The last Caravaggio is on display at the National Gallery in London

Michelangelo Merisi Da Caravaggio’s last painting, The Martyrdom of Saint Ursula, is exhibited at the National Gallery in Great Britain next to another late painting by the master in the new exhibition The Last Caravaggio. The painting contains a self-portrait of the artist.

One of the most scandalous and revolutionary artists of the Baroque era, Michelangelo da Caravaggio left behind no sketches or memories. Many facts of his biography are taken from the records of law enforcement services and letters from patrons.

The attribution of the painting “The Martyrdom of Saint Ursula” – 1610 – was re-attributed to Caravaggio only in 1980, after the discovery of an archival letter describing the creation of the painting.

The letter will be exhibited in the United Kingdom for the first time. Next to the paintings. It was sent from Naples, where the painting was painted, to Genoa, where the artist’s patron, Marcantonio Doria, lived. The letter describes the final stages of the commission for the painting, which included a self-portrait of Caravaggio (a character looking over the shoulder of a saint). The painting was sent to Genoa from Naples on May 27, and on June 18, 1610, the customer already received it.

A few weeks later, in July, the artist went to Rome, where he hoped to receive a pardon for the murder committed in 1606. But on July 18, Caravaggio died in the village of Porto Ercole, in Tuscany. Thus, the painting became the master’s last work.

Caravaggio in his paintings always departs from the accepted images of saints; he reverses the artistic approach accepted at that time, where the focus is on the spiritual appearance of the saint. All his saints are earthly people, for which the painter was often severely criticized, some paintings were even removed from churches. And on this canvas Ursula is depicted not in her holy form, but at the moment of death. The tenebrism technique (very dark shadows and very bright light), developed by Caravaggio, emphasizes the drama of the situation.

The Martyrdom of Saint Ursula will be exhibited alongside a painting from the National Gallery’s collection, Salome Receiving the Head of John the Baptist, circa 1609-1610.

The exhibition will run until July 21, 2024.

Saint Ursula is, according to legend, the daughter of a fourth-century British king. She refused to marry a pagan and was shot by the Huns along with thousands of virgins. In her honor, the female monastic Order of the Ursulines was founded (Lombardy, 1535).