Caravaggio 2025

MOSTRA: Caravaggio 2025 (7 March – 6 July 2025; Palazzo Barberini, Roma)
If you happen to be in Rome before the 6th of July, there's a wonderful exhibition of 24 works by Caravaggio, some of which on loan like the amazing Saint Catherine of Alexandria from the Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum in Madrid; The Martyrdom of Saint Ursula, on loan from the Intesa Sanpaolo Collection in Naples; The Conversion of Paul, on loan from the private Odescalchi Balbi Collection in Rome - not to be confused with the more famous Conversione di San Paolo housed in the basilica of Santa Maria del Popolo in Rome; Martha and Mary Magdalene, on loan from the Detroit Institute of Arts; The Flagellation, on loan from the Capodimonte Museum in Naples, just to mention a few (photos and descriptions here). Of course, you'll also be able to see the two works by Caravaggio which are on permanent display at Palazzo Barberini, the amazing Judith Beheading Holofernes and Narcissus; and the Caravaggio belonging to Palazzo Barberini's sister gallery Palazzo Corsini - which is truly worth a visit in its own right - Saint John the Baptist. Here are giusto un paio (just a couple) of pictures of Giuditta e Oloferne (Judith Beheading Holofernes) which we took on our last visit to Rome, followed by a few introductions to the exhibition, one by Askanews, the second by the TG2, and the third by Anna Scrigni who has a wonderful Instagram page dedicated to Roma (link here):

The exhibition is being touted as a "blockbuster" and, as such, it will be crowded. Still, it is most definitely worth the visit and, although the tickets are unlikely to sell out like those for the 2023 Vermeer exhibition at the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam where, by the second day of the exhibition, all 450,000 tickets had been sold, it's probably a good idea to book well in advance. The museum, as is often the case, has outsourced the ticketing to a company called Coop Culture, so you can book your ticket by clicking on the Palazzo Barberini site (here), then on "Biglietti" or "ACQUISTA I BIGLIETTI" (purchase the tickets) which will take you to the dedicated Coop Culture page. Scroll down the page and click on "PALAZZO BARBERINI - MOSTRA CARAVAGGIO 2025 - BIGLIETTO INDIVIDUALI FINO A 9 PERSONE", pick the day you wish to visit and your desired time slot, then a pop-up box will appear: if you'd like to visit the Caravaggio exhibition only, click on "INTERO MOSTRA CARAVAGGIO", 18 euros; if you'd like to visit not only the exhibition but also the gallery itself (i.e. Palazzo Barberini), and its sister gallery (i.e. Palazzo Corsini) - you have 20 days to do so and, if you have the time, we would thoroughly recommend you do so - choose: "INTEGRATO INTERO MOSTRA CARAVAGGIO + MUSEI", at 25 euros, then proceed to check out. If it all sounds confusing, it's because it is! Going back to step 1, when you arrive on the Palazzo Barberini site, you do have the option of choosing English as your language but, when you click on "BUY TICKETS", it will take you to the Italian Coop Culture page where, if you click on the English flag, it will take you, bizarrely, to the Coop Culture home page where you'll have to click on "Rome", and then scroll down to "GALLERIE NAZIONALI BARBERINI E CORSINI", then scroll all the way down to "CARAVAGGIO 2025" where you'll be able to find the booking page in English ...mamma mia!

We've also read that, apart from the works on display at the Palazzo Barberini exhibition, on purchase of a ticket for the Caravaggio exhibition, you can also, for an extra 12 euros, book a visit to view Caravaggio's one and only known ceiling fresco painting - an amazing exercise in heroic and, in particular for Neptune, awkward, foreshortening - at the lovely Casino dell'Aurora di Villa Ludovisi Boncompagni, which is not far from Via Veneto, and which also houses a truly lovely frescoed ceiling representing Aurora, the goddess of dawn riding a chariot across the sky, by Guercino (sneak preview here). The option seems no longer to be available (booking page here) but do check it again just in case the visit to the Casino dell'Aurora becomes available once again.

UPDATE 21/3/25: it is available again!

After the exhibition, if you've purchased
the ticket "INTEGRATO INTERO MOSTRA CARAVAGGIO + MUSEI", you'll also be able to visit the rest of the Palazzo Barberini collection which houses some truly wonderful works like Raphael's La Fornarina. Here are giusto un paio (just a couple) of photos:

The exhibition is being touted as a "blockbuster" and, as such, it will be crowded. Still, it is most definitely worth the visit and, although the tickets are unlikely to sell out like those for the 2023 Vermeer exhibition at the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam where, by the second day of the exhibition, all 450,000 tickets had been sold, it's probably a good idea to book well in advance. The museum, as is often the case, has outsourced the ticketing to a company called Coop Culture, so you can book your ticket by clicking on the Palazzo Barberini site (here), then on "Biglietti" or "ACQUISTA I BIGLIETTI" (purchase the tickets) which will take you to the dedicated Coop Culture page. Scroll down the page and click on "PALAZZO BARBERINI - MOSTRA CARAVAGGIO 2025 - BIGLIETTO INDIVIDUALI FINO A 9 PERSONE", pick the day you wish to visit and your desired time slot, then a pop-up box will appear: if you'd like to visit the Caravaggio exhibition only, click on "INTERO MOSTRA CARAVAGGIO", 18 euros; if you'd like to visit not only the exhibition but also the gallery itself (i.e. Palazzo Barberini), and its sister gallery (i.e. Palazzo Corsini) - you have 20 days to do so and, if you have the time, we would thoroughly recommend you do so - choose: "INTEGRATO INTERO MOSTRA CARAVAGGIO + MUSEI", at 25 euros, then proceed to check out. If it all sounds confusing, it's because it is! Going back to step 1, when you arrive on the Palazzo Barberini site, you do have the option of choosing English as your language but, when you click on "BUY TICKETS", it will take you to the Italian Coop Culture page where, if you click on the English flag, it will take you, bizarrely, to the Coop Culture home page where you'll have to click on "Rome", and then scroll down to n "GALLERIE NAZIONALI BARBERINI E CORSINI", then scroll all the way down to "CARAVAGGIO 2025" where you'll be able to find the booking page in English ...mamma mia!

We've also read that, apart from the works on display at the Palazzo Barberini exhibition, on purchase of a ticket for the Caravaggio exhibition, you can also, for an extra 12 euros, book a visit to view Caravaggio's one and only known ceiling fresco painting - an amazing exercise in heroic and, in particular for Neptune, awkward, foreshortening - at the lovely Casino dell'Aurora di Villa Ludovisi Boncompagni, which is not far from Via Veneto, and which also houses a truly lovely frescoed ceiling representing Aurora, the goddess of dawn riding a chariot across the sky, by Guercino (sneak preview here). The option seems no longer to be available (booking page here) but do check it again just in case the visit to the Casino dell'Aurora becomes available once again.

UPDATE 21/3/25: it is available again!

After the exhibition, if you've purchased
the ticket "INTEGRATO INTERO MOSTRA CARAVAGGIO + MUSEI", you'll also be able to visit the rest of the Palazzo Barberini collection which houses some truly wonderful works like Raphael's La Fornarina. Here are giusto un paio (just a couple) of photos:

Another work on display at Palazzo Barberini is Filippino Lippi's Madonna di Tarquinia, which depicts surely one of the ugliest baby Jesuses in the history of art but there is a saying in Naples: "Ogni scarrafone è bell’ ‘a mamma soja!" (Ogni scarafaggio è bello alla sua mamma! / Every cockroach is handsome to his mother!)!

A proposito di "Ogni scarrafone è bell’ ‘a mamma soja!", there's a wonderful 1991 song by the late Pino Daniele called, appunto, 'O scarrafone , and please forgive Pino the all too obvious "mullet"!!!:

Back in Palazzo Barberini, our Filippo Lippi makes up for the baby Jesus scarrafone , in another of his paintings hanging right beside the Madonna di Tarquinia, which is l'Annunciazione. Here, Gabriel is beautiful even though both he and Mary look like school children re-enacting the Annunciation in a pantomime, and the donors' heads are far too huge for their bodies, plus their hands look ridiculous! But the colours and the details - the cangiante of Gabriel's sleeve, and the filigree-like brushstrokes on the wings and bed cover - are truly delightful!:

Apart from its wonderful collection of art, il Palazzo Barberini is also quite famous for its architecture. In fact, not only is the exterior quite impressive, but the palazzo boasts two truly amazing staircases, one by Bernini and a truly astonishing helicoidal one by Borromini! (You can read more about them here).

And, as if all of this were not enough, Palazzo Barberini is home to another jewel in Rome's artistic crown: a huge jaw-dropping trompe l'oeil ceiling by non other than Pietro da Cortona!!!

To learn more about il Palazzo Barberini and its artistic treasures we have some video suggestions below and, if you'd like to visit il Palazzo Barberini with an exceptional tour guide, Alberto Angela is happy to take us there in this segment from Superquark. However, if you haven't already, you will need to register with RaiPlay because that is where you'll find it - it's very much like signing up for SBS On Demand. Click here to join him:

Ritornando a Caravaggio, if you want to learn more about the artist, we suggest two wonderful biographies, one by the Australian author, Peter Robb, simply titled M (Caravaggio's actual name was Michelangelo Merisi, thus the "M" of the tiltle), which was originally published in 1998 and is still, fortunately, readily available; and Caravaggio: A Life Sacred and Profane , published in 2010, by Andrew Graham-Dixon. We also found a third book very interesting, Caravggio: A Life , by Helen Langdon (1999), it's not pictured above simply because we can't find it! God knows where it's buried!

In terms of documentaries, there is a true abbundance of choice: Simon Schama's 2006 Power of Art series dedicates an episode to Caravaggio (click here); il nostro amico, Andrew Graham-Dixon, travels around Italy in search of those responsible for Caravaggio's death in Who killed Caravaggio?, originally broadcast in 2010 (Click here); below, you'll find Robert Hughes Caravaggio , screened in 1976, whose acerbic wit is as striking today as it must have been then - he describes "Caravaggio's boys" as "overripe, peachy bits of rough trade, with yearning mouths and hair like black ice cream." Last but certainly not least, Tomaso Montanari's wonderful twelve part series dedicated to Caravaggio: La vera natura di Caravaggio, first screend in 2016 - again just a reminder that to view this series you'll have to register with RaiPlay (click here). (Marzo, 2025)