Caravaggio

Caravaggio is an Old Master for a modern age. His recent resurgence in popularity owes in no small part to his dramatic compositions, which expose the conflict between salvation and damnation in the souls of each of his subjects, whether biblical saints or streetwise criminals.
This exhibition in Rome and its accompanying catalog distinguishes itself through its exceptional loans that reunite and resituate the landmark paintings of Caravaggio's career. Saint Catherine from the Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza and Martha and Mary Magdalene from the Detroit Institute of Arts join the Palazzo Barberini Judith, showcasing Caravaggio's use of the same model on three separate occasions; The Cardsharps from the Kimbell Art Museum in Fort Worth returns to the place where it was long on display; Saint John the Baptist from the Nelson-Atkins Museum in Kansas City and Saint Francis of Assisi in Ecstasy from the Wadsworth Athaneum in Hartford appear together for the first time. These magnificent and unprecedented selections offer insight not only into Caravaggio's evolution as an artist but also his immediate networks and surroundings.
Michelangelo Merisi, known as Caravaggio (1571–1610), was born in Milan. His early commissions included works for Cardinal Francesco Maria del Monte and the Contarelli Chapel in San Luigi dei Francesi. From 1600 to 1606 he was considered the most famous painter in Rome. After killing a wealthy young man he fled the city, still painting but on the run as a criminal. He died under mysterious circumstances in 1610.

Dramatic shifts from foreboding dark to probing light, with minimal gradation in between; a realism that exposes all the flaws and folds of human flesh, eschewing Michelangelo’s idealized bodies; a surgical explication of almost unbearably tense emotion; and the poised depiction of crucial moments at the very lip of their unfolding: these were among the innovations of Michelangelo Merisi, known as Caravaggio. Without them, as the great Italian art writer Roberto Longhi once noted, “Ribera, Vermeer, La Tour and Rembrandt could never have existed ... and the art of Delacroix, Courbet and Manet would have been utterly different.” It was Longhi who rescued Caravaggio’s painting for the 20th century, prior to which it had lain dormant since the painter’s mysterious death in 1610. During Caravaggio’s lifetime, however, his work was enormously influential and controversial. Each of his innovations in some way upset the prevailing tendencies of the day—not least when his insistence on physical realism led him to paint Saint Matthew as a bald peasant with dirty legs (attended upon by an irreverently intimate boy angel). Nonetheless, Caravaggio was never short of commissions or patrons, and left to posterity around 80 masterpieces. This monograph documents his complete paintings in high-quality reproductions. Authored by renowned scholar Rossella Vodret, it is the must-have monograph on the artist.

Michelangelo Merisi, known as Caravaggio, was born in 1571 and made his debut in 1600 with two public commissions on the theme of Saint Matthew. He soon became notorious for his temper, and killed a young man in 1606; two further contretemps in Malta and Naples are recorded—the latter, in 1609, involving an attempt on his life—and by 1610 he was dead, after a brief but extraordinary career.

Four hundred years after the death of Caravaggio, some of the world’s most illustrious art historians comment on an extraordinary collection of twenty-five of his works. How is it possible that an artist who lived over four centuries ago is still seen today as an icon of modernity? The answer must be sought in his works; this is where we will grasp Caravaggio’s aesthetic pursuit. He observed without prejudice, hewing close to the truth of things. In short, his was a revolutionary art, one which continues to fascinate laypeople and experts alike to this day. The editors asked some of the world’s preeminent Caravaggio scholars to share their feelings and insights about their favorite works by the artist. The result is an original catalogue of great rigor expressed in deeply human and richly subjective tones. With works from all over the world including Saint John the Baptist from the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City; and The Musicians from New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Rossella Vodret is the Director of the Polo Museale in Rome. Francesco Buranelli is secretary of the Pontifical Commision for Cultural Heritage.