Exhibition in Ladispoli, the life of Michelangelo in the works of the master Venanzoni

Telling the life of Caravaggio through painting. This is the original idea from which the ‘Caravaggio ultimate landing’ exhibition was born, which the ‘Art and culture’ center in Ladispoli will host until next 22 August and which will soon become itinerant throughout Italy. An exhibition of over forty paintings by the master Guido Venanzoni, partly author copies and partly originals that trace the salient moments in the life of the Lombard genius, plus some copies of the students of his ‘Bottega d’Arte’. The name of the exhibition is not accidental: Ladispoli, in fact, is universally recognized as the city of the last landing in the life of Caravaggio. “In 2006, while I was working as an artistic consultant, I learned that Caravaggio, my favorite and beloved painter since childhood, had been seen alive after four years of daring escape, on the beach of the Odescalchi castle in Palo Laziale, where I practically live” , says Venanzoni. “This exceptional news triggered in me the desire to realize the event through a large painting ‘The arrest of Caravaggio in Palo’ which took place in July 1610. After a few years the realization of this painting led me to important acquaintances such as prof. Vincenzo Pacelli, art historian expert of Merisi of the Federico II University of Naples and of Prof. Vittorio Sgarbi, who in addition to appreciating him encouraged me to represent other salient moments of the artist’s tumultuous and engaging life “, explains the painter, Roman by birth but Ladispoli by adoption, who has recently completed an exhibition in Sutri at Palazzo Doebbing commissioned by Sgarbi which met with an important success. “Making ‘Caravaggio’s life in painting’ has been a job that has fascinated me in the last ten years, of great gratification, because as Professor Sgarbi said when he hosted me at the Doebbing museum, no one in the four hundred years since his death has ever painted his adventurous, short, but intense life. My purpose – he concludes – is to bring to knowledge, with large traveling exhibitions in the cities where the master lived, this cultural initiative, the greatness of our Caravaggio “. The exhibition will also be interactive, with musical interludes provided, with music and instruments from the 17th century and incursions by an actor who will play Caravaggio and speak with the public. The exhibition is sponsored by the Municipality of Ladispoli. “The late Professor Pacelli, the greatest expert on Caravaggio, ascertained, thanks to the discovery of important documents in the Vatican archives, that the last landing of the Lombard genius was in today’s Ladispoli, at the castle of Palo. From there was born the passion of this city for Michelangelo Merisi, an ever stronger passion, fueled by the presence of the master Guido Venanzoni, who together with the students of his Bottega d’Arte reproduced many of his masterpieces “, says Marco Milani, councilor for culture, tourism and sport of the Municipality of Ladispoli. “But the uniqueness of the exhibition – he adds -, in addition to being held at the Art and Culture Center of Ladispoli, a place therefore linked to the final phase of Caravaggio’s life, is due to the evocative cycle of original works by Guido Venanzoni dedicated to the salient moments of life of Merisi. Ten large canvases that kidnap the visitor, involving him for example on his arrival in Rome, taking him to the taverns frequented by the Lombard genius, making him witness the killing of Ranuccio Tomassoni or the beheading of Beatrice Cenci. The visitor is whipped. from the brackish wind during the escape from Malta, terrified by the ambush at Cerriglio where Merisi was scarred, and he will hear the rattling of the chains at the moment of his arrest in Palo, crying for him. ‘Ultimo Approdo’, an unforgettable journey in the soul and in the art of Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio “.