AND The exhibition of the year. But the real thrill comes when you enter the room that houses three masterpieces of moving beauty; And in all three the subject is the same. A wonderful woman. The woman that the author, Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio, loved. It has gone to history as Fillide. Literary name that hides the prosaic work of the prostitute. But Fillide was not any woman. The Roman aristocrats were crazy for her, Caravaggio himself, and Ranuccio Tomassoni, the rival who Caravaggio killed for the love of Fillide.
Three paintings exhibited at Palazzo Barberini in Rome, where Fillide becomes now Giuditta While cutting the head to the enemy commander Oloferne, Now Santa Maria Maddalena who cries the fate of Christ, Now Santa Caterina d’Alessandria with the toothed wheel and the symbol sword of his martyrdom (in the photo below).
Not only is the woman clearly the same, but in two paintings we wear the same dress. An elegant, embroidered, climbing dress, a white stole covered in part by a dark cloak, which probably Maria Maddalena (at least after meeting Jesus) and Santa Caterina, the real ones, would never have worn. It is not impossible to imagine that it was Caravaggio who donated that Fillide dress.
Aldo Cazzullo (photo by Carlo Vangi Gilbert).
The discovery of the triple coincidence is due to Francesca Cappelletti, perhaps the greatest expert of Caravaggiowho oversaw the exhibition together with Maria Cristina Terzaghi (his exhibition on the global Baroque at the Scuderie del Quirinale, curated with Francesco Fredolini).
“Santa Caterina d’Alexadria” by Caravaggio (about 1598).
The fact that Caravaggio sold to cardinals and principles the portrait of the prostitute he loved – moreover represented as a biblical heroine or as a saint – constitutes in itself A challenge to the established order, to power, to the heterablishment of the time. It becomes the imperishable sign of a great love story If you think of the posthumous fortune of an artist, perhaps too avant -garde for his time.
Until not long ago, Caravaggio was considered, if not a minor, certainly much less large than Guido Reni, who was called only the Guido or the Divine Guido. Today Guido Reni is quite forgotten, despite being a great artist himself. Critics can change your mind. Beauty, love, remain forever.
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All articles by Aldo Cazzullo.
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