Exhibition Highlights

A very special guest from Rome: Caravaggio’s Boy with a Basket of Fruit.

On loan from the Galleria Borghese, this masterpiece offers a rare look at the early career of Michelangelo Merisi, the artist famously known as Caravaggio. After training in his home region of Lombardy, Caravaggio arrived in Rome carrying a tradition of "natural" painting that reached back to Leonardo da Vinci. However, he combined those roots with a bold, new style that changed everything, trading polished perfection for the gritty reality of the artist’s studio.

Look closely at the boy’s parted lips, his flushed ears, and the way his shirt slips from his shoulder. At the time, Roman art usually focused on idealized, perfect figures, but Caravaggio chose an entirely different path. He presents his model with a startling honesty, inviting us to study the young man just as we might examine the overripe fruit he carries. To show where this style came from, we’ve paired this painting with earlier works from Milan and pieces by Caravaggio’s contemporary, Annibale Carracci.

The exhibition also explores the massive impact Caravaggio had on the artists who followed him in Rome. Finally, you’ll meet Scipione Borghese through a portrait drawing by Gianlorenzo Bernini. Scipione was the original owner of this painting and the legendary collector behind the Galleria Borghese itself.