The Last Journey of Caravaggio's Masterpiece: From Naples to London

Naples-London, and back. In the name of art. The last Caravaggio flies to the National Gallery, on display for the bicentenary of its foundation: it is "The Martyrdom of Saint Ursula", painted by the Lombard painter in 1610, during his second Neapolitan stay, a few weeks before dying. A work owned by the IntesaSanPaolo collection - attributed to the artist only in 1980, thanks to one of the most sensational and fortuitous discoveries of documents in the history of world art - loaned for the second time after twenty years and permanently exhibited in the Gallerie d'Italia promoted by the banking institution which, in the city, has received in exchange two canvases by Velazquez, presented to the public from April 24. Francesca Whitlum-Cooper, curator in London, reconstructs the history of the canvas through the documents of the State Archive but also the mystery of another lost one, of which a trace was found in the letters. Alongside "The Martyrdom of Saint Ursula" is also placed for the occasion the only painting by Caravaggio owned by the London institution, the almost contemporary "Salome with the Head of the Baptist" painted in turn in Naples, with the same scraps of harsh realism and the same disturbing chiaroscuro light effects. Two canvases only, but extraordinary.