St. John attributed to Caravaggio returns to exhibition: it's in Alba

The St. John the Laying Man, a work attributed to Caravaggio that was first shown in an exhibition in Italy last year in Camaiore , Lucca, which Finestre sull’Arte covered extensively , is back on display. Opened on Nov. 26 and open to visitors until Jan. 29, 2023, the exhibition, curated by Roberta Lapucci, is entitled Verso Caravaggio. The Light of Torment and was made possible thanks to the support of theBe Local Association, chaired by entrepreneur Gerogers Mikhael. The idea of the exhibition is to tell the life story of Caravaggio’s St. John the Baptist, which Lapucci attributes to Caravaggio. A multimedia project with an interactive character has been created around the painting, which aims to generate a multisensory context and visit in which visitors can feel part of the master himself. The exhibition includes a tour consisting of projections, interactive tables, informational videos and three-dimensional and holographic reconstructions.

This is the fourth opportunity to present to the public the Malta/Maine version of Caravaggio’s St. John the Laying Man (it is held in a private Maltese collection, and another version is known to be held in a private collection in Munich). The first was the Monte Santa Maria Tiberina symposium Evidenza Caravaggio in 2018; it was followed by the exhibition in three Japanese venues (Sapporo, Osaka, Nagoya) in 2019-2020, then the exhibition in Camaiore in 2021, and last spring-summer’s exhibition in Ragusa.

As curator Roberta Lapucci points out, "Caravaggio always calls us to be silent witnesses of everyday acts of violence. Yet he always gives us a glimpse of a source of hope, a ray of light that takes us out of the scene. Following the teaching of St. Dominic he calls us to be the light and salt of the world; to radiate wisdom and respect toward others and make life full of flavor and meaning. The themes addressed are very timely: we are observing the meditation of the protagonist who, in a wilderness phase ( Dante’s ’dark wilderness’), manages to overcome his depression by looking toward the faint light emanating outside the cave; that dark cavity represents the womb in which he is hiding, the generator of rebirth; St. John is choosing between good and evil, the cross or the serpent. This attitude well reflects the state of mind and the fear of rebirth in which we all find ourselves right now, that the world is restarting, after two years of pandemic, with a new reflection on the old and the new way of being and posing ourselves in the confrontation with other human beings and with the sick environment around us." The curator decided to dedicate the performance to the memory of the recently deceased Fr Marius Zerafa, a Dominican Father, who was to be co-curator of this event.

According to Alba Mayor Carlo Bo, “it is a great honor for our city to host an exhibition dedicated to Caravaggio, one of the Italian artists who most revolutionized and influenced art internationally. Our city has always tried to develop and grow cultural proposals, in particular, those that are exquisitely artistic with important exhibitions that mark the calendar of city events. We thank Piemonte Musei and Be Local-and the curator of the exhibition Roberta Lapucci-for bringing to Alba, in our San Domenico, this exhibition dedicated to a great master.”

For all information, you can visit the official website of Piemonte Musei.

Image: Attributed to Caravaggio, St. John the Baptist Lying Down (oil on canvas, 107 x 143 cm; Malta, Private Collection)

St. John attributed to Caravaggio returns to exhibition: it's in Alba

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