The Taking of Christ - Famous Paintings and their Hidden Histories–Autumn 2025

Artist and art teacher Áine Andrews returns with another series of lectures on Famous Paintings and their Hidden Histories. In each lecture, Áine will focus on a particular painting to recount its history, as well as that of the artist and their story.

The lectures can be attended as a series, but are also designed as standalone talks, which can be attended individually. See series info »

Week 5: The Taking of Christ

Caravaggio 1602

National Gallery of Ireland Dublin

The extraordinary Caravaggio 2025 exhibition at Palazzo Barberini Rome brought together 24 absolute masterpieces, loaned from collections around the world. Among them was The Taking of Christ from the National Gallery in Dublin.

Pope Francis held a deep admiration for Caravaggio, in spite of his controversial paintings and his reputation as a violent, provocative man who eventually killed someone in a brawl.

Caravaggio’s art is also linked to Pope Leo’s order through the Basilica of St. Augustine, in the centre of Rome, which houses “The Madonna of the Pilgrims”.

Art historians knew of The Taking of Christ but the painting itself was lost for several centuries.  Over the years it became the most sought after Caravaggio masterpiece, until the unthinkable happened and it was found hiding in plain sight in a Jesuit house ‘in Dublin of all places’ in 1990.

The painting has now returned to Dublin, but its fascinating story of course made it one of the Barberini exhibition’s most exciting highlights. Hopefully the new Pope got to see it in Rome but who knows, he may well have seen it on one of his many trips to Ireland.

1. Tues 28 October
Portrait of Hugh Lane by John Singer Sargent – Dublin City Gallery, The Hugh Lane Dublin

2. Tues 4 November
The Weeping Woman by Pablo Picasso – Tate Gallery London

3. Tues 18 November
Still Life with Cheeses, Almonds and Pretzels by Clara Peeters – The Mauritshuis the Hague

4. Tues 25 November
The Birth of Venus by Botticelli – Uffizi Gallery Florence

5. Tues 2 December
The Taking of Christ by Caravaggio – National Gallery of Ireland Dublin

6. Tues 9 December
Nativity Window by Evie Hone – Manresa – Jesuit Centre of Spirituality Dublin