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
Prints After Caravaggio: Who Made Them and What They Show
Caravaggio is known as a painter. No securely attributed body of prints made by his own hand has been identified in the institutional records used for this guide. Yet many museums hold prints after Caravaggio: engravings and etchings made by other artists from his paintings or from intermediate drawings. The phrase “after Caravaggio” identifies the source of an image, not the person who cut the plate or pulled the impression.[1][2][3]
That distinction matters. A print can document the reach of a composition, preserve a historical attribution or show how another artist interpreted a painting. It is not automatically a Caravaggio original. Nor should every plate bearing his name be accepted without checking which painting the printmaker actually copied.[1][3][4]
Caravaggio in context
The Cardsharps
c.1595Calling of Saint Matthew
1599–1600Supper at Emmaus
1601At a Glance
- Caravaggio's own mediumprincipally painting; no secure autograph print corpus is established by the cited museum examples.[1][2]
- “After Caravaggio”the painter supplied the model or composition; another artist made the print.[1][2]
- Early examplePierre Fatoure and Gabriel Lejeune, The Supper at Emmaus, c.1609–10, National Gallery of Art, Washington.[1]
- Later exampleIgnazio Bonajuti, The Entombment of Christ, 1817, Metropolitan Museum of Art.[2]
- Attribution warningthe name printed on a plate can differ from a museum's current identification of the painting.[3][4]
Contents
- Did Caravaggio Make Prints?
- How to Read “After Caravaggio”
- An Early Print of The Supper at Emmaus
- A Nineteenth-Century Entombment
- When the Inscription Is Wrong
- What a Print Can and Cannot Prove
- Looking at Prints Beside Paintings
- Frequently Asked Questions
Did Caravaggio Make Prints?
Caravaggio's surviving reputation rests on painted works: canvases and, in the case of Medusa, a painted shield. The museum print records discussed below credit named engravers and etchers as makers, with Caravaggio identified as the artist after whom they worked. None is an impression pulled from a plate attributed to him.[1][2][3]
It is more precise to say that there is no secure autograph print corpus identified here than to assert that Caravaggio never touched a plate. Absence from these collections is not proof of every act in his life. The same caution applies to the drawings question: lack of a securely accepted independent paper corpus does not mean he never made marks in preparation. Technical examination of paintings reveals revisions, incisions and brushwork used to lay out figures.[5]
Seventeenth-century artists worked in a culture where images moved through copies, engravings and descriptions. A painting in a church or private collection could become known far beyond the people who saw it in person. A print was one means of that circulation. Its maker chose lines, tonal systems and sometimes inscriptions to translate colour and scale onto paper. The translation could be accurate in some respects and inventive in others.
How to Read “After Caravaggio”
Museum catalogues separate roles. In the National Gallery of Art's record for The Supper at Emmaus, Pierre Fatoure and Gabriel Lejeune are named as printmakers, while Caravaggio appears as “Artist After.” In the Metropolitan Museum's record for The Entombment of Christ, Ignazio Bonajuti is the artist and Caravaggio is again named after him. These are clear attributions of responsibility, not joint signatures.[1][2]
The terminology does not guarantee that the printmaker stood before the original painting. A print might derive from a drawing, a prior print or a copy. Unless a catalogue gives evidence for the route, the safest description is that the image is after the composition. This limits what can be inferred from small details: a changed hand, shadow or background may belong to the translation rather than to Caravaggio's painting.
“Engraving” and “etching” describe ways of preparing a printing surface. An engraver cuts lines into a plate; an etcher draws through a protective ground and lets acid bite the exposed metal. The National Gallery catalogues the Fatoure–Lejeune sheet as both etching and engraving on laid paper. Those technical terms name the later print's method, not Caravaggio's method in the painting-technique guide.[1]
An Early Print of The Supper at Emmaus
The National Gallery of Art dates its Supper at Emmaus print to about 1609–10, near the end of Caravaggio's lifetime. It credits the French printmakers Pierre Fatoure and Gabriel Lejeune and explicitly identifies Caravaggio as the source. The sheet measures 21.8 × 29.8 cm. Its catalogue describes Christ at a table, two reacting disciples, a fourth figure, food and vessels, with hatched lines making the surrounding dark.[1]
Its proximity in date makes the print valuable evidence of early interest in the composition. It does not make the sheet an autograph Caravaggio. The maker roles, material and dimensions belong to a paper object acquired by the National Gallery in 2018. They should not be copied into the facts box of the London Supper at Emmaus painting or the distinct later Brera Supper at Emmaus.[1]
The print's plate inscription also deserves care. It gives an abbreviated form of Caravaggio's name with an inventor's abbreviation, followed by Fatoure and Lejeune. Rather than silently modernising the lettering into a Caravaggio signature, a caption can say that the plate credits the composition to him and records the printmakers. A reader then understands why the same image can have several artist names attached.[1]
The National Gallery identifies its media for this object as public domain and offers a download. A web reproduction of that particular museum photograph can be assessed for local use from its stated policy. The status should be recorded against the file, not extrapolated to every photograph of every Caravaggio painting.[1]
A Nineteenth-Century Entombment
The Metropolitan Museum catalogues Ignazio Bonajuti's The Entombment of Christ as an engraving dated 1817, after Caravaggio. Its plate is 48.8 × 32 cm, much larger than the Fatoure–Lejeune sheet. The long gap between the painting and this print shows that Caravaggio's works continued to be reproduced for a later audience.[2]
The model is Caravaggio's Entombment in the Vatican Museums, also called the Deposition. The print is a separate object in New York. Its date belongs to Bonajuti's engraving, not to the Vatican canvas. Its maker should appear first in an image caption: “Ignazio Bonajuti, The Entombment of Christ, 1817, engraving after Caravaggio.”[2][6]
The Met labels the Bonajuti image public domain and explains that its Open Access data and eligible images can be used commercially and noncommercially. That makes it a practical illustration candidate, subject to checking the actual downloaded file and maintaining the object credit. If an image of the Vatican painting itself has different conditions, the engraving does not resolve those rights.[2]
When the Inscription Is Wrong
An especially useful British Museum record concerns Gérard René Levillain's print of The Fortune Teller, dated around 1804–15. The plate attributed the source painting to Bartolomeo Manfredi. The museum now identifies the model as a painting by Caravaggio in the Louvre and lists both the historical plate attribution and its corrected “after Caravaggio” assignment. A nineteenth-century printed name is evidence of what was believed or advertised then; it is not automatically the latest object attribution.[3]
The reverse problem is also possible. A print once described as “after Caravaggio” may depend on a painting later reassigned to a follower. In that case, the old label remains part of reception history, while the present catalogue must distinguish the actual source and current attribution. The name on paper, the painter of the model and the maker of the print are three questions.[4]
The distinction also guards against a name trap: Polidoro da Caravaggio was a different artist. The British Museum catalogues prints after him under his full name, separately from Michelangelo Merisi. “Da Caravaggio” can indicate origin, and it cannot be shortened to “Caravaggio” in a catalogue without checking the given name. A search result or auction caption that says only “after Caravaggio” needs identification against the actual object record before it is used in this cluster.[7]
What a Print Can and Cannot Prove
A securely dated print can show that a design was known by that date. It may record a state of a painting before a later alteration, but only if its relationship to the original is established. It can help chart the movement of an image through Europe. It can also preserve visual details of a work now lost, with the warning that every translation adds choices.
It cannot independently prove that the source painting is autograph. A copyist can reproduce a copy, and a plate can carry a fashionable name. Museum records are most helpful when they name the printmaker, the supposed model, the source painting's present location and the basis of any changed attribution. The Levillain example demonstrates why those fields should be read together.[3]
These prints show how Caravaggio's works were received and circulated. A print may also preserve a composition when no reusable photograph of the painting is available, but it remains a print by a later maker, not a detail photograph of Caravaggio's painted surface.
Looking at Prints Beside Paintings
Start with the painting's own page, then ask what the printmaker chose to emphasise. Compare the National Gallery print with the London Supper at Emmaus as a study of light, gesture and the table. Follow the Bonajuti engraving to the Vatican Entombment for its descending diagonal of bodies. Use the British Museum's Fortune Teller record to see how an old printed attribution can be revised.[1][2][3]
These comparisons are strongest when captions keep object identity visible: title, printmaker, medium, print date, repository and “after Caravaggio.” A related-image module can then carry the print without suggesting that the painting is in the print collection or that Caravaggio was its engraver.
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 Prints After 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
Did Caravaggio produce engravings or etchings?
What does “after Caravaggio” mean on a museum label?
Is a print after a painting the same size as the original?
Can a print have the wrong artist named on it?
Yes. The British Museum's Levillain Fortune Teller is attributed on the plate to Manfredi, but the museum identifies the source painting as Caravaggio's.[3]
May a public-domain print image be used instead of a restricted painting image?
References
- National Gallery of Art, Pierre Fatoure and Gabriel Lejeune, The Supper at Emmaus, c.1609–10, object record and media policy.
- Metropolitan Museum of Art, Ignazio Bonajuti, The Entombment of Christ, 1817, object record and Open Access note.
- British Museum, Gérard René Levillain, The Fortune Teller, c.1804–15, object record.
- British Museum, print after a painting formerly attributed to Caravaggio, object record; attribution-history caution.
- TheHistoryOfArt.org cluster research spine and Caravaggio drawings guide, with the cited institutional conservation evidence there.
- Vatican Museums, Caravaggio, The Deposition, collection record.
- British Museum, print after Polidoro da Caravaggio, distinct artist identification.
