Was founded by
Benedict XIV in 1748 and contains, for the most part,
paintings (from the Middle Ages to the 1700's) belonging
to the Sacchetti and Pia di Savoia families. The Gallery
is in the Capita line Museums (which have the oldest
public collections not only in Rome but also in the
world), housed in the Campidoglio and in the two palaces
designed by Michelangelo. Notably enriched thanks to the
arrival of works through purchases, inheritances and
donations, the Capitoline Art Gallery has been in the
care of the Rome City Council since 1847.
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The Good Luck (there is another
version in the Louvre) was painted for cardinal Del Monte
and can be dated to 1594; contemporary to the Maddalena (Doria
Pamphilj) and to the Narcissus (Barberini Palace), with whom
the male figure has the damask fabric, visible
under the jacket, in common. A gypsy is portrayed with the
elegant young man. While reading his hand to predict the
future, she is removing his ring. The subject is an allegory
on the idea of deceit, or a moralistic invitation to not
lose oneself in vanity, alluding to the richness of the
young man's clothes, to not give in to the devil's
temptations, astute and thieving, and of the flesh, aspect
almost summarised, according to tradition, by the intriguing
figure of the gypsy. |
The St. John the Baptist
was an almost forgotten painting until it was rediscovered
with clamour in 1953 in the Mayor's Office. It was probably
the painting that Caravaggio was paid for by the nobleman,
Ciriaco Mattei in 1602 and which was commissioned in
relation to the name of his first born son, Giovanni
Battista, who inherited it.
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