CARAVAGGIO. The Lute Player

CARAVAGGIO. The Lute Player

From 29 April, the Galleria Borghese will present an exhibition dedicated to two famous paintings by Caravaggio entitled The Lute Player, which will also be hosted in St. Petersburg by the Hermitage beginning in September.

The exhibition will juxtapose for the first time the two versions of the subject, which Caravaggio executed during his youthful period in Rome: the recently restored Lute Player painted for Cardinal Benedetto and Marquis Vincenzo Giustiniani – from the Hermitage in St. Petersburg – will be displayed next to the Lute Player formerly in Badminton House, Gloucestershire, which Caravaggio executed for another very important patron, Cardinal Francesco Maria Del Monte.

The two versions of the Lute Player will be displayed in the Entrance Hall along with six other works by Caravaggio present in the Museum’s permanent collection, in order to propose an exceptional overview of his career as a painter, from the first work he executed to the last, which he had with him when he died. Thanks to the completeness of this overview it will be possible to establish more precisely the chronology of the two Players. Their juxtaposed presence close to each other will also allow us to examine the revolutionary painting method adopted by Caravaggio during his Roman period, as well as to reflect on his production of replicas of the same subject.

Through this exhibition the Galleria Borghese – which hosts the largest, most important, and best preserved group of paintings by Caravaggio – will highlight the methodological structure on which its Caravaggio Research Institute project is based. The fundamental objective of this international project addressed essentially to scholars, connoisseurs, and experts is to develop an integrated digital platform that will collect all the documented data on Caravaggio’s entire oeuvre and aims to become the primary reference point for studies on the artist.

The exhibition will be accompanied by a catalogue, edited by the Museum, in Italian and English – as well as in Russian for when the exhibition is in St. Petersburg – which will include a discussion of the results of the diagnostic investigations conducted recently on both paintings, in addition to a musicological text concerning the music portrayed in the two versions.

In this regard, the exhibition will constitute an extraordinary opportunity for hosting concerts for antique lute and voice performing the scores “painted” in the two versions of the Lute Player, with the participation of top interpreters of this elegant, excellent Baroque music.