Delhiwale: Mary Magdalen comes to Dilli

Delhi will host Caravaggio's 'Mary Magdalen in Ecstasy' from April 11, marking a historic first for the city to showcase an original European masterpiece.

Intro: The city to host a great painter’s original work

Painted by Caravaggio around 1600, the privately owned ‘Mary Magdalen in Ecstasy’ has just been exhibited in a Beijing museum. On its return journey to Rome, the painting is to make a long stopover in Delhi. (HT)

This piece of news needs no clever, artful opening. It is simply unprecedented. Until now, we Delhiwale would have to visit foreign museums to admire the works of great European painters. Delhi has never had the privilege of hosting such icons. But now a Caravaggio will land in Indira Gandhi international airport in a special aircraft.

The Italian embassy’s Cultural Center in Delhi has pulled off an ambitious enterprise of getting an original work by one of the western civilisation’s most brilliant and controversial artists to our city. Painted by Caravaggio around 1600, the privately owned ‘Mary Magdalen in Ecstasy’ has just been exhibited in a Beijing museum. On its return journey to Rome, the painting is to make a long stopover in Delhi. Starting 11th April, this particular Caravaggio, valued at 50 million euros, will be first exhibited for a week at the Italian Cultural Center in Chanakyapuri, after which it will move to the Kiran Nadar Museum of Art in Saket for seven weeks. The citizens will have free access to the masterpiece, with vigilant security procedures and booking schedules in place.

“To see an original work by a great master has acquired an even greater significance in a time when we are exposed daily to billions of images,” observes Andrea Anastasio, director of the Italian Cultural Center, as he shows on his laptop a photo of the impassioned Caravaggio creation he is helping bring to Delhi (see photo). “While our engagement with great art might rise to new levels with AI-enhanced reproductions,” he says, “I still believe there is nothing like standing in front of an original work.”

Perhaps Delhi does not fully deserve its notoriety for being lawless, but this compromised reputation might help Caravaggio feel at home. For he was… how to put it politely… a somewhat shady character. The painter frequented bars and brothels, and would upset the mighty Vatican by using people he found in those hangouts as models for his unorthodox Catholic paintings. Hot-headed and violent, Caravaggio would always be ready to pick up quarrels. In fact, he completed the painting slated for Delhi darshan while in hiding after murdering an acquaintance. No less but the Pope himself had sentenced him to death.

Legends aside, Caravaggio’s baroque paintings revolutionised the use of light and shadows, influencing legends like Rembrandt (who was born the year Caravaggio was sentenced to death). He also pioneered a realistic depiction of the human (primarily male) body, a poignant irony when you know that his own body was never found after he succumbed to malaria at the young age of 38–some say he was murdered.

Regardless, for a brief time, the world will have Caravaggios hanging in cities like Rome, Vatican, Florence, Milan, Madrid, Berlin, Paris, London, New York, Los Angeles, and… Dilli!