What a shock it must have been for Hendrick ter Brugghen, Gerard van Honthorst, and Dirck van Baburen, three young painters from Utrecht, when they encountered the breathtaking and unorthodox paintings of Caravaggio for the first time in Rome. Described as ‘miraculous things’, his works were marked by an innovative realism, striking drama, and mysterious lighting. He would shape the style of many artists from Italy, France, Spain, and the Netherlands. The exhibition, developed in collaboration with the Centraal Museum in Utrecht, shows over 70 of the most beautiful and important works of the leading ‘Caravaggisti’, including paintings by Bartolomeo Manfredi, Jusepe de Ribera, and Valentin de Boulogne. Placed alongside the works of their painterly colleagues, it becomes immediately apparent why the significant pictures of these Utrecht painters are so typically Dutch and had success both in Italy as well as at home.
The collection of the Alte Pinakothek, one of the most significant in the world, encompasses over 700 artworks from the 14th to the 18th centuries. Here, milestones of the European painting tradition join to form a survey, in unique concentration, that spans the development from the Middle Ages to the Renaissance and Baroque, through to the late Rococo period. Experience encounters with works by Dürer, Raphael, Leonardo, Titian, El Greco, Rubens, Rembrandt, Boucher and their contemporaries. The museum, contracted by the Bavarian King Ludwig I, was built by Leo von Klenze between 1826 and 1836 in the Neoclassical style, which at the time represented a new and pioneering effort in European museum architecture. Originally, the Alte Pinakothek was intended to make sufficient space available for the art collection of the House of Wittelsbach. Over and above this, King Ludwig I sought to use the construction of the Alte Pinakothek as a means of providing the general public access to his collection. In addition to the permanent presentation of outstanding works from the golden ages of German, Flemish, Dutch, French, Italian and Spanish painting, a host of temporary special exhibitions, guided tours and events make a visit worthwhile.