The room is the most loved and frequented one of the wonderful Borghese Gallery, where some of Caravaggio's absolute masterpieces are found: right there now, in a beautiful yellow case matching the marbles and curtains, there is a Woman in the Kitchen with Supper at Emmaus, a of the earliest known works by Diego Velazquez, probably even the first, which comes from the permanent collection of the National Gallery of Ireland.
It will remain on display from March 27th to June 23rd, in thematic, historical and even chromatic correlation with the room and the works that host it.
"It is a great opportunity to delve deeper into the view from outside of the Borghese Gallery and Rome", explains director Francesca Cappelletti.
"A research path that we have continued through the latest exhibitions, such as that of Rubens. Velazquez created this painting before his trip to Italy, but already strongly influenced by Caravaggio and De Ribeira who we find with him in this room. It is a exceptional loan which raises important questions, such as how the artist came to know these authors so early, even before his trip to Italy".
Woman in the Kitchen with Supper at Emmaus was in fact created between 1618 and 1620 when the artist, who grew up in the workshop of Francisco Paceco (whose daughter he married), was in Seville.
Only in August 1629 did he leave for Italy, after a few years spent in Madrid where he had moved in 1622. The painting now exhibited at the Borghese Gallery is the close-up portrait of a young and humble busy woman, among the objects of his kitchen brought to light, in an extraordinary still life, to prepare the Supper at Emmaus which is taking place behind him and can be seen in a small way in the background framed as if it were a painting.
A play of shadows and lights, of both chromatic and spatial contrasts, in this contrast between the popular situation in the foreground and the sacred scene relegated to the background, in a reversal of perspectives.
Themes and lights that return in the works that are now in the same room, some specially brought back from storage for the occasion.
There are the Self-portrait in the guise of Bacchus and the Madonna of the grooms by Caravaggio, for example, as well as A beggar by De Ribeira, or Judith with the head of Holofernes by Giovanni Baglione and San Rocco by Giovanni Francesco Guerrieri, right next to with its still life elements in an extraordinary proximity of inspiration.
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