A show in the Northern Italian town of Bergamo sheds light on Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio’s most mysterious follower. The first retrospective of works by the master’s model, student and lover, this exhibition shows how crucial he was in his circle.
Cecco del Caravaggio, Fabbricante di strumenti musicali, c. 1615-1616, oil on canvas, London, Apsley House, Wellington Museum.
© Historic England Archive
For a long time, Cecco del Caravaggio’s beaming, boyish face was more famous than his name. He appears in at least six of Caravaggio ’s paintings, smiling mischievously in Youth with a Ram , looking pleadingly into his father’s eyes in The Sacrifice of Isaac , grinning erotically in Amor Vincit Omnia , also known as Amor Victorious, or embodying David with the Head of Goliath . But Cecco del Caravaggio the painter remained an elusive figure until art historian Gianni Papi, a specialist of Italian 17th-century painting and Caravaggism, pulled him out of his master’s shadow. Like any event involving Caravaggio or Caravaggism, "Cecco del Caravaggio, l'Allievo Modello" at Bergamo’s Accademia Carrara is a sure-fire crowd pleaser, but it is also based on serious scholarly research. This is the first monographic exhibition about one of Caravaggio’s least known disciples. In 1991, he was identified as Francesco Boneri by Papi, who has spent nearly 40 years documenting his life and tracking down the works of one of…
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