AFTER MICHELANGELO MERISI DA CARAVAGGIO (19TH CENTURY)
The Cardsharps
oil on canvas
99 x 120 cm

The present canvas is an extremely well observed 19th century copy. A comparison between the original (Kimbell Art Museum, Fort Worth (inv. no. AP1987.06) and the present work reveals a similar spirit and vigour to the brushwork, a comparable treatment of light and a similar characterisation of the figures, notably in the definition of their faces and expressive hands. The painting captures a moment of tension and moral ambiguity, where the theme of deceit and manipulation is contrasted with the innocence of the central figure.

In The Cardsharps, the players are engaged in a game of primero, a forerunner of poker. Engrossed in his cards at left is the dupe, unaware that the older cardsharp signals his accomplice with a raised, gloved hand (the fingertips exposed, better to feel marked cards). At right, the young cheat looks expectantly toward the boy and reaches behind his back to pull a hidden card from his breeches.
The present canvas an almost exact size copy of the picture in the Kimbell Art Museum, that is acknowledged as the prime version of one of Caravaggio’s most celebrated and most copied compositions. While copies are documented as early as the 1620s, most of the copies that are known were produced in the 18th century when the original, then hanging in the Palazzo Barberini, became one of the most admired pictures in Rome by Grand Tourists.