Caravaggio’s Magdalene in Ecstasy travels to Bengaluru 

“This is the first time an original Caravaggio has travelled to India,” says Alfonso Tagliaferri, Consul General of Italy in Bengaluru, at a press conference preceding the unveiling of Magdalene in Ecstasy by Renaissance artist Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio in Bengaluru at the National Gallery of Modern Art (NGMA). “It defines a very good moment of the bilateral relations that we are living in now,” he adds.

The painting depicts Mary of Magdala in a state of almost-erotic spiritual rapture, semi-reclining, draped in scarlet robes with bared shoulders and flowing auburn hair, against a dark background: an especially pronounced use of the classic chiaroscuro technique of Renaissance art called tenebrism, which he is often credited as having introduced. “Art historians, when they talk of Caravaggio, quite often use the term realist, but the correct definition would be theatricality — the way he composed paintings was very theatrical,” explains Andrea Anastasio, Director of the Italian Cultural Centre, who was also present at the press conference. “Of course, there is a lot of reality because he painted with real models, which sometimes generated trouble,” says Anastasio. For instance, in his famous painting of a dying Madonna, The Death of the Virgin, he is believed to have used a prostitute, “and that caused a lot of noise in the public… the church refused to take the painting.”

Caravaggio, he continues, radically changed art, particularly because of the way he used light. “We have to keep in mind that there is a pre-Caravaggio and post-Caravaggio, when it comes to painting in Europe,” he says, pointing out that many artists, including Rembrandt and Velázquez, drew inspiration from his use of light. “Caravaggism is a fashion where artists used his way of painting pictures and his way of using light.”

An important artist

Magdalene in Ecstasy is believed to have been painted in 1606, while Caravaggio was in hiding, after he had killed a man, Ranuccio Tommason, in a brawl. “Caravaggio has a troubled, really tragic life,” says Anastasio, adding that the artist was a temperamental man with a difficult childhood. “You have to keep in mind that, at the age of six, in one day, he lost his father, his aunt, uncle and another very close relative due to plague,” he says.

The remaining family left Milan to escape the epidemic, moving to the town of Caravaggio in Bergamo, Lombardy, where he was raised by his mother and, during this period, they appeared to have faced financial strife. His talent, however, by most accounts, was undeniable. According to the Caravaggio foundation’s website, in 1584, he started as an apprentice to the Lombard painter Simone Peterzano, a pupil of Titian. By 1592, he had moved to Rome, where he began “performing hack-work for the highly successful Giuseppe Cesari, Pope Clement VIII’s favourite painter,” it states.

Within two years, he quit Cesari and decided to make his own way in the world and, over time, became an established name in Italy. But his tempestuous nature meant that he was “notorious for brawling, even in a time and place when such behaviour was commonplace, and the transcripts of his police records and trial proceedings fill several pages.”

By 39, he was dead, passing away under mysterious circumstances in 1610; however, his legacy lives on, and how. “There are a bunch of artists who are the most important for us (Italians),” says Consul General Tagliaferri, naming some of them. “Leonardo (da Vinci), Michelangelo, Raphael…after this, I would say, is Caravaggio…very important for us and the history of the world.”

Lost and found

For centuries, Magdalene in Ecstasy was believed to have been lost to the world, even though “we knew the painting existed because copies were made,” says Anastasio. Then, in 2014, it was discovered in a private collection of an aristocratic Italian family who had owned it for centuries. “When the last owner of the painting died, she left nine important paintings from her collection to her nephew and niece. The one who got the painting sent it to be restored, and when it went to the restoration workshop, the restorer suspected it was important.”

Further investigations by experts, including the art historian Guglielma Gregori, revealed that it was indeed the missing painting and “after that the painting has been travelling and has been exhibited in several countries. The reason it is here is the joy of sharing a painting of such an exquisite nature,” he says.

The painting, which was first unveiled in India at the Kiran Nadar Museum of Art, Delhi, is accompanied by a VR experience offering visitors a deeper engagement with the artist’s work. “The viewer comes most of the time, knowing very little about the artist or the historical context, so doing it in a way that they would engage is important,” says Anastasio. “And VR does it in a beautiful way.”

For Dr Sanjeev Kishor Goutam, Director General, NGMA, “this exceptional exhibition of Magdalene in Ecstasy honouring Caravaggio’s creative heritage will, in my opinion, have a lasting influence on world art history,” he says. “For the first time in India, this one-of-a-kind show would draw a sizeable audience of art enthusiasts and spectators from all walks of life, especially academics and students studying the arts.”

Magdalene in Ecstasy will be displayed at the National Gallery of Modern Art till July 6

Published - June 14, 2025 12:14 pm IST