The Last Caravaggio coming to London

March 29 2024

Image of The Last Caravaggio coming to London

Picture: nationalgallery.org.uk

Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:

The National Gallery in London will be hosting Caravaggio's Martyrdom of Saint Ursula, on loan from the Gallerie d’Italia Naples, from 18th April until 21st July 2024.

According to the gallery's website:

Few paintings are better placed to tell the story of Caravaggio’s final years than his last-known work, 'The Martyrdom of Saint Ursula' (1610, Gallerie d’Italia, Naples). The painting is coming to London for the first time in 20 years.

We witness violence at uncomfortably close quarters. Caravaggio shows us an intricate interplay of guilty and innocent hands. And his own self portrait looks on, helpless.

We'll display this painting with the letter that describes its creation (Archivio di Stato, Naples), and our own late Caravaggio, 'Salome with the Head of John the Baptist' (about 1609–10).

In our Bicentenary year, you’re invited to contemplate this masterpiece. Explore the troubled end of Caravaggio's life, the stories of Ursula and Salome, and reflect on violence today.

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