- Exhibition
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Presentation
The exhibition took place in the years between the centenary of Francis Bacon’s birth and the fourth centenary of the death of Caravaggio. These two extreme personalities expressed the torment of existence through painting, and were revolutionary and profound interpreters of the representation of the human figure, each in his own time.
There is no meeting point between Bacon’s work and Caravaggio’s. Bacon was not inspired by Caravaggio: the artist had a deep original knowledge of the art of the past, which acted on the level of aesthetic experience, critical consciousness, but he carefully kept it apart from his painting, also through a relationship mediated through photography.
So why juxtapose the works of these two artists?
In Caravaggio’s painting the figure, the action, are brought back to an acute realism. The painter expressed the individual’s most intimate sensitivity in a very close and immanent way. The symbolism of light and shadow, as images of good and evil, contribute to make this dramatically true. Caravaggio’s search for the truth of existence was provoked by a human and sometimes desperate anxiety regarding salvation. Its representation is purified by the narrative description. The spiritual content is transfused into the realism of the figure in its naked objectivity.
The Galleria Borghese is the setting for Caravaggio’s work, which Cardinal Scipione captured from his first paintings to his most extreme achievements, a theatrical space that inevitably transforms works created for different spaces and environments, determining a new and surprising perception.
In these spaces, the spectator is at the centre of an exceptional aesthetic experience, produced by the presence of the art of two exceptional protagonists who, four hundred years later and with disturbing originality, penetrated the mystery of existence and art by representing spiritual truth in the most traumatic immediacy of the flesh.
Francis Bacon’s painting strikes at the deepest sensitivity of the individual, in expressing the tragic condition of modern man’s existence, in an ensemble of violence, anguish, desire and despair, intimately adhering to reality. Bacon, like Caravaggio, experienced the contrast between space and figure, seeking a new style and a new technique to transpose the dramatic and radical drive of his vision into art. By daring to juxtapose the two artists, free and significant correspondences can open up inside one of the most sensitive spaces thanks to all the genius that exists there.
Bacon’s paintings are protected by glass, according to the artist’s intention, without worrying that the vision might be altered or disturbed by reflections. Interest is focused on curiosity regarding the effect – perhaps intentional – of the interposition, between the viewer and the work, of the reflection of reality and the viewer himself. On this occasion it is the spaces and works in the gallery that project onto the painting and enter its form.
On the occasion of the exhibition, in addition to Caravaggio’s works in the permanent collection, there are key works from Italy and abroad. These are flanked by 17 masterpieces by Francis Bacon preserved in major museums around the world.
“Caravaggio ‐ Bacon” is curated by Anna Coliva, Director of the Galleria Borghese, and Michael Peppiatt, biographer, close friend and best connoisseur of Francis Bacon, organised by Mondo Mostra and made possible thanks to the support of BG Italia, ENEL and Vodafone.
The catalogue was published by 24 ORE Motta Cultura under the brand Federico Motta Editore.
Setup
Caravaggio - Bacon
Installation view
Caravaggio - Bacon
Installation view
Caravaggio - Bacon
Installation view
Caravaggio - Bacon
Installation view
Caravaggio - Bacon
Installation view
Caravaggio - Bacon
Installation view
Caravaggio - Bacon
Installation view
Caravaggio - Bacon
Installation view
Caravaggio - Bacon
Installation view
Caravaggio - Bacon
Installation view
Caravaggio - Bacon
Installation view
Caravaggio - Bacon
Installation view
Caravaggio - Bacon
Installation view
Caravaggio - Bacon
Installation view
Caravaggio - Bacon
Installation view
Caravaggio - Bacon
Installation view