Masterpieces by Baroque master Caravaggio at Palazzo Barberini in Rome from 7 March until 6 July.

An exhibition hailed as among the most important and ambitious showcases ever of Caravaggio's work is being held in Rome to coincide with the Vatican's Jubilee Year.

Organisers say the exhibition at Palazzo Barberini comprises an "exceptional number" of paintings by the Baroque master whose full name was Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio.

The 24 exhibited works include loans from prestigious national and international collections as well as two rediscovered masterpieces on display for the first time together along with some new discoveries.

A small taste of the Caravaggio blockbuster, hailed as one of the most important, ambitious exhibitions ever dedicated to the Baroque master, opening in Rome on Friday. pic.twitter.com/n8t8Qpr9s0— Wanted in Rome (@wantedinrome) March 6, 2025

Organised especially for the 2025 Jubilee Year, the exhibition illustrates how Caravaggio (1571-1610) shaped the artistic, religious and social landscape of his era.

The show includes Caravaggio's most celebrated works, as well as lesser-known paintings, and highlights "the power and modernity" of his art, according to exhibition curators Francesca Cappelletti, Maria Cristina Terzaghi and Thomas Clement Salomon.

Speaking at packed press preview on Thursday, Clement Salomon said the exhibition represents a "dream" for him and noted that a staggering 60,000 tickets had been snapped up before the show had even opened.

The exhibited paintings include the Portrait of Maffeo Barberini, recently put on public display more than 60 years after its rediscovery, as well as loans from outside Italy including Ecce Homo, rediscovered in 2021 and returning to Italy for the first time in four centuries.

 Other loans from abroad include Saint Catherine of Alexandria; Martha and Mary Magdalene; and The Taking of Christ, and Caravaggio’s last painting, The Martyrdom of Saint Ursula, completed before the artist's death.

The exhibition also reunites three works commissioned by the banker and patron of the arts Ottavio Costa: Judith and Holofernes from Palazzo Barberini alongside two paintings on loan: Saint John the Baptist in the Wilderness and Saint Francis of Assisi in Ecstasy.

In addition to the 24 works on display at Palazzo Barberini, exhibition organisers will offer the chance to visit a 25th Caravaggio work at the Casino di Villa Boncompagni Ludovisi (also known as Villa Aurora) - home of Caravaggio's only ceiling painting.

Titled Caravaggio 2025, the show is arranged into sections exploring various aspects of the artist’s career, including the evolution of his style, characterised by stark realistism, emotional depth and dramatic use of chiaroscuro.

For exhibition details, including ticket information, see Palazzo Barberini website.

Who was Caravaggio?

Born Michelangelo Merisi in Milan in 1571, not much is known about Caravaggio's youth. In 1584 his mother sent him to the workshop of Simone Peterzano, a late-Mannerist painter and student of Tiziano.

There are no traces of the young painter again until 1595, when he is thought to have reached Rome. After his first, difficult months in the city, when he scraped by selling paintings for a pittance, Caravaggio entered into a brief but important collaboration with well-known artist Giuseppe Cesari, known as Cavalier d’Arpino. During this time he established contact with his first important patron, Cardinal Francesco Maria Del Monte.

Caravaggio soon became one of the most sought-after painters in Rome, and his fame was sealed when he landed two prestigious public commissions for the Contarelli chapel in the church of San Luigi dei Francesi and the Cerasi chapel in the church of Santa Maria del Popolo.

At the height of his success in 1606, a tragic event changed his life forever. During a game of pallacorda, an early form of tennis, he killed Ranuccio Tomassoni and immediately fled from Rome, stopping in Naples before eventually arriving in Malta in 1607. Here he was accepted into the order of the Knights of Malta, thanks also to his artistic achievements, as part of a plan to obtain a pardon from Pope Paul V Borghese.

However his volatile temper soon got the better of him again and he was thrown in prison after getting into a fight. After a bold escape, Caravaggio headed first to Sicily and then to Naples where he arrived in 1609. The following year, probably after learning that the pope had granted him a pardon, Caravaggio set off on his final, ill-fated journey to Rome.

He never made it back to the Eternal City, however, and died in Porto Ercole in mysterious circumstances. He was just 38 years old.

Cover image: Caravaggio (Michelangelo Merisi) Judith Beheading Holofernes (c.1599-1600). Gallerie Nazionali di Arte Antica.