Caravaggio. St Mary Magdalene in Ecstasy

Michelangelo Merisi, better known as Caravaggio (1571–1610), is one of the most famous and influential artists of all time. His work is considered ingenious not only for its sublime brushwork, characterised by tenebrism, but also the inner experiences of the characters he depicted, exposing human fragility, intellectual playfulness and intertextuality, and raw expression. Caravaggio is often called the pioneer of Baroque art, revealing not only to Italy but to all of Europe a completely new age of cultural thought, forms and even the viewer’s relationship with art.

 

The famous artist was born in Lombardy, Milan, yet his creative journey brought the artist to Rome. Here, while still very young, Caravaggio became the most popular and controversial painter of his day. The artist would often choose the destitute or prostitutes as his models. Caravaggio imparted his paintings depicting exhausted, impoverished people with an impression of reality, encouraging viewers to discuss matters of social justice. Figures in Renaissance art that were painted according to idealistic criteria gradually made way for representatives of the lower classes of society, pained by hardship, poverty, and spiritual and physical suffering, who, in Caravaggio’s mind, best represented the ideals promoted by the saints. Art began to breathe with life.

 

Everyone desired to acquire Caravaggio’s work. In barely a decade, the artist caused nothing less than a revolution in painting. Nonetheless, the sudden rise of this genius was thwarted by his dark demeanour. From 1601, Caravaggio found himself on trial numerous times – he was accused of assault, brawling, unlawful possession of weapons, even of throwing a plate of artichokes at a waiter in a restaurant. However, the artist committed his most brutal crime in 1606 when he killed a man during a brawl. After this event, Caravaggio fled Rome, going into hiding until his death, seeking refuge in Naples, Malta, Sicily and elsewhere.

 

This international exhibition presents the painting St Mary Magdalene in Ecstasy, a work considered lost since the early 17th century. Caravaggio probably took it with him on what was to be his final journey to Rome, hoping that Pope Paul V would pardon his death sentence for murder. Alas, the artist never managed to reach Rome – exhausted from an illness on his journey, he died not far from the town of Porto Ercole. 

 

Two of the three paintings that Caravaggio had with him on this journey as gifts for his patrons are considered missing. The work exhibited here, St Mary Magdalene in Ecstasy, was discovered in a private collection in Switzerland, where it had been passed down by the owners from generation to generation, never knowing its true value or authorship. The most prominent specialists in Caravaggio’s paintings, Prof. Mina Gregori and Prof. Bert Treffers, have identified without a doubt that this is one of the genius’ paintings, lost in 1610 when he was on his way to Rome.

 

This discovery raised enormous interest among art researchers and the cultural community at large. The painting was restored and has been exhibited in numerous countries in recent years, being showcased in exhibitions in Tokyo, New Delhi, etc., and now it has arrived in Vilnius. This is the first time the work of this genius can be seen in Lithuania.