DUSSELDORF, GERMANY.- Museum Kunst Palast presents Caravaggio, on view through July 1, 2007. Only very few artists have given rise to so much fascination and speculation about their lives and work as did the Italian painter Michelangelo Merisi, also known as Caravaggio (1571-1610). Having trained in Milan and Rome, he subsequently worked in southern Italy and Malta. Within a very brief period of creativity this co-founder of the Baroque period succeeded in revolutionizing the art of painting.

After many years of preparation museum kunst palast in Düsseldorf presents an overview of some extraordinary imagery, compiled by Jürgen Harten, Berlin. Not only did these works lead to the painter’s European-wide fame, they were also widely imitated while he was still alive and gave rise to a style which was subsequently continued by his artistic successors.

The exhibition comprises over 30 high-calibre items on loan from international art galleries and renowned private collections. It will be shown in Düsseldorf alone.

Caravaggio’s art was very much valued and in demand even during his lifetime. This was due to his masterly expertise in achieving dramatic effects of light and shade. His clients included ecclesiastical dignitaries, Roman nobility and collectors. His art, which can still be admired in numerous churches in Italy, Sicily and Malta, did much to overcome the style of mannerism which had prevailed until then. In the 17th century, Caravaggio’s style made an impression on a whole range of important artists such as Velazquez, Rubens and Rembrandt, and indeed led to an entire movement within Baroque art, called Caravaggismo.

During the next two centuries Caravaggio gradually fell into oblivion and did not attract renewed attention until the early 20th century. Today, Caravaggio is again at the centre of research in art history and is considered to be one of the greatest masters of European painting.

The history of Caravaggio’s work and career also includes his legendary biography. His life can be traced in court documents and official sources that bore witness to his rather contentious character as well as to ecclesiastical sponsors, artistic successes, manslaughter, an escape from the hand of the law, a papal pardon and a mysterious untimely death.

Religion, the erotic and violence are among the major subjects of Caravaggio’s effectively composed paintings. Using models whom he often engaged straight from the street, he employed a highly realistic and mostly unconventional way of depicting scenes from biblical stories. He painted saints with dirty soles and with blood gushing from their injured bodies, and the faces in his art include not only the young but also the old and wrinkled. His art frequently reflected a secularization of religious subjects. Being extremely skilled at creating dramatic lighting effects, Caravaggio painted a large number of works with an almost cinematographic effect.

The fascination of Caravaggio’s art has continued to the present day. In 1986 Caravaggio’s life and work was used by the British director Derek Jarman as the basis for a film that met with widespread recognition, partly due to its emphasis on homo-erotic aesthetics.

The Düsseldorf exhibition inspired Henning Mankell, Andrea Camilleri, Florian Illies, Ingrid Noll and and other well-known authors to write a number of exciting short stories which have been published on the occasion of the Caravaggio exhibition in a special anthology.

Jean-Hubert Martin (General Director of museum kunst palast): “The Caravaggio exhibition at museum kunst palast, sponsored so generously by E.ON AG, is among the high points of the artistic Quadrennial proclaimed for the first time in Düsseldorf this year. The dominant theme of the Quadrennial, “The Human Body in Art”, reflects the drastically realistic paintings of Caravaggio in a way that is truly unparalleled. After all, in his masterly dramatizations of light and shade, the artist always puts a clear focus on the physical quality of his models.

Moreover, many of Caravaggio’s works owe their fascination to their universality of time and space. The décor of a painting virtually never permits any clear conclusions about a specific historic context, nor indeed can we draw any conclusions from the simple garments of the characters.

Also, many of his paintings and the way in which Caravaggio puts his protagonists in the foreground are highly cinematographic to today’s contemporary viewer. Caravaggio would probably be a well-known film maker today.”

Jürgen Harten (curator of the exhibition): “For the last two years a range of Caravaggio exhibitions have attracted the attention of a broad public again, thus emphasizing the significance of his works in the history of European art. The Düsseldorf exhibition seeks to meet this recent interest with an idea of its own. Caravaggio’s oeuvre is quite unique as it has acquired clearer contours over the last few decades than almost any other artist. Since the legendary exhibitions, set up by Roberto Longhi in Milan in 1951, more and more paintings and sources have been discovered and have been either ascribed or re-ascribed to Caravaggio. This is our starting point. The originals presented in Düsseldorf also comprise a number of lesser known paintings which have been restored only recently. In addition, a number of repeats and variations are shown where the authorship is still disputed.

All the paintings at the exhibition are considered to be the artist’s ideas, whether they were executed by the artist himself or by someone else. We are tracing the footsteps of Caravaggio – and thus the originals. May the public be our witnesses.”

The Düsseldorf exhibition focuses on a selection of pictures which are full of intensity, movement and passion. By presenting different versions of the same subject – for instance John the Baptist – the exhibition shows the original creative strength and eccentricity of Caravaggio’s artistic style, while enabling the viewer to experience his art at close quarters. Our view is directed particularly towards some unconventional pictorial inventions which contributed so vastly to the fame of this Baroque dramatist of lighting effects, pictures of which the artist himself created numerous variations and which were subsequently imitated by others. The exhibition spans a wide range of subjects, from his early sensuous paintings which reflect a more secular thematic range such as his boyish Lute Players, through some bold compositions such as Christ’s Supper at Emmaus, to his depictions of saints in his later years, paintings which are full of passion and drama while at the same time expressing an attitude of contemplation and an expectation of death.

Set against the background of questions concerning originals, replicas and variations, created both by the painter himself and by others, the Düsseldorf exhibition and the accompanying catalogue provide some exciting insights into the adventure of present-day research in art history.