Caravaggio's St. John the Baptist goes on the road: exhibited for three months in Turin, Italy

From Feb. 25 to May 30, 2021, a masterpiece by Caravaggio from the National Galleries of Ancient Art in Rome is on display in the rooms dedicated to Caravaggesque painters in the Galleria Sabauda at the Royal Museums of Turin. It is St. John the Baptist, a work created by Michelangelo Merisi between 1604 and 1606.

The famous painting is thus going on tour from Rome to Turin thanks to an exchange promoted by the directors of the two museum venues on the occasion of the exhibition L’ora dello spettatore. How Images Use Us (Rome, Palazzo Barberini, December 2, 2020 - April 5, 2021). In fact, the Roman exhibition welcomes into its itinerary Hans Memling’s extremely rare panel with the Passion of Christ, preserved at the Galleria Sabauda. This is an opportunity to bring to the public’s attention the collections of two great Italian picture galleries and the genius of their great masters; the exhibition event is supported by the Consulta per la Valorizzazione dei Beni Artistici e Culturali di Torino and Reale Mutua.

Caravaggio experimented in the early seventeenth century with new compositions of sacred and profane subjects, populated by characters depicted in the immediacy of their humanity and enriched with fragments of still life. These include the St. John the Baptist. Caravaggio shows him while still a teenager, at a moment of rest in the desert, where he spent much of his existence. The figure, wrapped in a red cloak, emerges from the darkness, his face in shadow and hands hardened by the sun, his shy, melancholy gaze turned to the darkness beyond the frame, as if surprised by a mysterious presence. Beside, the objects that qualify his identity: the reed cross and the baptismal bowl.

The work arrived in Turin yesterday escorted by the Carabinieri Corps and will be on display for the next three months in a room of the permanent itinerary of the Sabauda Gallery. The exhibition-dossier intends to present to the public one of the painter’s masterpieces, but it will also be an opportunity to show the close dialogue with the works of those Italian and foreign painters, first and second generation, who were deeply influenced by his painting. Some, like Giovanni Baglione, Merisi’s contemporary, only outwardly interpret the master’s models; others like Valentin, Vignon, Ribera and Serodine repropose with great rigor the mystical humility of the saints from Caravaggesque inventions. Still others, such as Antiveduto Gramatica and Orazio Riminaldi, look to the profound naturalism and new themes introduced by Merisi, while the Dutch painter Matthias Stomer brings forward the contrasts between light and shadow in his “nightlight” paintings. Caravaggio fascinated the great collectors of the time and also the Savoy family: as the works on display show, the Piedmontese royal house also immediately caught up with modern reality painting, which was amply documented in the inventories of the 1730s. It was Orazio Gentileschi who gave the Savoy duke Charles Emmanuel I, in 1623, the splendid altarpiece with theAnnunciation, one of his most intense works.

“Despite the months of lockdown, the Royal Museums have never stopped,” declares Enrica Pagella, Director of the Royal Museums of Turin. “The emergency we have experienced and are still experiencing has highlighted the need to offer the public unprecedented cultural proposals, measured against the current needs of fruition and sustainability, also developed in collaboration with other national entities. The Royal Museums are promoting a constant exchange and comparison with the national scenario, today essential to offer the public new content capable of multiplying opportunities for knowledge and experience.”

"With satisfaction we announce today the opening of the exhibition of Caravaggio’s Saint John the Baptist, for the first time in Turin," said Giorgio Marsiaj, president of Consulta Valorizzazione Beni Artistici e Culturali di Torino. “Consulta’s is a participatory and attentive attitude; we believe in culture as an economic and inclusive lever that fosters development, and increases the attractiveness and well-being of the territory. Despite the critical issues generated by the pandemic, Consulta’s member companies and entities remain focused on the cultural sector, to help preserve and enhance the heritage that history has given us, for generations to come.”

“We are delighted to support this prestigious exhibition, which takes on special significance at a time when art, and culture in general, is a key ingredient in the restart process,” said Luigi Lana, Reale Mutua president. “Working in synergy with realities of excellence such as the Consulta per la Valorizzazione dei Beni Artistici e Culturali di Torino allows us to be an active part in the enhancement of the territory and to generate positive social and cultural impacts capable of increasing Turin’s ambition to become more and more an artistic hub of national and international scope.”

For info: www.museireali.beniculturali.it

Hours: Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m.

Tickets: Full 15 euros, reduced 12 euros for 18-25 year olds; free for under 15s.

Image: Caravaggio, Saint John the Baptist (1604-1606; oil on canvas; Rome, National Galleries of Ancient Art) Ph.Credit Alberto Novelli

Caravaggio's St. John the Baptist goes on the road: exhibited for three months in Turin, Italy

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