Caravaggio (1571 - 1610) was at the height of his fame as the most original and powerful painter of his day, when in May 1606, he killed a man in a duel. With a capital sentence on his head, he was forced to flee Rome, never to return. During the remaining four years of his life, Caravaggio's art underwent a dramatic transformation as he moved restlessly from Naples to Malta to Sicily. He continued to use intensely observed realism and dramatic lighting to endow his paintings with a compelling sense of actuality. The mood of the pictures became more introspective as he probed the human condition more acutely and with greater sympathy than ever before. This exhibition will concentrate on this relatively little known period in Caravaggio's career. It will bring together paintings from the remote centres in which he worked so that his profound late style can be fully appreciated for the first time. The exhibition has been organized by the National Gallery and the Soprintendenza Speciale per il Polo Museale di Napoli.
This exhibition was no. 1 in "The Guardian" list of 101 top arts events of 2005 and has already been described as "the most sensational show of the year" by "The Observer".
IMAGE:
"The Flagellation", 1607
Museo Nazionale di Capodimonte, Naples
on deposit from the Church of San Domenico Maggiore,
property of the Fondo Edifici di Culto.
February 22, 2005
