In fall 2019, a line-up of singular masterpieces is coming together in Vienna: paintings by Caravaggio, sculptures by Bernini, and other main works of early Roman Baroque will be shown at the Kunsthistorisches Museum. The Special Exhibition entitled Caravaggio & Bernini shows how stirring emotions all of a sudden came to be a subject matter for painting and sculpture. The show combines spectacular loans from all over the world with masterpieces from the holdings of the Kunsthistorisches Museum, which alone possesses three major paintings by Caravaggio.

Caravaggio and Bernini show a lifelike picture of the human. The movements of the body are informed by the figures’ inner stirrings, their feelings. This conjunction of outer realism and inner sensation was something new. It became the defining characteristic of the Baroque. It is also the reason why the exhibition places painting and sculpture in dialogue with one another. It shows how Caravaggio and Bernini were understood by their contemporaries. The exhibition thus also affords an encounter with the art scene of the Rome of the period.

Kunsthistorisches Museum Vienna