From the world to Rome. At Palazzo Barberini Caravaggio Superstar – Rome

Roma – leaning on his cross of Staves, trapped in a moment of deep meditation from the brush of an adult caravaggio, San Giovanni Battista had stayed in the house of Ottavio Costa until the death of the Ligurian banker.
In reality he was put into use of the Lombard master for the church of the Feudo Ligure of Congance, but the collector never managed to separate himself from this masterpiece, today the flagship of the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art or Kansas City.
Also St. Franciscus from Assisi in ecstasyToday in Glue in the Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art in Hartford, in Connecticut, the first holy work of Caravaggio now known, and the first in which, in 1597, the painter ventured with the shadow, belonged to the Ligurian banker who was known during his Roman stay.
Admiring these “fragments of the heart” that belong to important collectors, and today thousands of kilometers from the city for which they were made, all now exhibited together in Rome thanks to a “pharaonic” exhibition, as the director of the national galleries of ancient art in Rome, Thomas Clement Salomon, it is not an emotion (and a chance).
The exhibition, planned from today, March 7, Until July 6 in Palazzo Barberinijust straight “Caravaggio 2025”For the first time all welcomes 24 paintings by the Maestro.
Organized by the National Galleries of Antica Arte, in collaboration with Galleria Borghese, with the support of the Directorate General Museums – Ministry of Culture and with the support of the main partner Intesa Sanpaolo, the path was created in record time, one year, thanks to the choral synergy between the organizers and important public and Private Collections, Italian and International who Generously Renounced Unique Pieces of the Respect Collections to Give Life to An Ignor. Revolution introduced in the artistic, religious and social panorama of the time of Caravaggio.

Caravaggio 2025, setting up the exhibition in Palazzo Barberini | Photo: © Alberto Novelli & Alessio Panunzi

“We are happy – Salomon said – to attend the return of so many paintings from the Barberini collection, like me Shower From the Kimbell Art Museum of Fort Worth in Texas, a masterpiece of that “comic painting” that characterizes the youth phase of Caravaggio, characterized by a use of light that is still far from the mighty Chiaroscuro of adulthood or the MusiciansArrived from the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York “.

With the exception of Sacrifice of Isaac All paintings by Maffeo Barberini return home, as well as the well -known paintings by Cardinal Del Monte, protagonists of a chronological path that opens for important comparisons and transversal routes to follow the collective paths related to the client.

Articulated in four sections, the route, published by Francesca Cappelletti, Maria Cristina Terzaghi and Thomas Clement Salomon, guides the audience along the entire artistic resemblance of Merisi, of the arrival in Rome, around 1595, around 1595, at Porto Ercole in Porto Ercole in Porto Ercole in Porto Ercole in Porto Ercole Ercole in Porto Ercole in Porto Ercole in Porto Ercole in 1610. This Mondofrutto (From the Royal Collection / HM King Charles III) and the Sick bacchino (From the Borghese Gallery of Rome), Masterpieces of the Roman debut, exhibited together for the first time, to the moon opening that the Martyrdom of Sant’orsolaProbably the last photo performed by Caravaggio, you will cross a chronological wingspan of about fifteen years.
The setting gives the poet of Light and Chiaroscuro completely straightforward, with wise lighting, with the exception of some work.

Caravaggio 2025, setting up the exhibition in Palazzo Barberini | Photo: © Alberto Novelli & Alessio Panunzi

In the section entitled “The dark injst” The rare portrait production of Caravaggio, wide and then appreciated, according to archiving sources, despite the fact that there are few testimonies that came to us. The possibility of seeing two versions of the portrait of Maffeo Barberini for the first time, both from private collections, is unique. The well -known “Corsini” version, attributed to Caravaggio by Lionello Venturi (1912), Gianni Papi and Keith Christiansen (2010) Dialogues with those recently presented to the public more than sixty years after the rediscovering and attribution of Roberto Longghi (1963), is, I is the revolutione, is the revolutionalism), I is the revolutionalism).
It is not only the prelates or illustrious characters who peep through the portraits of Caravaggio, as evidenced by the beautiful model that lends its image Martta in Mary Madadana (on loan of the Detroit Institute of Arts), but also for Giuditta who reveals Oloferne (of the national galleries of old art) and for Santa Caterina d’Alessandria (From the Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum of Madrid), perhaps identifiable with the famous Courtisan Fillide Melandroni.

“Caravaggio 2025 – explains Maria Cristina Terzaghi – has an exceptional character in the history of the caravaggesque exhibitions mainly because it offers the possibility to admire three masterpieces of the Master in the private collection, and therefore normally of very difficult access: the spectacular table with the Saul -conversionIl Portrait of Maffeo Barberini el ‘ Here is a man Very little rediscovered in Madrid. To see, it is also possible to follow all the career blows of the artist: human and stylistic change Substantial surprises in every photo, offered with very high moments by the combination of works that were probably born after days in the study of the master, and since then they have never seen each other, such as the Santa Caterina Thyssen, De Giuditta van de Giuditta van de Giuditta van de Giuditta van de Giuditta van de Giuditta van de Giuditta van de Giuditta van de Giuditta van de Giuditta van de Giuditt Maddalena from Detroit itself. The clothing of different sante and heroines, who admire the creative process of the painter “.

Caravaggio 2025, setting up the exhibition in Palazzo Barberini | Photo: © Alberto Novelli & Alessio Panunzi

We go into the “holy drama” that is consumed between Rome and Naples by some of the most emblematic religious works by Merisi Mature at the top of success, including prominent characters such as Ciriaco Mattei and Ottavio Costa, for which he realized, respectively The conquest of Christ and the San Giovanni Battista From the collection of the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art (Kansas City-Missouri), the latter supported by the painting with the same subject preserved in the national galleries of old art.

The dramatic turn suffered through the life of Merisi (and Painting) in the late spring of 1606, with the murder of Ranuccio Tomassoni, and the resulting escape from the sentence to the Capital Penalty, translates the need for reconciliation. They spend a few months and Caravaggio is in Naples, a city where he paints admirable works, such as theHere is a manfound in Spain in 2021, and which returns to Italy after four centuries, and the LaggingBuilt for the chapel of San Domenico Maggiore.
The “Game Final” is played in Malta. The last part of the exhibition is confronted with the last phase of the artist who sees him leave in the summer of 1607 until the start of the island in the hope of entering the Order of the Gerosolimitan Knights and the forgiveness of Borghese Pope Paul V.
Il Portrait of Knight or MaltaAlso exposed, enables him to obtain De Ridder, but the involvement in a fight with another member of the order costs him the prison. A daring escape takes him to Sicily, Syracuse and Messina, and then again in Naples. Now the footsteps of the visitor who can be seen are heavy, arrest themselves in the presence of the last work, including the San Giovanni Battista from the Borghese Gallery and the Martyrdom of Sant’orsolaPainted for Marcantonio Doria a few days before the last tragic journey of Caravaggio, which mysteriously stops on the Via DI Porto Ercole, only thirty ninnies.
In 1610, Merisi sails to Rome, probably after receiving the news of the forgiveness of the Pope. On board, a Feluca entails some paintings that must be served to Cardinal Nepote Scipione Borghese, including the San Giovanni Battista. According to a traditional sixteenth -century iconography, folded here into an unusual horizontal format, the painting of San Giovanni brought out of the diagnostic examinations, on the left, the presence of a lamb that was subsequently removed by the author and the movement of the Croce di Canne from the left hand.

In loan of the Gallerie d’Italia-Palazzo Zevallos Stigliano, a museum of Intesa Sanpaolo, in exchange for the Ladies Colonel Liocorno by Raffaello from the Borgese Gallery, the Martyrdom of Sant’orsola It was the subject of a delicate cleaner work on the occasion of the Roman event. In the painting of Caravaggio, just over a month after death, three figures came up who enriched the story of the drama of Sant’orsola. Discovers that it might have been interesting to see to see via a video or a didactic device. To the right of Attila, king unknown to Orsola, the tip of the nose of a soldier and the circumference of his helmet, a first invisible sight appeared. New details of the figure also emerged, perhaps a pilgrim who wears a hat. Above the head of Orsola, an element whose meaning was first uncertain is identified with the helmet of a poorero with a crack in front of the eyes.
The haste in the performance of this painting was such that the canvas came from the study of the painter that was still freshly freshly fresh and, not perfectly dry when delivery, inattentive servants exposed it to the sun, a circumstance that was the origin of his painful preservation.

Caravaggio 2025, setting up the exhibition in Palazzo Barberini | Photo: © Alberto Novelli & Alessio Panunzi

The astonishment of the public moving from Palazzo Barberini to the Casino dell’aurora, to Villa Ludovisi (Porta Pinciana) where you can soon admire the twentiest work of the route, Extra Moenia, but exceptionally visited on the occasion of the exhibition. It is the Jupiter, Neptune and PlutoThe only mural that was carried out by Caravaggio in 1597 in the field of Cardinal del Monte for the ceiling of the Camerino in which the last delighted in alchemy. The work, rarely accessible, in fact shows an allegory of the alchemical triad of Paracelsus: Jupiter, personification of sulfur and air, Neptune of mercury and water, and Pluto of salt and earth.

The exhibition catalog, published by Marsilio Arte, deepens the themes of Caravaggio 2025 and presents new critical studies and essays by some of the most important international experts.
The exhibition, which has opened its doors today, can be visited from Sunday to Thursday from 9 to 20, Friday and Saturday from 9 to 22. On Monday the exhibition is only open to the organized audience. Reservations are recommended.