To mark the fourth centenary of the death of Caravaggio, on display in an itinerary taking in the Pitti Palace, the Uffizi and Villa Bardini, is a parade of masterpieces by Caravaggio and the Caravaggisti who revolutionised sacred and profane painting and iconography at the beginning of the seventeenth century.
After decades of new scientific research, discoveries, attributions and historic acquisitions, the Polo Museale Fiorentino proposes a new journey through the world of Caravaggio and international Caravaggism. Curated by Gianni Papi, it presents a series of works that represent a sort of excursus in discovery of the artistic novelties of the early decades of the seventeenth century, connected with naturalism and the representation of everyday reality rendered through the pictorial media of light and shadow.
In celebrating Caravaggio the intention has also been to pay tribute to the person who more than any other was responsible for rediscovering him and making his greatness known: Roberto Longhi. An exhibition will therefore be set up in Villa Bardini entitled Caravaggio and the modern age. The paintings from the Fondazione Longhi, curated by Mina Gregori, displaying the paintings that the great art historian acquired over the course of his life, from the Boy bitten by a Lizard by Caravaggio to the paintings of his earliest followers.