Tiny Caravaggio self-portrait revealed by technology

A tiny self-portrait of Caravaggio hidden in one of his most acclaimed works can be seen clearly for the first time after cutting-edge technology was used to peer through decades of grime.

The tiny image of the Renaissance master is hidden in a carafe of wine in his 1597 oil painting Bacchus, one of his most acclaimed works which hangs in Florence's Uffizi Gallery. It shows a man, thought to be Caravaggio at the age of 25, with dark curly hair, peeping out from the inside of the carafe. He is holding a paint brush and working at an easel. The tiny figure's nose, eyes and the collar around his neck are visible. The self-portrait appears in the reflected light that plays on the surface of the wine. Art experts used advanced scientific equipment to bring the tiny portrait back to life. It was first spotted in 1922 when the canvas was cleaned by an Italian restorer, who described the face as having "large eye sockets, a broad, slightly snub nose, and fleshy, slightly apart lips". But the painting was then subjected to poor restoration efforts, including one in which all the dark patches on the canvas were repainted, and the image gradually darkened until it eventually became invisible to the naked eye... Telegraph