The Caravaggio exhibition at Palazzo Barberini

The artist's most important works are on display in Rome until 6 July

Twenty-four paintings that will allow you to explore the wonderful world of Michelangelo Merisi; Caravaggio 2025 is an ambitious project on display at Palazzo Barberini.

Until 6 July, its imposing rooms will welcome ‘beggars like those that you would find in the streets of Rome during his time, that he transforms into saints; he turns prostitutes into madonnas and dissipated youth into biblical or mythological characters, but without any embellishment: with their blunt, loud, and foul appearance in an amazing realistic way; working directly on the canvas without any preparatory drawings, reproducing light and shadow as no artist had ever been able to before him’, as Vittorio Sgarbi describes with admiration in one of his books.

An exhibition which is a visual and spiritual experience as glowing lights appear before you: they are eyes, hands which seem to move, ‘sore’ limbs twisting, faces emerging from the darkness. It is almost a moving sensation: Caravaggio makes you forget about the here and now. You could be anywhere, even in front of Judith watching Holofernes as his head rolls off…

Collecting some of his most famous paintings, Caravaggio 2025 proposes a new, in-depth reflection on the artistic and cultural revolution brought forth by the Lombard Master. In a context that has no equal for scope and greatness, it explores the innovation that he introduced into the artistic, religious and social scene of the time.

This exhibition is a unique opportunity to rediscover Caravaggio’s art from a new perspective through discoveries, critical reflections and a close comparison between his masterpieces: not only a tribute to the genius of the artist, but a real opportunity to learn about the profound impact he had on coeval and subsequent art, and on contemporary imagination.

The exhibition is divided into four sections and enables the public to discover the entire artistic path of Merisi, covering a period of about fifteen years from his arrival in Rome around 1595 to his death in Porto Ercole in 1610.

Among the artworks on display, some paintings worthy of special mention are the Portrait of Maffeo Barberini, published by Roberto Longhi in 1963 and never exhibited to the public until a few months ago; the recently rediscovered Ecce Homo(2021) which returns to Italy after four centuries; and the first version of The Conversion of Saul from the Cerasi chapel, not so easily accessible as it is kept in a private house.

Besides Saint Francis in Prayer, St John the Baptist, Judith and Holofernes, and the Narcissus, which are part of the permanent collection of the National Galleries of Ancient Art, other masterpieces ‘return home’: The Cardsharps, the Musicians, and Saint Catherine of Alexandria, which Antonio Barberini bought in 1628 from the collection of the Cardinal del Monte.

Collecting some of his most famous paintings, artworks rarely on display and new arrangements, Caravaggio 2025 proposes a new, in-depth reflection on the artistic and cultural revolution brought forth by the Lombard Master. In a context that has no equal for scope and greatness, it explores the innovation that he introduced into the artistic, religious and social scene of the time.