Rome to Celebrate Caravaggio for Jubilee with Major Exhibition

Rome: Rome is set to celebrate Caravaggio during this year’s Roman Catholic Jubilee Holy Year with the most extensive exhibition ever dedicated to the iconic artist, running from March 7 to July 6 at Palazzo Barberini.

According to Ansa News Agency, the ‘Caravaggio 2025’ exhibition is organized by the National Galleries of Ancient Art in collaboration with the Galleria Borghese. The exhibition will feature paintings rarely seen by the public or exhibited in Italy for the first time, alongside significant loans. Presented on Wednesday in Rome, the exhibition will showcase approximately twenty works by Michelangelo Merisi, known as Caravaggio, with the potential for more as the final loans are being secured, according to Thomas Clement Salomon, director of the National Galleries of Ancient Art.

Among the notable works on display will be the Portrait of Maffeo Barberini and the Ecce Homo, the latter of which is currently exhibited at the Prado in Madrid. Maria Cristina Terzaghi, curator of the exhibition along with Francesca Cappelletti and Thomas Salomon, noted that the Ecce Homo has never been seen in Italy before. The painting left Naples at the behest of the vicereine, wife of the Count of Castrillo, during a plague outbreak and has since been in private hands, loaned to the Prado, which has now lent it for this exhibition.

The exhibition content “is pure Caravaggio,” says Cappelletti, director of the Galleria Borghese and co-curator. The Galleria Borghese is contributing three key pieces: Sick Bacchus, David with the Head of Goliath, and Saint John the Baptist, which are believed to have accompanied Caravaggio during his final years in exile.

Caravaggio, born in Milan, fled Rome in May 1606 after being accused of murder. His journey took him south through Italy and as far as Malta. His exile lasted just over four years, ending with his death from illness in July 1610 at 38 years old.