DUBLIN.- The highly anticipated exhibition Beyond Caravaggio opened this Saturday 11 February in the National Gallery of Ireland. Out of a total of 42 major works from the sixteenth and seventeenth century, four are master paintings by Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio (1571-1610). Many of the works in the show are on loan from private collections, and regional galleries, and is, therefore, be a rare opportunity for visitors to see works not easily available to the public.

Adrian Le Harivel, co-curator of Beyond Caravaggio says: ‘”This exhibition will bring together, for the first time in Dublin, thirty major artists who knew or were inspired by Caravaggio. It underlies the incredible impact that he had on painting at the time, whose ripples are still felt today.”

Caravaggio is widely acknowledged as bringing a revolution to painting during the Baroque period with his dramatic use of light and uncompromising realism. His work had a long-lasting and wide-reaching influence across Europe. This exhibition shows the ways in which a large number of artists adopted Caravaggio’s ideas and developed them to become masters in their own right. Four major works by Caravaggio take centre stage in the exhibition: The Supper at Emmaus, 1601 (National Gallery, London); The Taking of Christ, 1602 (National Gallery of Ireland), as well as two works never exhibited before in Ireland: Boy Bitten by a Lizard, 1594-95 (National Gallery, London) and Boy Peeling Fruit, c.1592 (The Royal Collection). Other important works by his followers include a number of French artists, such as Valentin de Boulogne’s Concert with Three Figures, Georges de la Tour’s Dice Players and Nicolas Regnier’s Saint Sebastian being tended by Saint Irene.

This exhibition is a unique collaboration between the National Gallery, London, the National Gallery of Ireland and the National Galleries of Scotland.

Accompanying the exhibition is a fully illustrated catalogue, published in hardback by the National Gallery Company, London, in association with the National Gallery of Ireland, Dublin, and the Royal Scottish Academy, Edinburgh. Authors: Letitzia Treves, with contributions by Aidan Weston-Lewis, Gabriele Finaldi, Christian Tico Seifert, Adriaan E. Waiboer, Francesca Whitlum-Cooper and Marjorie E. Wieseman.

The catalogue is available to purchase with an exhibition ticket bundle online; or direct through the Gallery Shop (€25hb).

Letizia Treves, Curator of Italian and Spanish Paintings 1600-1800 at the National Gallery, London, in collaboration with Adrian Le Harivel, Curator of British Art, National Gallery of Ireland, and Aidan Weston-Lewis, Chief Curator and Head of the Print Room at the National Galleries of Scotland.