Caravaggio's 'Magdalene in Ecstasy' is an experience to behold, say visitors to art gallery

Hindustan Times

21-06-2025

Bengaluru, The thing that got 11-year-old Mahaavin amazed when he discovered European master Caravaggio for the first time is the fact that the painting that hung at National Gallery of Modern Art was done in 1606. Caravaggio's 'Magdalene in Ecstasy' is an experience to behold, say visitors to art gallery
Till July 6, NGMA will be displaying one of Caravaggio's works, "Magdalene in Ecstasy", thanks to Italian Embassy in Delhi, and in particular Alfonso Tagliaferri, Consul General of Italy in Bengaluru, who made sure the painting that was loaned to China, made a pitstop in Bengaluru too on its way back to Italy. After a month in Delhi, at Kiran Nadar Museum of Art, it arrived in Bengaluru on June 13.
"That is like more than 400 years old. How can something this old be this well preserved," said Mahaavin, who had accompanied his dad to NGMA.
The pre-teen, a native of Tumakuru, but who lives in Vijayawada, is no stranger to art. His father, Vinod Kumar, an artist himself, and who teaches visual art at the same school his son is studying, had ensured that his education is wholesome by enrolling in a school that pays attention to art as much as learning a math formula.
Kumar said he also made sure they visit some interesting places, including museums, on their school breaks, like now, considering they get breaks together. "But nothing really prepared me for this experience here," said Mahaavin.
Every visitor that PTI spoke to on June 20 echoed this sentiment.
Seventy-plus years old Kiran Ganapathy, a native of Coorg, who is visiting her daughter in Bengaluru, said she was extremely glad that she let her daughter persuade her to come.
"I studied here in Bengaluru and in my college days, frankly, Bengaluru had lot more to offer in terms of art. All those iconic places are now gone, really. I think the last time that I had an art outing here was probably in the 1980s," said Ganapathy.
But being an Army wife, Ganapathy said she has travelled a lot.
"We have been to Florence and been to those countless museums there. I am sure I have come across Caravaggio there," she said.
But here in NGMA though, a huge empty hall is plunged into darkness with only a tiny light right above the painting illuminating it in such a way that the entire focus, no matter where you go in the hall, is only the painting –- that of Mary Magdalene, the woman believed to be a sex worker and Jesus Christ's disciple. The painting captures her rapture, highlighted by, as critics put it, "a ray of intense light, her head lolling back and eyes stained with tears".
"I think this is perhaps the best way to learn about an artist, without feeling that fatigue one tends to in museums. I think one gets to understand Caravaggio's art much better like this than walking through a series of his paintings," added Ganapathy.
It helped that the visitors also had an option to know a little bit more of Caravaggio's life, his style and his other famous works through an eight-minute virtual reality presentation.
But some, like 71-year-old Annapoorna Sitaram, an artist herself, chose to sit in the bench placed strategically in front of the painting, lost in contemplation.
When PTI caught up with Sitaram, she was already sitting there close to 30 minutes, taking in all the symbolisms that the artist has packed into his painting.
She readily points them out to us: The little triangles that shoulders, neck and the drape of her clothes formed which in Medieval Europe primarily linked to Christian Holy Trinity . The greyish undertone to the skin that is to be expected of a woman who was a sex worker in those times. The stark contrast between red and white of the clothes, which denotes the clashing personality of Magdalene passionate and pure. The clash of light and darkness, which is an underlying theme of every Caravaggio.
"As an artist though, I am amazed at how much drama he managed to create with so little. At a time when his fellow artists were filling the canvas with things, he stripped them bare. Just the effect of light which pours from the top left – has more drama than most animated figures of other artists," said Sitaram.
Tagliaferri said this "theatricality" is called Caravaggesque style.
"He was very ahead of his time. He created a sense of photography, cinematography even, with the way he handled light. His paintings take you directly to that moment of drama – in this painting, it is the ecstasy of Magdalene. This is what makes Caravaggio's works compelling," said Tagliaferri.
Sneha, who is "taking a break" from teaching, said she had a moment of epiphany while standing in front of the painting: once a teacher, always a teacher.
Her "teacher" eyes immediately spotted possibly the only thing that went wrong — lighting is too dim to make out the most famous symbolism in "Magdalene in Ecstasy", the 'cross and crown of thorns'.
According to a signage nearby, the skull at the bottom right and the cross at top left denote the eternal pull between the good and the evil that mankind goes through.
"I mean, wasn't that the point of the painting? How can we compromise on that? Somebody needs to tell the organisers to brighten the lights a bit more," said the 45-year-old teacher.
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