Caravaggio's Legacy Explored in Milan Exhibition at Gallerie d'Italia

Gallerie d'Italia in Milan presents a major exhibition examining Caravaggio's final years and the immediate reactions of his contemporaries. The show focuses on three cities—Naples, Genoa, and Milan—to illustrate both Caravaggism and anti-Caravaggism. Key artists include Bernardo Strozzi and Giulio Cesare Procaccini, alongside Caravaggio himself. The opening section features Caravaggio's 'Martirio di Sant'Orsola' (1610), painted weeks before his death, juxtaposed with Strozzi's version (1615–1618) that rejects Caravaggio's essentialism for Rubensian dynamism, and Procaccini's interpretation with luminous preciousness. Subsequent sections explore Neapolitan Caravaggism through Caracciolo and Ribera, the dialogue between Strozzi and Procaccini (including Rubens's 'Giovan Carlo Doria' from 1606), and 'pittura di tocco' as a radical alternative. The spectacular double epilogue contrasts Strozzi and Procaccini again, now involving van Dyck, and later Caravaggism by Gioacchino Assereto and Dutch artist Matthias Stom, whose works reached Genoa in the 1640s. Procaccini's monumental 'Ultima cena', recently restored, is displayed before returning to the church of Santissima Annunziata del Vastato in Genoa. Concurrently, until March 18, a monographic room features Omar Galliani reflecting on Caravaggesque themes, from post-conceptual works of the 1970s to the new cycle 'Rosso cadmio per Caravaggio'.