Orazio Gentileschi and the Image of Saint Francis. The birth of Caravaggism in Rome

27 January 2023 - 10 April 2023

Tuesday - Sunday 10.00 a.m. - 7.00 p.m. (ticket office closes at 6.00 p.m.)

curated by Giuseppe Porzio and Yuri Primarosa

Room 9 on the ground floor of Palazzo Barberini, generally reserved for dossier exhibitions, features a painting by Orazio Gentileschi on display for the first time. The painting portrays Saint Francis in Ecstasy, and in 2021, with the support of the Gallerie Nazionali di Arte Antica, was recognized as a work of extraordinary historical and artistic importance by the Italian State.
The painting is a rare, relevant example from the time when this Tuscan painter was beginning to explore the new styles and aesthetics Michelangelo Merisi developed in Rome. It dates to the same years as the trial Giovanni Baglione started against Caravaggio, Onorio Longhi, Filippo Trisegni and Orazio Gentileschi himself. During this trial, in September 1603, Gentileschi stated that he had loaned his Lombard friend “Capuchin robes” and a “pair of wings”. These are probably the same ones as in the piece on display, painted from a natural posed model. Gentileschi must have already learned this way of working around 1599-1600 directly from Caravaggio.
This previously unknown painting is displayed along with some other evocative items, with three important canvases conserved in Palazzo Barberini, including Saint Francis in Meditation, attributed to Caravaggio, and another masterpiece attributed to Gentileschi’s early adulthood from the Museo del Prado.

Share with: #PalazzoBarberini #OrazioGentileschi #SanFrancesco