Way OT: Wow! (Formula) England To Have A Big Exhibition By Carravaggio
Bobby Fischler
was a giant.
Carraviaggio "who had a reputation as a violent hot-head and
low-lifer..." (sounds a bit like Frusciante). ;-)
He did kill a pimp in a duel or brawl. My kind of guy. All pimps
deserve that treatment.
He is one of greatest painters in my book.
National Gallery to show Caravaggio's darkest work
By Nigel Reynolds, Arts Correspondent
(Filed: 03/11/2004)
Ten days after opening one blockbuster exhibition, showing almost half
of Raphael's 80-odd known panel paintings, the National Gallery
announced plans to follow it early next year with another boasting
almost all of the late works of another Italian master, the
rapscallion Caravaggio.
Years of tricky negotiations will see at least 15, and possibly 18, of
the 24 known canvasses painted by the tortured artist in the last four
years of his life - while he was on the run for murder - come to
London in February
Caravaggio: The Final Years will be the largest exhibition of the
artist's work shown in this country. It has just opened in Naples, and
London will be its only other port of call. So fragile and valuable
are many of the paintings that plans for the exhibition to travel on
to New York were abandoned.
"I have never known an exhibition so difficult to arrange," Dr Dawson
Carr, a curator at the National Gallery, said yesterday. Even now, the
gallery, which itself owns three late Caravaggios, is not certain that
all the paintings on show in Naples will come to London.
Dr Carr said: "Caravaggio is such a superstar and no collection is
prepared to part with his paintings for very long. It is pretty
wonderful that we are getting so many but three from the Naples
exhibition are still in doubt. We are still talking, and we'll have to
see what happens."
Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio (1571-1610), whose realism and use
of ordinary people for his religious models shocked his
contemporaries, is best known as a painter of altarpieces in Rome. The
city's churches jealously guard their treasures, however, and are
unlikely ever to lend them.
The joint Naples/National Gallery project therefore concentrated on
his last four years. In 1606, the painter, who had a reputation as a
violent hot-head and low-lifer, fled Rome after killing Ranuccio
Tommasoni, a mercenary and pimp, in a duel or brawl.
With a papal arrest warrant out for him, he travelled to Naples, Malta
and Sicily where, say the experts, his painting underwent a profound
change, becoming more sober and mystical.
Caravaggio did not throw off his ill temper and he had to flee once
again from Malta where he was imprisoned for brawling while training
to join the Knights of Malta. He died not yet 37, probably from fever,
while making his way to Rome to try to have the murder warrant
annulled.
The exhibition will open on Feb 23 and run to May 22.
The first 10 days of Raphael: From Urbino to Rome has drawn almost
20,000 visitors, 30 per cent up on forecasts. The National Gallery
said yesterday it was considering late-night openings to cope with the
demand.