Caravaggio (Michelangelo Merisi), The Flagellation of Christ, 1607. Oil on canvas, 118 in × 92 in. Museo e Real Bosco di Capodimonte, Naples, coming from Naples, Church of San Domenico Maggiore (property of Fondo Edifici di Culto del Ministero degli Interni) Courtesy of Kimbell Art Museum.

FORT WORTH, TX.- The Kimbell will display Caravaggio's celebrated Flagellation of Christ as a guest of honor in the upcoming exhibition Flesh and Blood: Italian Masterpieces from the Capodimonte Museum. Profoundly shocking yet gently poignant, The Flagellation of Christ was painted by Michelangelo Merisi, known as Caravaggio (1571--1610), for a Naples private chapel in 1607, and for nearly fifty years it has been on view at the city's Museo e Real Bosco di Capodimonte. The work is among Caravaggio's most mature paintings, combining his signature tenebrism, sculptural solidity, realistic details and physical beauty. The scene contrasts the unleashed violence of the persecutors and the peaceful resignation of the suffering Christ.

"We are immensely grateful to the Museo e Real Bosco di Capodimonte, one of the most spectacular collections in Italy, and to the Fondo Edifici di Culto del Ministero degli Interni (the Foundation for Religious Buildings) for this unprecedented Caravaggio loan to our special exhibition," commented Eric M. Lee, director of the Kimbell Art Museum. "The Flagellation of Christ is one of Caravaggio's greatest artistic achievements and a pinnacle of religious painting. We are thrilled that between March 1 and June 14, Kimbell visitors will have the rare opportunity to view two distinctly different paintings by the Italian master----one the 1607 Flagellation in the special exhibition and the other the 1595 Cardsharps in our own permanent collection."

In his Flagellation, conceived as a sacred altarpiece, Caravaggio depicts an emotional and tense human moment of impending brutality. By placing Christ in a brilliant shaft of light, Caravaggio focuses the composition on Christ's expression and painful posture. The opposition between the anatomical perfection of Christ's body, bathed by light, and the anger and ugliness of the shadowed men who torture him engages the viewer's sensibility in empathic condemnation of such cruelty. In this and other works, Caravaggio ushered in the new Baroque style of painting by stripping away unnecessary figures and details----popular in Renaissance painting----and focusing on human feeling. The Flagellation of Christ features only four figures and a single column: its simplicity concentrates its emotional power.