Caravaggio – Darkness and Light
The Arts Society Corinium, Cirencester presents:
An Art Lecture by Nick Nelson on Saturday 14th March 2026, 7pm
Cirencester Baptist Church, Chesterton Ln, Cirencester GL7 1YE
Andrew Graham-Dixon, author of ‘Caravaggio: A life Sacred and Profane’ opines that Caravaggio’s art, like his life, was made of light and dark, presenting “spotlit moments of extreme and often agonised human experience.” Theatrical and overtly dramatic, Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio’s work has the ability to bridge the gap between the sitter and spectator – a trope of the Baroque artist working in the age of the Counter-Reformation. His use of chiaroscuro or tenebrismo becomes an extended metaphor for the man, the myth, the legend. Moments of hope and brilliance in his life and oeuvre are immediately checked with extreme darkness in a man possessed by the seedier side of Rome in the late sixteenth century.
His works are undoubtedly cinematic, hence the recent ‘Exhibition on Screen’ biopic courtesy of Seventh Heaven Productions. His biography is the stuff of a Hollywood anti-hero or consummate antagonist, replete with a criminal record. He became a fugitive or ‘bandito’ accused of manslaughter; his last four years were spent shifting in the shadows between Naples, Malta and Sicily. Paradoxically, his genius and artistic bravura is undisputed.
In this illustrated lecture, Nick will illustrate the depth and breadth of this complex artist via five key works, namely Boy Bitten by a Lizard of 1593-4, The Crucifixion of St. Peter of 1600, The Supper at Emmaus of 1601, Amor Vincit Omnia of 1601-2 and David with the Head of Goliath of 1609-10.
The talk is aimed to coincide with The Wallace Collection’s temporary acquisition of Caravaggio’s Victorious Cupid (Amor Vincit Omnia) which will be on special loan from the Gemäldegalerie in Berlin—its first public showing in the UK running from late November 2025 to April 2026.