Caravaggio gets the AI Treatment
September 29 2025
Picture: The Guardian
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The Guardian have run another AI story over the weekend regarding claims from Swiss Art Authentication Specialists 'Art Recognition' that a copy of Caravaggio's famous Lute Player is exactly 85.7% by the artist himself. The painting, which was sold at auction in 2001 as 'Circle of Caravaggio', is currently owned by British art historian and gallerist Clovis Whitfield who has decided to go down the AI route of connoisseurship.
To quote a section of the article:
Whitfield made his purchase with Alfred Bader, a collector who died in 2016, to whom [Keith] Christiansen [former European Paintings Curator at the MET in New York] wrote in 2007: “No one – certainly no modern scholar – has ever or ever would entertain the idea that your painting could be painted by Caravaggio.”
Whitfield said Christiansen and some Italian scholars were “a bit stuck in the traditional mud” in refusing to accept the attribution, even though other experts support it. “The AI result knocks Mr Christiansen off his perch,” he said.
Art Recognition’s analysis also concluded that the Wildenstein [which has a much better claim to be by Caravaggio, according to Christiansen] was “not an authentic work”. Popovici said: “Our AI returned a negative result.”
Well, there we have it.
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As it happens, I decided to test out the connoisseurship of 'Grok' the other week, the AI arm of the social media platform 'X' (formerly known as Twitter). I decided to feed it with an unattributed head study in the V&A, which I have a feeling may be by Henry Fuseli. Here's the thread if you want to read how that went.
Despite the best efforts of AI, it seems strange that it failed to spot any connection it may have to Fuseli's The Oath on the Grütli, which was my best guess having spent a good deal of time surfing through the relevant literature on the artist before hand (just to make sure I can still do it, just about...). It's a good job another AI Art APP called 'Bendor Grokvenor' also pipped in with their thoughts.
