Caravaggio fans will get a rare opportunity to compare two versions of one of the artist's most famous subjects, Supper At Emmaus, as part of celebrations to celebrate a Milan's museum's bicentenary.
The tribute to Caravaggio also features two other renowned paintings by the master, The Musicians (1595) and Boy With A Basket Of Fruit (1593).
The event launches celebrations for the Pinacoteca di Brera's 200th birthday, which prompted loans from three of the world's most prestigious art galleries: the National Gallery in London, New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Borghese Gallery in Rome.
The two versions of Supper At Emmaus were completed five years apart.
The earlier painting, from 1601, is usually on show in London, while the 1606 version is housed in the Pinacoteca di Brera.
The two paintings depict a moment from the Gospel of Luke, a popular subject among Western artists for centuries.
According to the Bible, Jesus encountered his disciples on the road and they, mistaking him for another pilgrim, urged him to eat with them. It was only when Christ blessed and broke the bread, as he had done at the Last Supper, that they recognized him.
The paintings depict Jesus sitting at supper, which was held at an inn in Emmaus, near Jerusalem, and show the moment of recognition, as Christ breaks the bread at the table with the disciple Luke and a follower.
However, there are clear differences between the two paintings. Apart from the additional figures - one man in the earlier painting and the elderly innkeeper and his wife in the latter - experts have focused on the different atmosphere of the two works.
The 1601 painting, commissioned by the Roman nobleman Ciriaco Mattei and later acquired by Cardinal Scipione Borghese, has a much more theatrical feel to it. The figures are sharply defined, the lighting bright and the gestures dramatic and expansive.
By contrast, the 1606 work is far darker. The colours are muted, Jesus looks older, and the body language of the figures is more realistic.
This second piece has been in the Pinacoteca di Brera's collection since 1939 but experts disagree over whether it was painted in Rome during early 1606 or over the summer in Naples, where Caravaggio fled after killing a young man.
The other two pieces on show are both from an earlier period in the master's life.
The Musicians was painted in 1595 for Cardinal Del Monte in Rome. At the time, it was one of Caravaggio's most ambitious works, as it was his first painting with more than two subjects.
The canvas, today one of Caravaggio's most popular works, is entirely dominated by the figures of four young boys, two playing instruments, one singing and one holding a bunch of grapes.
Boy With A Basket Of Fruit depicts a dark-haired youth gazing at the viewer with an overflowing basket of fruit in his arms. The model was probably Caravaggio's friend and fellow artist Mario Minniti, who was about 16 at the time, although some historians believe it may be a self-portrait.
The painting was completed in the workshop of Mannerist painter Giuseppe Cesari, where Caravaggio spent some time, and became part of the older artist's collection before being seized by Cardinal Scipione Borghese in 1607.
The tribute to Caravaggio at the Pinacoteca, part of the Brera Academy, runs from January 15 until March 29.
