Caravaggio's "Bacchus" taken off the wall at the Uffizi Gallery after a leak

On the afternoon of 17 September a sudden downpour struck Florence, with almost five centimetres of rain falling in a single hour. Water made its way into the Uffizi Gallery and dripped onto the case protecting Caravaggio's "Bacchus". A video filmed inside the museum and posted online shows a stream of water running onto the painting from a window directly above it. Six other works in the same room of seventeenth-century art were not affected by the leak.

The painting was immediately removed from display. Museum specialists reported that it had not suffered any damage: thanks to the protective glass, no water reached the paint surface. In a written statement the museum itself described the incident as a minor leak, and explained the removal of the painting purely as a precautionary measure. While the condition of the work was being checked, the room was temporarily closed so that the premises could be inspected; in the second half of the day visitors were admitted again, and it is now open.

"Bacchus" was painted around 1596 for Cardinal Francesco Maria del Monte, when the artist was about twenty-five years old. The god of wine is shown amid bunches of grapes, holding out a cup to the viewer. For art historians the work is important because it reveals Caravaggio's growing interest in humanising mythological and religious figures, a line that would later develop into his signature chiaroscuro, that is, the sharp contrast of light and shadow.

The painting was discovered in the museum's storerooms in 1913, and over the following decade the art historians Roberto Longhi and Matteo Marangoni identified it as an early work by Caravaggio