The Last Caravaggio

at The National Gallery 18 April - 21 July 

In 1610 the great baroque artist Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio died in mysterious circumstances on his way back to Rome, the city he had fled four years previously after committing a notorious murder. The intervening period had taken him to Naples, Sicily, Malta and back to Naples. Before his departure for Rome he completed one last painting, The Martyrdom of St Ursula. This year 'The Last Caravaggio' will be on loan to the National Gallery in London for a few months, where it will be exhibited alongside the Gallery’s own late painting, Salome Receives the Head of John the Baptist. 

During this talk we will discover the similarities and differences between the two works and realise their significance in the development of Caravaggio’s style. We will also put them into the context of his brief but eventful life, and increasingly erratic travels. As his career progressed the darkness crept in – around the edges of his paintings and his attitude to the world around him. Nevertheless, these paintings survive to act as a witness to his genius, and to the empathy he felt for the world's victims.