The Tooth-Puller

The Tooth-Puller   is a superb original oil painting on canvas, realized by an anonymous artist, a follower of Caravaggio ,   in the first half of the XVII century .

Our specimen is a reproduction of Caravaggio 's original oil on canvas Il cavadenti , today preserved at the Palatine Gallery at the Pitti Palace, in Florence.

Our work is not the only known copy from the original Caravaggio: in 2000, Christie's examined another one.

The cavadenti is a precious specimen for the low number of known copies and because it is now the subject of controversies and investigations by scholars. Studying the original Caravaggio one can formulate two hypotheses. This copy may have been made around 1620, when Caravaggio's painting would have transited from Malta to Florence, or around 1649, when the Duke of Mantova Francesco I d'Este requested a copy.

It is still difficult to identify the author of our replica, among the Sicilian painters emulators of the Lombard master (Alonso Rodriguez, Mario Minniti, Carlo Selllito, Pietro D'Asaro) and among the copyists active in Florence such as Alessandro Frigoni known as Bazzicaluva.

In excellent conditions, including a golden painted wooden frame.

A really unusual painting to show in your private collection realized with a superb technique, a piece of art history to keep jealously!

Reference bibliography :

G. Papi, Caravaggio e caravaggeschi a Firenze , 2010, pp. 122-125; M.Gregori, Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio, come nascono i capolavori , Electa, Milan, 1991, pp. 328-347, n. 21; M. Gregori, Tre cartelle per tre mostre caravaggesche, in "Paragone" , fasc. 64, 2005, pp. 13-17; G. Borsano, Caravaggio e il suo Tempo , Naples, 1985, pp. 341-344, n. 98.