Into The Limelight: Caravaggio Comes To Bengaluru
Lost for hundreds of years after it was created sometime in the early 1600s and known only through recreations until re-discovered in 2014, artist Caravaggio's Mary Magdalene in Ecstasy draws the viewer into an unguarded moment with this biblical figure. Here, she sits, heads thrown back, arms folded over her belly, cloth slipping from her shoulder, a mystic who appears intimately human, neither a penitent sinner nor a haloed saint. 'It depicts Mary Magdalene in a way that was never done before because she was usually depicted either in penitence or after redemption when she was ascending to the heavens. But at this moment, he depicts her in between a divine ecstasy and a very earthly ecstasy – her divine bliss was also felt physically so she sheds a small tear, she opens her mouth. This depiction had an enormous influence on art that followed,' explains Alfonso Tagliaferri, the consul general of Italy in Bengaluru. He, along with the National Gallery of Modern Art (NGMA) , The Italian Cultural Centre at the Italian Embassy, Delhi, and The Kiran Nadar Museum of Art, with support from prominent business people Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw, Geetanjali Kirloskar, and Rezwan Razack, have brought this iconic Baroque painting to the city after its stint in Delhi last month.
Opening to visitors today at the NGMA, the painting will be in the city until July 6. Immense care has been taken in how the painting is displayed, in an arched grey niche invoking Baroque architecture. The lighting, too, is deliberate yet simple, complementing Caravaggio's signature use of the chiaroscuro technique of using intense light and dark contrasts to create depth and drama. Tagliaferri explains, 'The illumination is only from the top left, all of Caravaggio's paintings are illuminated this way – it is a sort of divine light. We also ask visitors to look at the paintings slightly from the left to recreate exactly what he imagined.' Along with viewing the painting, visitors can learn more about the legendary Italian artist's life through an interactive VR set-up feturing material from Rome's Galleria Borghese.
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