Caravaggio, whose real name was Michelangelo Merisi, was a master of the chiaroscuro technique of lighting to make his subjects seem to come alive. He died in 1610 in his late thirties after a turbulent life.

His portrait of Monsignor Maffeo Barberini, who would go on to become 17th century Pope Urban VIII - a great patron of the arts who had sculptor and architect Gian Lorenzo Bernini among his proteges - was attributed to him in 1963.

“Since that moment it has never been seen in any museum, it has never been lent to an exhibition, so it's the first time,” Thomas Clement Salomon, Director of the National Galleries of Ancient Art, said on Friday.

It is one of just a handful of surviving Caravaggio portraits, since most have been lost or destroyed, and it goes on display from November 23 until February 23, 2025, the museum said.

“Only very few specialists since the 1960s have had the opportunity to see it in person, and it is one thing to know the painting from photographs, and another to see it in person and realize its quality, it's almost magnetic power,” curator Paola Nicita said.

Barberini’s portrait is believed to have been painted at the turn of the 17th century and shows the future pope, who took office in 1623, seated and seemingly giving orders with his right hand.

The museum showing the artwork is housed in Palazzo Barberini, built during Urban VIII’s papacy by Bernini and fellow baroque architect Carlo Maderno, and which remained in family hands until after World War Two.