This is the catalogue of the “Caravaggio Napoli” exhibition (Museo di Capodimonte, 12 April-14 July 2019). Caravaggio introduced a new approach to painting while in Naples. More tormented and dramatic, it became the stylistic cipher of his later years, featuring masterpieces such as the The Seven Acts of Mercy, The Martyrdom of St Ursula, St John the Baptist, Cleveland’s The Crucifixion of St Andrew and Rouen’s The Flagellation of Christ, returning for the very first time to its original context in dialogue with the Capodimonte Flagellation.

The exhibition and catalogue offer an outstanding opportunity to learn more about Caravaggio’s work in the two periods spent in Naples and to explore his influence on local painting thanks to comparisons with masterpieces by Giovanni Baglione and Battistello Caracciolo, and to see how Caravaggio’s realism was channelled into 17th-century European painting via the works of Abraham Vinck and Louis Finson.

Book design by Leonardo Sonnoli