The time of Caravaggio from the Roberto Longhi collection
The time of Caravaggio
Boy Bitten by a Green Lizard
The work, which dates back to the beginning of Caravaggio’s stay in Rome and can be dated around 1596-1597, firstly strikes for the yield of the sudden release due to physical pain and surprise, expressed in the contraction of the boy’s facial muscles and in the contortion of his shoulder. Besides it strikes even for the “diligence” the painter had in making the piece of still life with a transparent carafe and flowers, as already underlined by Giovanni Baglione in 1642.
Paintings and Artists on display
Among artists it is possible to admire three paintings by Carlo Saraceni; ”The Annunciation Angel” by Guglielmo Caccia known as Il Moncalvo; “The Penitent Mary Magdalene” by Domenico Fetti; the splendid “Coronation of Thorns” by Pier Francesco Mazzucchelli, called “The Morazzone”, the “Allegory of Vanity”, one of the most significant works by Angelo Caroselli.
Four tablets by Lorenzo Lotto and two paintings by Battista del Moro and Bartolomeo Passarotti open the exhibition path with the aim of representing the artistic climate of the Lombard and Venetian Mannerism Caravaggio was formed in. On display, “The boy who cleans a fruit”, an ancient copy by Caravaggio, which Longhi considered a “relic”, so much as to expose it to the epochal Festival of the Palazzo Reale in Milan in 1951.
Among the great masterpieces of the first Caravaggism there are also five paintings depicting the “Apostles” of the young Jusepe de Ribera and the “Deposition of Christ” by Battistello Caracciolo, among the first Neapolitan followers of Caravaggio.
