In Lombardy artist Michelangelo Merisi (known as Caravaggio) swept Rome, sweeping over the landing customers with his bold and private artistry for about 430 years.
The exhibition, titled “Caravaggio 2025”, was from his arrival in Rome, when he could only track the artist’s symbolic career with his own example, when he was bound by wealthy bankers and cardinals, in his last years, killing a man, killing a man, and obtaining the papal papal parpon through artworks.
Thomas Clement Salomon, director of the National Gallery, said that with his four Caravaggios and what he calls the world’s most important collection of Caravaggio paintings, the institution is a natural choice for hosting Caravaggio extravaganza.
Centuries away, back to the palace has three works: “Casaps”, owned by the Kimbell Museum of Art in Fort Worth; “Concerts” (or “Musicians”) from the Metropolitan Museum of New York; and “Catherine of St. Alexander,” from the Thyssen-Bornemisza National Museum in Madrid – once part of the collection of Cardinal Antonio Barberini, a long-time resident of the 17th-century palace.
More than 60,000 tickets have been sold to the exhibition, which will open on Friday and will last until July 6, both of which proves Caravaggio’s fierce originality and his reputation as a bad boy in the Baroque sword.
Of the 24 pieces displayed, 9 were from foreign lenders (only five in the United States were from the United States). “There are a lot of Americans on this show,” Salomon said in an interview.
“The American Museum is very generous” and offers “very important loans” including “Francis in Exstasy John the Baptist” from the Nelson-Atkins Museum in Kansas City, Missouri. “Not everyone can get to Kansas City,” Salomon said.
Loans allow for some interesting juxtaposition. Caravaggio is known for using models he knows, usually from lower social classes, including prostitutes, such as Fillide Melandroni of Siena, who was famous in Rome at the time. She was identified by scholars as the mirror in “Catherine of Alexander of St. Madrid, from Detroit’s “Martha and Marthe Magdalene” and the protagonist in “Judith Beheading Holofernes” by Barberini, which is shown here together.
“It’s exciting for me to see how Caravaggio acts like a director.” said Maria Cristina Terzaghi, who is also the curator of the exhibition, who described how Caravaggio used the same model in different costumes and lighting to create dramatically different works.
The curator said that having Caravaggio under one roof, getting so many works under one roof should allow scholars to solve some open problems – some technical issues, such as dates for certain works, but the issue of allocating scholarships on attribution is also trickier. For both works, Caravaggio’s authorship is doubtful – “Narcissus” and “Portrait of Maffeo Barberini as a Proton Movement Apostle” – a comparison with generally accepted works may determine whether they pass the call.
The show also includes two paintings that have recently appeared from a private collection.
One is another portrait of Maffeo Barberini that was released last year, the National Gallery is negotiating a purchase. “It will be a dream,” Salomon said. The inclusion of the painting here, and the “Portrait of the Knight of Malta,” emphasizes the gap in Caravaggio’s study in terms of portraiture.
Archives show that Caravaggio painted many portraits, but few of the remaining works are left. “It’s part of his production and it’s hard to determine,” said Francesca Cappelletti, director of the Borges Gallery in Rome.
Another painting is a “ECCE Gay” that appeared at the Madrid auction in 2021. The recommended starting price is set at €1,500, about $1,800, but the Spanish government pulled the painting as Italian dealers and art historians tried. After the restoration, the painting was purchased by an anonymous client who lent the work to the Museum of Prado in Madrid, which in turn sent it to Rome. Attribution seems to have existed since the painting became public, but the show will allow scholars to view it in the context of other works.
“It’s a very scientific exhibition; for scholars, it’s very important,” Capeletti said.
Other questions – attribution, copy and source, for some questions only – are discussed in the catalogue of the recent compilation of Caravaggio scholarships. Terzaghi said: “‘Caravaggio 2025’ hopes to take a look at what we know about our master today and what we think of him today.”
Terzaghi said scholars agreed that about 60 paintings that could be attributed to Caravaggio and that more than a third of the paintings were included in the performance. Some can also be seen in Roman museums and churches. “If we count all of this, I would say two-thirds of his work is now in Rome, so if a person wants to learn Caravaggio, they have to come in the meantime,” she said.
The Borghese Gallery offers three pieces for the show, but there are still three pieces at home thanks to Scipione Borghese, an early fan of Caravaggio. There are two works in the Doria Pamphilj gallery in Rome.
Caravaggio’s altar was found in four Roman churches, although in the case of one, a copy of the “deposited” hanging instead of the original, now belonging to the Vatican Museum. Three altar paintings of the Contarelli Church were in the French Church of St. Lugi, his first important religious committee, which made him a conversation for the town.
His second religious committee consists of two side paintings of Cerasi Chapel in Santa Maria del Popolo. The first version, “Peter’s Cross” and “Sor’s Conversion” (both 1604-05), were rejected because they were drawn when the church was built and were not suitable for space. He repainted two themes. Subsequently, “Crucible” was lost, but the first version of “Convert” belonging to the private collection of Rome was included in Barberini’s performance.
“We did not ask any churches to draw on their paintings; it was a jubilee year,” Salomon said, referring to the Roman Catholic Holy Year held every 25 years, which is expected to bring millions of faithful faithful faith to Rome and the Vatican in 2025.
At the end of March, visitors to the show can also get tickets for the weekend to watch the only known mural in Caravagio, depicting the casino of Boncompagni Ludovisi, depicting “Junessa, Neptune and Pluto.” In addition to this Fresco (who painted the fresco for the first owner of Villa in 1597, the villa also features ceiling fresco from other Baroque masters, including Giovanni Francesco Barbieri, known as Guercino.
Although the show is difficult to unite, Salomon said: “Our greatest joy is being able to offer this exhibition during the difficult times we live today.”
