Viewing a rare Caravaggio up close

A 1606 painting by the Italian Baroque master Caravaggio, which resurfaced only in 2014, comes up for viewing at the KNMA

- Avantika Bhuyan

Mary Magdalene in Ecstasy, a 1606 painting by Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio, is as fascinating for its intriguing history as for its style. Painted by the Italian Baroque artist towards the end of his short lifespan—he died at the age of 38 in 1610—this canvas was believed to have been lost for centuries. The oil painting resurfaced in 2014 in a private collection and was authenticated as an original by a team of specialists including Mina Gregori, an Italian art historian and a Caravaggio scholar. Since then, Mary Magdalene in Ecstasy has been shown at select exhibitions across the world, and now is on display at the Kiran Nadar Museum of Art, Delhi, in partnership with the cultural centre of the Italian embassy.

Roobina Karode, director and chief curator, KNMA, who has long admired Caravaggio, was all for this opportunity to bring an original artwork by the artist to the Capital. "It is a rare opportunity to make an artwork from the past accessible to the audience. We keep going back to these masterpieces as they stir us, and are a powerful part of a tradition. Art has that moving quality; it speaks through time to different generations—it might speak differently, but it does. This is an opportunity to view it in a different context and setting within a museum right here in Delhi," she says.

Caravaggio has been hailed as one of the Baroque era's most significant masters. He burst on to the scene some 150 years after the Renaissance and had a profound impact on the way religious art, especially Biblical themes, was painted. His style, especially the use of chiaroscuro and naturalistic treatment, continues to resonate even today. "Caravaggio upended the traditional canons of his time, introducing in his works models from real life and a cinematic lighting," commented the Italian ambassador Antonio Bartoli at the unveiling of the painting.