After Salvador Dalí, it's acclaimed 17th-century Italian baroque artist Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio whose work has arrived in India, bringing Indians the experience for which many travel to Italy.
While Caravaggio, the master of chiaroscuro - a technique of intense contrasts between light and shadow, boasts of a rich body of work, including some unforgettable masterpieces such as 'The Entombment of Christ', 'The Seven Acts of Mercy', and 'The Supper at Emmaus' among others, it's his 'Mary Magdalene in Ecstacy' that will be on display at the Kiran Nadar Museum of Art (KNMA) in Delhi from April 18 to May 18.
"This is a wow moment," said Roobina Karode, director and chief curator at KNMA, as the iconic painting of 1606 was unveiled at the Italian Embassy Cultural Centre in Delhi on Friday.
It is a "wow moment" indeed as it is no ordinary painting, but among Caravaggio's last, one which he did while in exile over murder charges and was considered lost and was rediscovered only in 2014 in a private collection.
"This Magdalene is, without a doubt, the original: her hands are enough to understand this. I think the hands are the distinctive element of the original works by Caravaggio," said noted Italian art historian Mina Gregori in a brochure that accompanied the painting when it was unveiled on Friday.
"One can understand the emotional tension in the Magdalene by the gesture of the hands, with the entangled fingers in the forefront. The emotional value of the painting flows from the hands," added Gregori, who authenticated the painting.
Her head bent backwards, eyes half closed with a tear rolling down, lips parted as if sighing, and fingers intertwined as if praying, that's Caravaggio's Magdalene, a devout follower of Christ, considered the first to have witnessed his resurrection.
'Mary Magdalene in Ecstacy' is done in Caravaggio’s signature chiaroscuro, where the play between light, darkness, and shadows immerses you first and moves you while also leaving you a bit uneasy. It's a feeling akin to when religion accentuates meeting the notes of divine spirituality, as the painting also bears a sensual connotation to it. It feels both strange and ecstatic looking at this masterpiece of a painting done by a long-gone master artist in a distant land centuries ago. But it's a feeling of standing before a Caravaggio painting that cannot be discounted.
Gregori summarises it perfectly: "To see the Magdalene was such an emotion, I was literally overwhelmed. I kneeled to gaze at it attentively which became like an act of devotion to the painting."
