2010 will be the 400 years from the death of Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio. Rome will dedicate to this incredible and unique artist a big exhibition that will open the 18th of February, until the 13th of June at the “SCUDERIE DEL QUIRINALE”

We will have a chance to see some of his famous work never seen in Rome before , coming from different Museums in the world.. The exhibition at the Scuderie del Quirinale will present the public with only those artworks that are certainly by Caravaggio, the sum of the indisputable master. A roundup of extraordinary paintings because technique, vision and innovation in the art of Caravaggio are extraordinary: nobody before and after him was able to "give light to darkness."

The exhibition is under the patronage of the President of the Italian Republic, organized by the Azienda Speciale Palaexpo in collaboration with MondoMostre, in cooperation with the Ministero per i Beni e le Attivita’ Culturali and the Soprintendenza Speciale per il Polo Museale di Roma, with the support of Cariparma.

The entire career of Caravaggio will be represented in the two exhibition floors of the Scuderie del Quirinale and its presentation, rather than in a chronological order will try to enhance the comparison of themes and subjects alike. So next to the "Boy with a Fruit Basket", one of the most important early works, you'll see the Bacchus from the Uffizi, where Caravaggio painted another sublime still life, two works that were never placed in direct comparison.

This direct comparison between subjects will be the common thread of the exhibition, and will include the great altarpieces from the Roman period and those painted in Sicily, including the "Burial of St Lucia", that Caravaggio painted in articulo mortis, the high point of his tragic existential parable.

Next to very well known and very visible works - like the two versions of the "Supper at Emmaus", respectively, from the National Gallery in London and the Pinacoteca di Brera, or the "Musicians" from the Metropolitan Museum in New York, or the Boy with Lute from the State Hermitage in St Petersburg and Amor Omnia Vincit from the Gemäldegalerie in Berlin or the three versions of "Saint John the Baptist", respectively, from the Capitoline Museums, the Galleria Corsini in Rome, and the Nelson-Atkins Museum in Kansas City - other Caravaggio works are more rare and difficult to view, because they are rarely granted for temporary exhibitions as the "Deposition" from the Vatican Museums, the "Annunciation" by the Museum of Nancy, restored for the occasion in a joint project between Italy and France or even the "Crowning of Thorns" from the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna.

During that same time, Rome will become the ideal location of the near-complete anthology of works by Caravaggio: the vast majority of the works chosen for exhibition comes from museums outside the city to allow the public to admire the works in situ, in the various churches for which they were commissioned, therefore gathering in Rome almost all of the artistic production of Caravaggio.

From the standpoint of scientific studies, the exhibition, created by Claudio Strinati and curated by Rossella Vodret, Soprintendente Speciale per il Polo Museale Romano, and Francesco Buranelli, intends to deal with the wealth of philological, documentary and technical writings produced in the past twenty years.

Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio: Long thought to have been born in the Lombard village of Caravaggio in 1573, recent research has revealed that Michelangelo Merisi was born in Milan in 1571. His early Milanese training is obscure and he may have spent time in Venice. He was certainly in Rome by the late 1580’s and his early work was dominated by glorious still life paintings and the patronage of a group of worldly clerics led by Cardinal Francesco Maria del Monte, who secured for him his first major commission, the St Matthew cycle in the Contarelli Chapel of San Luigi dei Franchesi. From this period also come two paintings of St Peter and St Paul in the Cerasi Chapel of Santa Maria del Popolo –

But he was also a man of the streets who could not seem to free himself from its Brawls and vendettas. In 1606 he fled from Rome apparently killing another man in a dispute. He spent his last years in exile: Naples , Malta and Sicily. In this period he produced masterpieces of astonishing complexity and power. Eventually he received a pardon from the pope, only to die in mysterious circumstances on the way back to Rome in 1610.

Caravaggio has been pardoned thanks in part to the intercession of two powerful Cardinals, the art collector Scipione Borghese and Ferdinando Gonzaga. Caravaggio was still, or still felt himself to be ,in danger, threatened by the Maltese, or possibly the Spanish. But with the promise of Gonzaga’s protection, he appears to have felt safe enough to under take the journey to Rome. In a small boat , a two-masted felucca, the painter set sail from Naples . The Ship stopped briefly in Palo, at that time Palo was a desolated outpost between Civitavecchia and Rome. It was there that the painter was probably mistaken with someone else , arrested by the Spanish soldiers and detained until after the felucca had sailed away. Released from prison , Caravaggio set off in pursuit of the boat which had gone to Porto Ercole with his painting on board , canvases he desperately needed as gifts for the influential Romans who had arranged his pardon.

As Bellori comments “BAD LUCK DID NOT ABANDON HIM”

Caravaggio caught up with the Feluca in Porto Ercole; like so much else of Caravaggio’s life even his last hours have become the subject of fervent debate. It has been claimed for example that he did not die of natural causes – of malaria –but that he was murdered by the Knights of Malta .

Documents that have been discovered make this theory seem impossible. As soon as the Caravaggio’s death reached Rome, his collectors –principally Scipione Borghese , became obsessed with the fate of the lost paintings .

Several works were founded in Naples.

Scipione secured Saint John the Baptist , today in the Borghese gallery collection; by 1613 David with the head of Goliah, also in the Borghese collection today. The young David holding the head of the giant , looking at us from the canvas, makes us feel that Caravaggio’s last tormented years are stamped in Goliah ‘s face. He was able to create something stronger than time and age , more powerful than death.

OVERVIEW ON CARAVAGGIO IN ROME

In an ideal tour to discover Caravaggio’s works, we should start with San Luigi dei Francesi, where in the Contarelli Chapel we can see the three paintings by Caravaggio devoted to the Story of St Matthew; San Agostino, where in the Cavalletti Chapel we can see his Madonna of Loreto. Caravaggio’s opposite in terms of style was Annibale Caracci and some churches where the style and influence of the Bolognese master and his School can be appreciated are definitely worth the visit. We can continue with a visit to the Caravaggio Exhibition.

Next step Villa Borghese, the greatest collection of paintings in Rome, including some of Caravaggio’s finest, dating across his entire career. There will also be the opportunity to admire the amazing early sculptures of Bernini, commissioned by Cardinal Scipione Borghese. Santa Maria del Popolo’s church contains marvellous works by Raphael and others and we can spend some time looking at these. Our particular focus will be two paintings by Caravaggio devoted to seminal events in the Lives of St Peter and St Paul in the Cerasi Chapel. The tour can end with Galleria Doria Pamphilj, where we can see the beautiful Repentant Magdalene and the Rest during the flight into Egypt.

See our Caravaggio itinerary in Rome

Caravaggio's exhibition: practical infos