Antonio Morassi, Giulio Carlo Argan, Roberto Longhi e la riscoperta del Caravaggio di casa Balbi a Genova (1939-1952)

Antonio Morassi’s archive and photographic library kept in the Department of Philosophy and Cultural Heritage of Ca’ Foscari University in Venice preserves a series of documents relating to the rediscovery of the Caravaggio of Casa Balbi, which took place during the World War II. Antonio Morassi had a look to the Conversion of Saint Paul in the Genoese palace of Balbi and studied it to publish it. The picture that Morassi sent to the publishers was however showed to Giulio Carlo Argan, who was also writing a monograph about Caravaggio. Argan pledged to acknowledge the discovery to Morassi. But, Argan published report about the painting in an article in 1943. However, Roberto Longhi intervened, denying that it was a Caravaggio pain- ting. Morassi, who discovered this painting, published it on the Emporium magazine only in 1947, after World War II, is therefore not often recognized as the discoverer of this masterpiece.