Rome
- What Early Writers Actually Said
- The Louvre Painting's History
- Comparing the Capitoline Version
- What Lies Beneath the Capitoline Painting
- A Later Fortune Teller in the Louvre
- Reading the Scene Without Stereotyping
- Looking Closely at the Two Objects
- Frequently Asked Questions
Look closer: The Fortune Teller
The exchange hinges on a held hand and two attentive faces. Details show how costume and gaze sharpen the quiet deception.
123Details from The Fortune Teller
Select a detail image to open the full-size gallery, then use the arrows to compare views.
The joined hands
The woman holds the young man’s hand at the centre of the canvas, drawing both figures into the same small action.
The fortune teller’s gaze
The woman glances toward her customer from beneath a white head covering, her face turned into the light.
The young man’s costume
The plumed hat, slashed sleeves and hand at the hip give the young man a confident pose as he offers his palm.
What Happens Between the Two Figures
Two half-length figures stand against a plain interior background. The woman reaches across the gap to take the young man's hand. He turns toward her, apparently interested in what she will say, while his other hand rests at his hip near a sword. Her smile meets his gaze. Their linked hands form the small centre of a composition framed by her head covering and his feathered hat.
The scene is easy to grasp at first glance: a fortune teller reads a well-dressed customer's palm. Caravaggio then makes the viewer work harder. The large shapes of sleeves, hat and cloak draw attention away from the contact of fingers. The exchange is social and physical at once. The painting gives no written forecast; its story unfolds through gaze and touch.
The apparently informal subject was striking in a painter who would later fill Roman chapels with saints. It belongs with early scenes of musicians, card players and young people, rather than with a biblical cycle. The Metropolitan Museum's scholarly catalogue treats the two Fortune Teller pictures as part of Caravaggio's early experimentation with everyday encounters.[3]
The Hand-Reading and the Ring
An early interpretation says the woman removes a ring from the youth's finger while pretending to read his palm. The Metropolitan Museum's study notes that this action is hard to see in both versions, and connects it with the account of Giulio Mancini, an early biographer. That matters for visual description. The theft is a historical reading of a subtle gesture, not an obvious large prop in the foreground.[3]
The familiar reversal is that the person claiming to predict another's future understands the immediate situation better than her client. The youth's elegant dress and open expression can suggest self-assurance; the small hand action suggests vulnerability. A viewer can read the scene as a study of gullibility and charm. The Met notes that a contemporary poem and later accounts were interested in the woman's beauty and the youth's deception.[3]
The painting also relies on conventions and prejudices of its period. Early writers used a historical ethnic label for the fortune teller and connected such figures with theatrical stories of theft. Repeating that stereotype as an unqualified claim about a real community would confuse a staged pictorial trope with fact. It is more accurate to say the painting depicts a woman in a fortune-telling role and that early commentators interpreted the encounter through a contemporary convention.[3]
Why the Scene Mattered in Early Rome
Caravaggio's early Roman pictures often bring a few figures close to the picture plane and make a gesture carry the narrative. In The Cardsharps, knowledge is unequally shared across a game. Here the youth and the woman appear to share a private exchange, while the viewer is asked to notice what he may miss. In Boy Bitten by a Lizard, a tiny creature produces a sudden bodily reaction. These comparisons show how modest subjects could become concentrated dramas.[3][4]
The Met argues that the Capitoline picture was made for the open market and that the later Louvre version is more tightly focused. That is a scholarly reconstruction, not a date engraved on either canvas. It is useful insofar as it explains why Caravaggio might revisit a successful subject; it should not be repeated as a documented commission from a named client for the Louvre canvas.[3]
The painting's meaning may involve deception, desire and class display. Its force, however, is not dependent on selecting one abstract moral. Caravaggio carefully measures the distance between faces and hands. The conversation looks plausible before its small deception becomes legible. That relation of immediate observation and delayed discovery is part of the work's appeal.
What Early Writers Actually Said
Giulio Mancini, writing around 1620, described a young man whose ring is taken while he receives a palm reading. The Metropolitan Museum's catalogue treats Mancini's account as evidence for the interpretation of the gesture, while warning that the ring is difficult to make out in either surviving version. A reader can therefore understand the plot without being told that the theft is unambiguously visible at normal viewing distance.[3]
Mancini also told a story of Caravaggio selling a fortune-teller picture for only eight scudi. The Met considers the story more likely to concern the earlier Capitoline composition than the later Louvre one, because it associates the first with painting for the open market. That is an argued identification, not a receipt bearing the museum's inventory number. It gives a glimpse of how the subject was remembered, but it cannot date the Louvre canvas or establish its first buyer.[3]
A madrigal published by Gaspare Murtola in 1603 adds another kind of early evidence. As the Met explains, the poem plays with two forms of deception: the woman's possible trick on the youth and the painter's ability to deceive the viewer with a convincing image. The poem shows that the composition prompted literary attention near Caravaggio's lifetime. It does not identify which of today's two canvases Murtola saw, so it should not be used as a provenance document for either one.[3]
The Louvre Painting's History
The Louvre record identifies the canvas as INV 55, with MR 105 as an additional inventory number. It lists Alessandro Vittrici, the Doria-Pamphili family and Prince Camillo Pamphili in its history. In 1665 the prince gave it to Louis XIV; it subsequently became part of the French national collections. The museum currently displays it in the Denon wing, though room information should be checked before a visit.[1]
The Louvre also identifies the painting as number 189 in the 1683 royal inventory.[1] That is a later documentary check on the French collection route, not a record of its first Roman buyer. The distinction matters because the Capitolini canvas has a different documented early connection to Cardinal del Monte. Neither collection history can simply be transferred to the other picture.
A University of Parma study of the Vittrice family reads the 1609 and 1612 inventories of Girolamo Vittrice alongside Mancini's later identification of a fortune-teller painting owned by Girolamo's son Alessandro.[10] The study places the work in a group with Caravaggio's Penitent Magdalene and Rest on the Flight into Egypt. It notes that the three pictures were displayed together under protective fabric curtains in the family's palace. Their presence there gives the Louvre work a firmer early setting than the bare sequence of owner names, but the records do not say Girolamo commissioned each picture rather than bought it after completion. The precise first sale is still unknown.
The same study traces the group from Alessandro's estate to his sister Caterina and then to Olimpia Maidalchini Pamphilj in the mid-seventeenth century.[10] This fills part of the gap between the Vittrice and Pamphili names in the Louvre's concise record. Its discussion of the family's 1650–51 payments concerns several paintings and household objects together, so an individual payment cannot safely be labelled the purchase price of this one canvas. The Louvre's documented 1665 gift to Louis XIV remains the secure French-entry date.[1]
The catalogue describes the medium as oil on canvas with a transposition, a reminder that the present physical support has been altered through conservation history. Its current material state cannot be inferred from a photograph.[1]
That material notation belongs only to INV 55. The Capitoline owner record lists its separate work as oil on canvas and does not give the same support history. The shared subject makes these pictures easy to combine in a general description, but conservation information is tied to a physical object. A claim about a transferred support for one painting is not a finding about the other.[1][2]
The Louvre dates the work broadly to 1595–98. That range is less precise than many internet labels. The related Roman version has its own owner's 1596–97 date, which cannot be transferred to the Louvre object merely because the subjects are alike.[1][2]
Comparing the Capitoline Version
The Musei Capitolini owns a separate La Buona Ventura, inventory PC 131, catalogued 1596–97 and measuring 115 × 150 cm. The Louvre itself notes the related Roman painting and associates it with Cardinal Francesco Maria del Monte's collection. The Met's scholarly study discusses a coat-of-arms stamp on the back of the Capitoline canvas that strengthens that provenance.[1][2][3]
The two works arrange the same exchange differently. In the Louvre painting, the figures are framed more closely from the waist and the young man's dark hat carries an upright plume. In the Capitoline version, more of the figures' bodies and surrounding space are visible, and the feather and costume differ.[1][2]
The Met's catalogue treats the Capitolini picture as the earlier design and the Louvre canvas as a later revisiting. In 2014 the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, which displayed the Roman painting, said recent examination and conservation supported that order.[3][7] The owners' published date ranges still overlap, however, and neither object carries a painted year. The historical sequence rests on combined technical, visual and collection evidence, not on a date that can be read off the surface.[1][2]
That proposed order has a serious alternative. The University of Parma study reports Rossella Vodret's view that the Louvre painting came first, alongside Sergio Guarino's argument that the Capitoline canvas preceded it.[10] Guarino connects his sequence partly to the reused canvas and to a proposed relationship between the buried Madonna and the work of Lorenzo Carli, with whom Caravaggio may have worked. The Madonna's disputed authorship and the uncertain early Roman chronology make that reasoning conditional. A buried image proves reuse of a support; it does not give the visible fortune-teller scene a calendar date or independently establish its place before the Louvre version.
The Roman painting's later collection route is documented separately. A Musei Capitolini account places it in Cardinal del Monte's collection in 1627, records its purchase by Cardinal Carlo Emanuele Pio from del Monte's heirs in 1628, and traces it from the Pio collection into the Capitoline gallery in 1750.[11] These records explain why it is now in a public Roman collection. They do not make del Monte the first buyer or establish that the Louvre picture ever belonged to him.
The other version is more than a footnote. It reveals how Caravaggio could rework a successful scene and how modern historians decide whether similar paintings are both originals, a copy and an original, or later imitations. Both owner museums catalogue their respective works to Caravaggio.[1][2]
What Lies Beneath the Capitoline Painting
The two versions also have different material histories. X-radiography of the Roman canvas in the 1970s revealed an earlier religious image beneath The Fortune Teller. The hidden painting has traditionally been associated with the Cavalier d'Arpino or his workshop, but that assignment is under renewed examination.[8][9] This is evidence of a reused painted canvas, not evidence that the Louvre picture contains the same image.
Later study complicated the attribution of the hidden subject. Art historian Rossella Vodret, reporting on the Dentro Caravaggio diagnostic project, described a Virgin and Child under the Capitoline scene and said new CNR–Bicocca investigations made an attribution to Caravaggio himself plausible. She also reported a change to the youth's head: an initial smaller face, set lower, was enlarged and given a different profile.[8] The latter is a revision within the visible fortune-teller composition; the Madonna is an earlier image below it. They answer different questions about how this particular canvas was used.
On 5 May 2026, Italy's National Institute for Nuclear Physics announced a new non-invasive campaign on the Capitoline work using macro X-ray fluorescence mapping with a precision robotic arm. Its stated aim included gathering evidence relevant to the still open attribution of the underlying Madonna and Child.[9] The announcement describes a study in progress, not a published attribution result. It is therefore premature to present either Cesari's workshop or Caravaggio as the established painter of that hidden image. Chemical maps may clarify pigments and layers, but authorship still requires historical and visual assessment.
The discoveries help explain why the two versions should be studied as two physical objects. The Capitoline canvas preserves a buried picture and a revised head; the Louvre record instead notes a later transfer of the visible painting to a new support.[1][8] One object's X-ray cannot settle what lies beneath the other, and a revised head does not on its own establish which finished Fortune Teller was painted first.
Another related canvas complicates a simple two-picture story without changing the museums' attributions. In 2019, researcher Nicosetta Roio published a preliminary examination of a 92.5 × 120 cm painting close to the Capitoline composition.[12] She reports an old lining, later overpaint on the faces and hands, a reddish-brown preparation and incised details in the woman's embroidered collar. The incisions are unusually extensive in her account; broadly similar materials or a quick brushstroke cannot alone establish Caravaggio's authorship. Roio left open whether the work was an early replica by Caravaggio or a contemporary copy made in his circle, pending further research. It should be described as a proposed related version, not counted as a third accepted autograph painting or confused with the Louvre canvas.
A Later Fortune Teller in the Louvre
The Louvre also owns a painting titled La Diseuse de bonne aventure by Valentin de Boulogne, catalogued around 1626–28. It is a third object with the same French title, not a third Caravaggio version. Its inventory number is INV 8254; Caravaggio's Louvre canvas is INV 55. The two paintings even belonged to Louis XIV's collection, but their artists, dates and entry histories differ.[1][6]
Valentin expands the encounter into a larger group. In the Louvre's account, hands emerge from shadow to rob the fortune teller herself, while two musicians stand at the other side. The person who appears to be deceiving a customer becomes another victim of deception. The museum describes the work as deriving from Caravaggesque models but gives its figures a more melancholy tone. It is a concrete example of how a later painter developed the subject rather than simply copying Caravaggio's two-person exchange.[6]
Reading the Scene Without Stereotyping
Seventeenth-century viewers might recognise the encounter from popular theatre, poems and tales. The Met's study places the fortune-telling figure in that cultural setting. A present-day guide can describe the convention and its period vocabulary while avoiding the suggestion that the painter documented a social group accurately. The figure is a painted role in a narrative of trust and possible deception.[3]
This also keeps the youth's identity open. His sword and fashion signal status or display, but the cited museum records do not name him. It is unnecessary to call him foolish as if that were a biographical fact. The picture stages an imbalance of attention: he looks at her face while the viewer scrutinises their hands.
The painting's complexity comes from the contrast between a friendly, visible interaction and an almost invisible action. The historical account of a stolen ring encourages close inspection, but the uncertain visibility of the ring also matters: the viewer may recognise the possibility of deceit through the pairing of attention and touch without resolving every finger in the painted image.[3]
Looking Closely at the Two Objects
Begin with the Louvre picture's full composition: face to face, hand to hand, dark plume above the youth. Then compare the Capitoline painting with its broader spacing. Check each museum's date and dimensions before deciding whether one seems earlier or later. Small differences in pose and costume are more informative than a claim that one picture is merely a cropped photograph of the other.
The prints guide adds a later episode in the composition's history. A British Museum print of The Fortune Teller carries Manfredi's name on its plate although the museum now identifies the source painting as Caravaggio's Louvre work. That is evidence of changing attribution in reproduction, and another reason to keep the painting's object identity explicit.[5]
Explore the Caravaggio collection
| Name | Date | Type |
|---|---|---|
| Adoration of the Shepherds by Caravaggio: The Messina Nativity | 1608–09; precise order relative to Resurrection of Lazarus remains unresolved | Artwork |
| Amor Victorious by Caravaggio | 1601–02 in the Berlin owner record | Artwork |
| Bacchus by Caravaggio: The Uffizi Painting | about 1598, according to the Uffizi | Artwork |
| Basket of Fruit by Caravaggio | after 1597, probably around the turn of the seventeenth century, according to the Ambrosiana | Artwork |
| Boy Bitten by a Lizard: Caravaggio's London Painting | about 1594–95 in the National Gallery's current catalogue; URL suffix “1596” is inherited | Artwork |
| Boy Bitten by a Lizard: The Florence Version Attributed to Caravaggio | disputed; Longhi's catalogue record preserves historical 1592–93 and other proposed ranges, including c.1597 | Artwork |
| Boy Peeling Fruit by Caravaggio: The Royal Collection Painting | about 1592–93 in the owner's current exhibition record | Artwork |
| Boy Peeling Fruit in Florence: A Derivation from Caravaggio | — | Artwork |
| Boy with a Basket of Fruit by Caravaggio | about 1595 in the Galleria Borghese catalogue | Artwork |
| Caravaggio Paintings in Rome: Churches, Museums and a Practical Route | — | Guide |
| Caravaggio Quotes: What the Documents Actually Record | — | Guide |
| Caravaggio's Lute Player: The Del Monte Painting Once Shown at the Met | about 1596–97 in the Met catalogue | Artwork |
| Caravaggio's Painting Technique: Grounds, Incisions, Revisions and Light | — | Guide |
| Christ at the Column by Caravaggio: The Rouen Flagellation | c.1606 in the owner caption; owner prose gives 1606–07 | Artwork |
| Christ on the Mount of Olives by Caravaggio: The Lost Berlin Painting | — | Artwork |
| Conversion on the Way to Damascus by Caravaggio | about 1601 in the Roma Capitale church record | Artwork |
| Crowning with Thorns by Caravaggio: The Vienna Painting | about 1603 in the 2019 KHM record; “1607” is an inherited URL suffix | Artwork |
| Crowning with Thorns in Prato: Attributed to Caravaggio | about 1602–03 in the collection presentation | Artwork |
| David with the Head of Goliath by Caravaggio: The Borghese Painting | 1606–07 or 1609–10 in the Galleria Borghese catalogue; the later Naples period is favoured by many scholars, while the owner keeps the question open | Artwork |
| David with the Head of Goliath by Caravaggio: The Prado Painting | about 1600 in Prado material; “1599” survives only in the legacy URL | Artwork |
| David with the Head of Goliath by Caravaggio: The Vienna Painting | about 1600–01 in the KHM's 2019 exhibition record; “1607” is a legacy route label | Artwork |
| Did Caravaggio Make Drawings? What Survives and What Paintings Reveal | — | Guide |
| Ecce Homo: Caravaggio's Madrid Rediscovery and the Genoa Painting | — | Artwork |
| John the Baptist in Caravaggio's Paintings: A Guide to the Different Versions | — | Artwork |
| Judith Beheading Holofernes by Caravaggio | beginning of the seventeenth century in the owning museum's account; about 1599–1600 in the Kimbell's 2025 loan label; around 1602 in one specialist catalogue | Artwork |
| Jupiter, Neptune and Pluto: Caravaggio's Ludovisi Ceiling | about 1597; the archive connects the work with Cardinal del Monte's 1597 commission | Artwork |
| Madonna and Child with Saint Anne by Caravaggio: The Palafrenieri Altarpiece | 1605 in the Galleria Borghese object field; completed and delivered by 8 April 1606 | Artwork |
| Madonna of Loreto by Caravaggio: The Pilgrims at Sant'Agostino | broadly c.1604–06; institutional records differ slightly in their starting year | Artwork |
| Madonna of the Rosary by Caravaggio: The Vienna Altarpiece | around 1603 in the Kunsthistorisches Museum's object record | Artwork |
| Martha and Mary Magdalene by Caravaggio: The Detroit Painting | about 1598 in the Detroit Institute of Arts record | Artwork |
| Medusa by Caravaggio: The Uffizi Painted Shield | 1596–98 in the Uffizi's virtual exhibition; specialist research reports the shield delivered to the Medici wardrobe by 7 September 1598 | Artwork |
| Narcissus, Attributed to Caravaggio | dependent on attribution; the Zeri catalogue gives a broad 1610–50 range under Spadarino | Artwork |
| Nativity with Saint Francis and Saint Lawrence: Caravaggio's Missing Painting | somewhere in 1600–09 in the parliamentary report; a specific 1609 execution and place remain debated | Artwork |
| Penitent Mary Magdalene by Caravaggio | 1597 in the owner's catalogue, during Caravaggio's early Roman activity | Artwork |
| Portrait of a Courtesan: Caravaggio's Lost Berlin Portrait | Berlin's data field says c.1590, while its own text compares a Caravaggio work of c.1598; precise date unresolved | Artwork |
| Portrait of Alof de Wignacourt and His Page by Caravaggio | — | Artwork |
| Portrait of Fra Antonio Martelli? Caravaggio's Pitti Knight of Malta | 1608 in the Restituzioni object heading; within Caravaggio's Malta period | Artwork |
| Portrait of Maffeo Barberini: The Seated Corsini Painting | c.1596–97 in the national catalogue | Artwork |
| Portrait of Monsignor Maffeo Barberini: Caravaggio's Newly Acquired Painting | around the late 1590s / age thirty; “1598” in the inherited address is approximate, not an exact document date | Artwork |
| Portrait of Pope Paul V: A Caravaggio Attribution and a Borghese Copy | — | Artwork |
| Prints After Caravaggio: Who Made Them and What They Show | — | Guide |
| Reclining Saint John the Baptist: A Disputed Caravaggio Attribution | often proposed for the artist's final years; the later museum list does not give a precise year. | Artwork |
| Rest on the Flight into Egypt by Caravaggio | about 1597 in the owner's catalogue | Artwork |
| Saint Catherine of Alexandria by Caravaggio: The Thyssen Painting | about 1598–99 in the Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza catalogue | Artwork |
| Saint Francis in Meditation by Caravaggio: The Cremona Painting | 1603–06 in the owner account; c.1605–06 in a KHM exhibition caption | Artwork |
| Saint Francis in Prayer: Caravaggio's Carpineto Painting | 1606 in a 2016–17 exhibition work list | Artwork |
| Saint Francis of Assisi in Ecstasy by Caravaggio | c.1595–96 in the owner wall text | Artwork |
| Saint Jerome in Meditation: Caravaggio's Montserrat Painting | 1605 in the owner record; an owner publication reports scholarship placing it about 1605–06 | Artwork |
| Saint Jerome Writing by Caravaggio: The Borghese Painting | c.1606 in the owner catalogue; the “1605” URL suffix is inherited | Artwork |
| Saint Jerome Writing by Caravaggio: The Malta Painting | around 1607–08; foundation dates Malaspina's commission to 1608 | Artwork |
| Saint John in the Wilderness at Toledo Cathedral | exact 1598 not established by the cited cathedral account. | Artwork |
| Saint John the Baptist at Galleria Corsini, Rome | about 1606 in the national record; older proposals ranged from the late 1590s onward. | Artwork |
| Saint John the Baptist at the Capitoline Museums, Rome | 1602. | Artwork |
| Saint John the Baptist at the Galleria Borghese | 1609–10 in the current Borghese record. | Artwork |
| Saint John the Baptist at the Spring: The Bonello Painting in Malta | early seventeenth century in the institutional account; a precise 1608 is not established there. | Artwork |
| Saint Matthew and the Angel: Caravaggio's Lost First Altarpiece | — | Artwork |
| Salome Receives the Head of John the Baptist: Caravaggio's London Painting | about 1609–10, likely late Naples period in the Gallery's account | Artwork |
| Salome with the Head of John the Baptist: Caravaggio's Madrid Painting | — | Artwork |
| Sleeping Cupid by Caravaggio: The Painting Made in Malta | about 1608, Malta period | Artwork |
| Still Life with Fruit on a Stone Ledge: Is It by Caravaggio? | — | Artwork |
| Supper at Emmaus (1606): Caravaggio's Brera Painting | — | Artwork |
| The Annunciation by Caravaggio in Nancy | c.1607–10 in the collection record; 1608–10 in the museum's restoration account | Artwork |
| The Basel Saint John the Baptist: Once Labelled Caravaggio, Now Maíno | about 1608–10 in that schedule, rather than the legacy URL's 1600. | Artwork |
| The Beheading of Saint John the Baptist by Caravaggio | about 1608; installed in the Oratory on 29 August 1608 | Artwork |
| The Burial of Saint Lucy by Caravaggio in Syracuse | 1608, during Caravaggio's Syracuse stay | Artwork |
| The Calling of Saint Matthew by Caravaggio | about 1599–1600 | Artwork |
| The Calling of Saints Peter and Andrew by Caravaggio | about 1602–04 in the Trust's object text | Artwork |
| The Cardsharps by Caravaggio | about 1596–97 in the Kimbell's current object record | Artwork |
| The Conversion of Saint Paul: Caravaggio's Odescalchi Panel | commissioned in 1600; painted around 1600–01 | Artwork |
| The Crucifixion of Saint Andrew by Caravaggio | 1606–07 | Artwork |
| The Crucifixion of Saint Peter by Caravaggio | about 1601 | Artwork |
| The Death of the Virgin by Caravaggio | commissioned 1601; completed late 1605 or early 1606, according to the Louvre | Artwork |
| The Denial of Saint Peter by Caravaggio | 1610 | Artwork |
| The Doria Pamphilj Saint John the Baptist: A Second Youth with a Ram | linked compositionally to the Capitoline 1602 picture; an exact production year for this canvas is not established by the owner pages used here. | Artwork |
| The Entombment of Christ by Caravaggio: The Vatican Deposition | about 1600–04 in Vatican Museums publication material | Artwork |
| The Flagellation of Christ by Caravaggio: The Capodimonte Altarpiece | around 1607, in the first Naples period | Artwork |
| The Fortune Teller by Caravaggio: The Louvre Version and Its Roman Counterpart | — | Artwork |
| The Holy Family with the Infant Saint John the Baptist by Caravaggio | early 1600s in the Met catalogue; no more exact owner date asserted here | Artwork |
| The Incredulity of Saint Thomas by Caravaggio | about 1601 in the SPSG presentation | Artwork |
| The Inspiration of Saint Matthew by Caravaggio | usually 1602; also catalogued 1602–03, for the installed final altarpiece | Artwork |
| The Lute Player by Caravaggio: The Hermitage Painting | about 1596 in the Hermitage collection publication; the Hermitage Friends restoration page gives about 1595–96 | Artwork |
| The Magdalen in Ecstasy: Caravaggio, Copies and a Disputed Original | — | Artwork |
| The Martyrdom of Saint Matthew by Caravaggio | 1599–1600; unveiled with The Calling in 1600 | Artwork |
| The Martyrdom of Saint Ursula by Caravaggio | — | Artwork |
| The Musicians by Caravaggio | 1597 | Artwork |
| The Resurrection of Lazarus by Caravaggio in Messina | 1609; delivered 10 June 1609 in the owner account | Artwork |
| The Sacrifice of Isaac by Bartolomeo Cavarozzi: A Former Caravaggio Attribution | about 1615–17 in the Nicholas Hall catalogue; “1598” is an inherited URL label, not the accepted date | Artwork |
| The Sacrifice of Isaac by Caravaggio: The Uffizi Painting | about 1603 in the Uffizi catalogue | Artwork |
| The Seven Works of Mercy by Caravaggio | 1606–07, according to the Pio Monte | Artwork |
| The Supper at Emmaus by Caravaggio: The London Painting | 1601 | Artwork |
| The Taking of Christ by Caravaggio | 1602 | Artwork |
| The Toulouse *Judith Beheading Holofernes*: A Caravaggio Attribution Debate | c.1606–07 if identified with the recorded Naples work; that identification is debated | Artwork |
| Young Sick Bacchus by Caravaggio | about 1595 in the Galleria Borghese catalogue | Artwork |
| Youth with a Ram: Why Caravaggio's Saint John Looks So Unusual | — | Artwork |
No matching pages found.
Discussion
Share a close observation about The Fortune Teller by Caravaggio or a source that clarifies its history.
Which detail changes your reading?
Is there a collection record or document worth comparing?
What remains uncertain?
Join the Conversation
Frequently Asked Questions
How many versions of The Fortune Teller did Caravaggio paint?
How can I distinguish the two Caravaggio versions?
Does the woman steal the man's ring?
Early accounts and the Met's scholarly catalogue interpret the joined hands that way, but the action is visually subtle in both versions. It is best described as a historical reading rather than a plainly visible large object.[3]
Where is the Louvre version?
The Musée du Louvre owns it, inventory INV 55. The owner record currently lists it in the Denon wing; display locations can change.[1]
References
- Musée du Louvre, La diseuse de bonne aventure, INV 55, object record, medium, dimensions and provenance.
- Musei Capitolini, La Buona Ventura, PC 131, separate Rome version and owner facts.
- Metropolitan Museum of Art, A Caravaggio Rediscovered: The Lute Player, Fortune Teller catalogue entry and discussion of the two versions, pp. 54–55.
- National Gallery, London, Boy bitten by a Lizard, NG6504, early genre comparison.
- British Museum, Gérard René Levillain, The Fortune Teller print, historical plate attribution and current source identification.
- Musée du Louvre, Valentin de Boulogne, La Diseuse de bonne aventure, INV 8254, later painting of the same subject.
- Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, “Visiting Masterpieces: Caravaggio and Connoisseurship”, 2014 exhibition account of the Capitoline painting, provenance and version-order assessment.
- Rossella Vodret, discussion of the Dentro Caravaggio diagnostic research in Art from Inside, Fondazione Bracco proceedings, pp. 27–36, especially the underlying Virgin and Child and revised youth's head.
- Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare, “Art Under the Scanner: A Surgical Robot Examines Caravaggio”, 5 May 2026 announcement of the Capitoline Fortune Teller investigation and its unresolved question.
- Giulia Cocconi, Convenir nella maniera del Caravaggio: research on Caravaggio and the Vittrice collection, University of Parma doctoral research, discussion of the Vittrice inventories and opposed version chronologies.
- Musei Capitolini, Buona Ventura and Goya's Il Parasole: object account, collection history of PC 131 from del Monte through Pio to the Capitoline gallery.
- Nicosetta Roio, “Caravaggio, doppi e copie: riemerge un'altra versione della Buona ventura del Campidoglio”, Finestre sull'Arte, 11 January 2019, first-hand preliminary examination of a separate related canvas.
- Annotated image source: Wikimedia Commons, File:The Fortune Teller-Caravaggio (Louvre).jpg, high-resolution reproduction used for the annotated details.
