WHAT?  The Last Caravaggio

WHERE? The National Gallery, Room 46, Trafalgar Square, London WC2N 5DN

WHEN? Now until 21st July.  Free to view 

WHY GO?  To feel the force of passion.  It’s dark in subject matter and dark as a composition. Documented as the last painting by the infamous Italian Caravaggio, The Martyrdom of Saint Ursula,1610, is now gloriously on show alongside his most disturbing of paintings, Salome Receives the Head of John the Baptist  and both are as dramatic as any Italian opera.   

The dynamic force of passion palpitates throughout the small gallery, which is dimly lit to create the sombre atmosphere generated whenever Caravaggio’s name is mentioned.

When something ugly becomes something beautiful, it also becomes addictive and it’s impossible not to stare for ages before each painting.

Poor Saint Ursula was pierced with an arrow by the pagan Hun when she rejected him and the ensemble surrounding her in Caravaggio’s tableaux are menacing including him as he painted a selfie peeping in as an onlooker.

The juicy tales of Caravaggio’s turbulent life are all recorded; his fearsome temper which led to murder, his exile and his final days when he fetched up on a beach in the boiling hot sun, succumbed to fever and died aged just thirty-eight.

Yes I did say, visit this and feel the force of passion, you may want a soothing glass of cool Orvieto after! 

IN THE KNOW  Caravaggio’s debauched life has always attracted film and music makers.

The current Netflix series Ripley, references him frequently as Dickie, the amateur artist, tells Tom the scheming fraudster, all about Caravaggio’s tempestuous life.  

As they stand staring before, The Seven Acts of Mercy (1607) in a church in Naples, neither would know that another murder was about to be committed. 

Director Zaillian's dark mysterious Ripley would most certainly have met with Caravaggio’s approval!