E-Paper
Rediscovered 17th century canvas by Italian master Caravaggio arrives in Capital
Italian Embassy's Cultural Centre showcases Caravaggio's “Mary Magdalene in Ecstasy” in India, marking the first display of the master’s work in the country
If an Italian renaissance artist had to paint Vittorio Faustini, he would draw him with wings on his ankles like Mercury, the Roman messenger god also associated with speed, travel, and commerce. The 52-year-old has been on the road since 2019 with a remarkable early 17th century work, Mary Magdalene in Ecstasy, painted by Italian baroque painter, Michelangelo Merisi, more popular as the hot-tempered master chiaroscurist, Caravaggio.
In November, Faustini was in Beijing. In April, he arrived in New Delhi. He has also travelled with the work to Basel, Switzerland, Osaka and Tokyo, and Paris, where it was part of a major exhibition at the Musée Jacquemart-André. On April 6, a temperature-controlled double insulated wooden crate bearing the painting was offloaded at the New Delhi international airport. Accompanying it was a slightly tired Faustini whose home, at least for the next two hot months, will be the country’s Capital.
This is the first time that a work by the Italian master will be shown in India. It will be on view at the Italian Embassy’s Cultural Centre for a week before it is moved to the Kiran Nadar Museum of Art, a private museum in Saket’s DLF Mall, where it will be shown for a month till May 18.
The initial plan was to wrap up the exhibition at the Beijing National Museum, where this work was also on display, and take them home. But when a former Italian ambassador to India called up the director of the Italian Embassy Cultural Centre in New Delhi, Andrea Anastasio, early one morning in November 2024 and asked him to talk to Faustini, a plan soon fell into place for at least one work.
“I was in tears when we unboxed the work [on Thursday]. It has always been my dream to bring Caravaggio to India. The classical works in India depict the body as an expression of something else, or a metaphor. In contrast lies Caravaggio’s depiction of the body and his use of light and shade. It’s a beautiful polarity and would be a great occasion for people who are interested in art,” Anastasio said.
The painting depicts Mary Magdalene, who after the death of Jesus Christ, lived in a cave at Sainte-Baume near Aix-en-Provence, France. Today, the cave is an important site of pilgrimage. According to The Golden Legend, a collection of hagiographies popular in the late Middle Ages, Mary Magdalene retired to the cave where she was transported by angels seven times a day to hear the harmonies of celestial choirs. While Renaissance canvases usually showed ecstasy as levitation accompanied by angels, Caravaggio’s painting of Magdalene’s ecstasy “deliberately, and influentially, expressed the parallel between mystical surrender and erotic love,” notes one art critic.
As the general manager of MetaMorfosi, an organisation that hosts exhibitions to promote Italian art and culture, Faustini has been travelling with heavily insured works of Italian masters, including Renaissance greats, for the past 25 years. Travelling with this 400-year-old work too, came with great responsibility: Mary Magdalene in Ecstasy, insured for a tidy 20 million Euros [ ₹196 crore], has to remain in strict temperature and humidity-controlled environments, not only while it is being transported but also when it is exhibited.
“The work must travel in a safety crate. In this case it is an air-conditioned double crate. The exhibition venue must have all the safety and quality features to host the work, which include a high-profile alarm, connection to law enforcement, temperature and humidity control,” he said.
The KNMA, where the work will move to next week, fulfils those strict requirements, said director and chief curator Roobina Karode.
“There was a long checklist and we have to take extremely strict measures to ensure security of the piece,” she said. The painting will be shown alongside an ongoing exhibition by Gulam Mohammed Sheikh.
The 17th century work itself has been the subject of much contention in the European art world.
Caravaggio, like most baroque painters of his time, worked on commission and others weren’t shy of painting versions of his work much to his chagrin. There are several versions of Magdalene in Ecstasy alone. The artist likely painted it after he murdered a man and went into hiding in 1606. He died four years later.
In 2014, a renowned art historian Mina Gregori, examined the work and the stylistic flourishes and declared it to be the original — thought to have been lost.
However, another version, known as the Klein Magdalena, was found after World War II by critic Roberto Longhi, and was later backed by art historian Maurizio Marini.
In 2018, both versions were displayed in London in an attempt to let the public “decide” which was the original.
It is the version authenticated by Gregori that Faustini has travelled with and showcased in multiple exhibitions. The rest of the time, it is kept in a bank vault in Switzerland, Anastasio said.
“The work was owned by a noble Italian family that over time moved to Paris. At the owner’s death, it passed down through heredity. It is now owned by a Dubai fund. When it was accidentally seen by [art historian] Bert Treffers and Mina Gregori during a restoration, they said that it was definitely by Caravaggio and by far the best known,” Faustini said.
“What I find the most amazing thing that they discovered [during the restoration], they analysed the small grains of dust on the surface of the painting and thus scientifically found that it came from Malta, where Caravaggio was believed to have been in hiding before he went to Italy,” Anastasio said.
