A truly extraordinary occasion opened up on the 16th November in Milan to end on the 14th December. Indeed, in the Sala Alessi of Palazzo Marino a wonderful and unfortunately hardly known work by Caravaggio will be exhibited: “The Conversion of Saul”. A work that proves to be the only relevant example of painting on panel by the great Lombard master.
Executed in 1601, it has had a rather tormented history. It was commissioned by Tiberio Cerasi for his personal chapel in S. Maria del Popolo in Rome, where the work was never exposed due to the protracting of the works and to the sudden death of the cardinal himself. Afterwards, it ended up in Spain, was then bought by the Balbi family from Genoa and finally, in the Fifties, it returned by way of heredity to Rome as the “pearl” of the Odescalchi collection.
Besides the complicated destiny surrounding its ownership, there is also the issue about the historical and intellectual figure of Saul, then Saint Paul, fulcrum of the painting. In the history of iconography, Saul of Tarsus is a character with a curious destiny. Central figure in the expansion of Christianity, at the time when the Middle Ages were celebrating the powerful magisterium of the Church, there was no room for him, as he was seen as an excessively philosophical figure. It was not until the Renaissance that Saul could go back to being the central point of intellectual and pictorial elaboration. And it was Michelangelo Merisi called Caravaggio who seized pictorially the greatness of this historical character, proving to be able to develop religious art with a human content.
The “Conversion of Saul” will be on view in Milan, venue in 1951 of the great exhibition dedicated to Caravaggio curated by Roberto Longhi who attributed the work to him, in the middle of the Sala Alessi of the Town Hall.
Just one masterpiece to give life to an exceptional exhibition. Sponsored by Eni; restored by Valeria Merlini and Daniela Storti with the contribution of princess Nicoletta Odescalchi, owner of this invaluable painting, strongly wanted by the mayor of Milan Letizia Moratti to represent a Lombard spirit that marries past and present and anticipates the celebrations of Caravaggio in 2010, four hundred years after his death.
Insured for about 60 million euros, the painting travelled along secondary roads, under armed guard, inside a lorry and packed in a double case. In other, words a truly exceptional journey from princess Odescalchi’s residence in Rome to Milan guaranteed the integrity of this work.
In the Sala Alessi it has been placed inside a particular showcase that guarantees ideal conditions of temperature (20 degrees) and humidity (50-60 per cent) to the painting on wood, a cypress panel made by seven boards glued horizontally. The patent of the special showcase is the one drawn up four years ago for Leonardo’s Gioconda.
Restored in 2006, the panel was displayed for a brief period next to the second version of the Conversion at a height of three metres. Instead, in the Milanese exhibition Caravaggio’s masterpiece will be displayed at eye level and this will allow spectators to appreciate the accuracy of the restoration. “It was very dirty, now we have a beautiful painting full of very high-quality details. With one aspect that stands out: the extreme variety of colours”, declared Rossella Vodret, superintendent to the historical-artistic heritage of Lazio.  While Valeria Merlini, restorer of the work, already author of various jobs on paintings by Canaletto, Giulio Romano and other “caravaggisti” claimed: “This is an exceptional painting because it is the only one of relevant dimensions realised on panel by Caravaggio. We have done a thorough monitoring job of its support and surface, which had turned yellow due to the use of organic paints.  All the perspective levels were compromised, everything seemed flattened”. Merlini continued: “We took photos, radiographies and carbon-14 on the edges, that we chose to leave slightly darker for a matter of culture of the image”. Now the “Conversion of Saul” can be admired in all its splendour by the Milanese.