Beyond Caravaggio

Explore the influence of one of art’s most infamous and revolutionary figures

★★★★★
‘powerful and compulsive exhibition’
The Guardian

‘Beyond Caravaggio’ is the first major exhibition in the UK to explore the influence of Caravaggio on the art of his contemporaries and followers.

After the unveiling of Caravaggio’s first public commission in 1600, artists from across Europe flocked to Rome to see his work. Seduced by the pictorial and narrative power of his paintings, many went on to imitate their naturalism and dramatic lighting effects.

Paintings by Caravaggio and his followers were highly sought after in the decades following his untimely death at the age of just 39. By the mid-17th century, however, the Caravaggesque style had fallen out of favour and it would take almost three hundred years for Caravaggio’s reputation to be restored and for his artistic accomplishments to be fully recognised.

Bringing together exceptional works by Caravaggio and the Italian, French, Flemish, Dutch, and Spanish artists he inspired, ‘Beyond Caravaggio’ examines the international artistic phenomenon known as Caravaggism .

This exhibition is a collaboration between the National Gallery, London, the National Gallery of Ireland, and the National Galleries of Scotland.

Image above: Detail from Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio, 'The Taking of Christ', 1602. On indefinite loan to the National Gallery of Ireland from the Jesuit Community, Leeson St. Dublin who acknowledge the kind generosity of the late Dr Marie Lea-Wilson.
Photo © The National Gallery of Ireland, Dublin

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