H.E. Antonio Tajani, Deputy Prime Minister & Minister of Foreign Affairs, Italy, unveling the ‘Mary Magdalene in Ecstaxy’ by Caravaggio
The Italian Cultural Centre in Delhi has facilitated the showcase in India of the 17th Century Italian Baroque artist Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio’s original (106.5 x 91 cm) oil painting, ‘Mary Magdalene in Ecstasy’. The official unveiling ceremony was held on Thursday 11th April 2025, in the presence of Andrea Anastasio, Director, Italian Embassy Cultural Centre, H.E. Antonio Tajani, Deputy Prime Minister & Minister of Foreign Affairs, Italy, Anna Maria Bernini, Minister for University and Research, Italy, H.E. Antonio Bartoli, Ambassador of Italy to India, Kiran Nadar, Founder & Chairperson, KNMA, Roobina Karode, Director & Chief Curator, KNMA. The artwork has been brought to India through a collaboration between the Italian Embassy Cultural Centre and the Kiran Nadar Museum of Art (KNMA) and will be on display at the museum in Saket from April 18 to May 18.
The Tale of The Outlaw-Artist and The Magnificent Oil Lost for 400 Years
H.E. Antonio Tajani, Deputy Prime Minister & Minister and H.E. Antonio Bartoli, Ambassador of Italy to India on the mike
The story around this art and artist is the kind that inspires thrillers. Although painted 400 years ago, the ‘Mary Magdalene in Ecstasy’ remained missing until as recently as 2014. It was the art historian Mina Gregori, an expert on Caravaggio’s art, who found it in a private collection, and authenticated it as the original. Many likenesses and versions of the ‘Mary Magdalene in Ecstasy’ have been painted over the years. But Gregory pointed out the clinching evidence for the original that was found in a private collection in Rome.
A short-tempered and impoverished Michelangelo Merisi a.k.a. Caravaggio was always in the crosshairs of the law. He was sentenced to death when he killed someone in a fit of rage. He had fled Milan to Rome. On the run since 1606, he left Rome for Naples. And travelled to Malta, Sicily etc from there, creating his masterpieces along the way. He is credited to have started the Baroque style of painting, the contrasting use of light and dark, chiaroscuro. He brought intense realism into his work, unlike the long-prevailing painting style of the Renaissance Masters like Raphael and Michelangelo. As was the demand of the time, he painted mythological and religious scenes, but used common people to pose as his models, whom people could recognize.
This lost (400 years ago) & found (in 2014) ‘Mary Magdalene in Ecstasy’ is in classic Caravaggio style. While the Renaissance artist would depict ecstasy with levitation and angels, Caravaggio’s Mary Magdalene is more real. Reportedly, after the death of Jesus Christ, she went to France and lived in a cave at Sainte-Baum near Aix-en-Provence. She was spiritually elevated and went into a state of ecstasy several times, as if the angels themselves played the celestial choir for her. Caravaggio equates mystical surrender to the highs of erotic love, his canvas shows Mary Magdalene in a semi reclining pose, a shoulder bare, lips slightly parted, furrowed brow, a tear drop, fingers intertwined, clutching a skull, in a trance – a woman immersed in an ecstatic contemplation.
Andrea Anastasio, Director, Italian Embassy Cultural Centre, Delhi
Roobina Karode, Director & Chief Curator, KNMA and Kiran Nadar, Founder & Chairperson, KNMA,
H.E. Antonio Tajani, Deputy Prime Minister and H.E. Antonio Bartoli, Ambassador of Italy to India
Before arriving in India for its showcase in Delhi, the painting has been travelling around the world since 2019. Its latest journey navigated from Basel, Switzerland, Osaka, Tokyo, Paris, and Beijing before the halt in Delhi, before it goes back home to Italy. This 40.75 inch x 36 inch Caravaggio oil, is reportedly insured for €20 Million, and requires a stringent temperature and humidity-controlled environment. And of course, security of the highest order. It only travels in air-conditioned double crates. This is the first time that an European Master’s original work is being displayed in India.
Roobina Karode, Director and Chief Curator at KNMA reportedly said, “There was a long checklist, and we have to take extremely strict measures to ensure security of the piece.”
Andrea Anastasio, Director, Italian Embassy Cultural Centre and Roobina Karode, Director & Chief Curator, KNMA
Kiran Nadar, Founder & Chairperson, KNMA, noted, “We hope to do many more things with the Italian embassy. Well-aligned with KNMA’s mission to facilitate cross-cultural dialogue and expand access to transformative artistic experiences, this project offers a rare opportunity to our local audiences in particular, to view a Caravaggio painting, and encounter an artistic lineage that has fascinated generations of Indian artists.”
Andrea Anastasio, director of the Italian Embassy Cultural Centre, shared the process of getting this Caravaggio canvas to Delhi in just two and a half months, instead of a year or more. He shared that it was the former Italian ambassador to India who updated him that Caravaggio’s ‘Mary Magdalene in Ecstasy’ was on display in Beijing, and will soon go back to Rome. Now it will go back via India.
Diplomats continue their good work and leave their mark in stations served, even when they have moved on from the region. Thank you. We are happy to be able to see this work of Caravaggio.
