ItalyTraveller experience.

A visual short circuit and a stomach churning attack of vertigo: these are the possible effects of the Caravaggio-Bacon exhibition which is on show until 24 January 2010 at Rome's Galleria Borghese. Caravaggio-Bacon is a daring initiative which, with a temporal leap spanning some 400 years, compares two of the most genial and complex personalities in western art.

The coupling of the two painters has no historical reasoning, and references to Caravaggio's work are not present in those of Bacon. And yet it is surprisingly easy to create a connection between these two men, united not only by their reputation as "accursed artist" (both were tormented by the tragic nature of life, a torment which they transferred to their artwork with a genial and painful intensity), but also by their concentration on the human figure, their predilection for the expressive portrait, and their use of black to create powerful chiaroscuro effects.

The exhibition features fourteen paintings by Caravaggio, six of which are from the Galleria Borghese's permanent collection of artworks (including the "Sick Bacchus", and the "Madonna with the Serpent") and sixteen works by Bacon (two of which are triptychs). Many of the works by Bacon are on loan from London's Tate Gallery, where a monographic exhibition of the artist's work has only recently concluded. Among the paintings by the Dublin-born artist, his Head VI, the result of his studies of Velazquez's portrait of Pope Innocent X, is sure to have a lasting impact on the viewer. In fact, the true protagonist of the exhibition is the emotive response of the spectator as he or she creates his or her own personal web of connections between the two artists, and discovers how genius erases the boundaries of time.

This event is part of a ten year program featuring ten important monographic exhibitions. The program was inaugurated by the Galleria Borghese in 2006 with its exhibition of Raphael's works, and followed by those devoted to the art of Antonio Canova (2007) and of Correggio (2008). Following Caravaggio and Bacon, at yearly intervals, there will be exhibitions of works by Dosso Dossi (2010), Titian (2011), Cranach (2012), Bernini (2013), Domenichino (2014), until the final exhibition of the "Dieci Grandi Mostre" series, the "Borghese e l'Antico", which is due to show in 2015.

Caravaggio-Bacon
Galleria Borghese
Piazzale Museo Borghese 5 - Roma
www.caravaggio-bacon.it

October 2nd 2009 - January 24th 2010
Opening hours: Tuesday to Sunday, from 9.00 to 19.00
By reservation only