FLESH AND BLOOD ITALIAN MASTERPIECES FROM THE CAPODIMONTE MUSEUM
1 MARCH – 14 JUNE 2020
KIMBELL ART MUSEUM | TEXAS, USA
Caravaggio (Michelangelo Merisi), The Flagellation of Christ, 1607. Oil on canvas, 118 in × 92 in. Museo e Real Bosco di Capodimonte, Naples, coming from Naples, Church of San Domenico Maggiore (property of Fondo Edifici di Culto del Ministero degli Interni)
Featuring 40 masterpieces from the Capodimonte Museum in Naples, one of the most important art collections in Italy, this monumental gathering of paintings is a journey through the artistic achievements of Titian, Raphael, Parmigianino, El Greco, Annibale Carracci, Artemisia Gentileschi, Guido Reni, Jusepe de Ribera and Luca Giordano.
Imposing or intimate, violent or tender, extravagant or humble, tragic or even seductive, these masterful paintings feature captivating stories from mythological passion to Christian martyrdom, from the intimacy of private devotion to the grandeur of state portraiture.
The show draws from the best of both the Renaissance and Baroque holdings of the Capodimonte Museum, starting with the famous portrait of the elegant beauty Antea by Parmigianino and the ravishing Danaë painted by Titian for the pope’s grandson, Cardinal Alessandro Farnese the younger. Annibale Carracci’s Pietà and Guido Reni’s Atalanta and Hippomenes will face off against Ribera’s Drunken Silenus and Giovanni Battista Caracciolo’s Virgin of the Purgatory in a contest of northern-Italian classicism versus Neapolitan Caravaggism.
