The exhibition, which runs until November 30, is the last in a series of six exhibitions organised to mark the centenary of the museum. The first five exhibitions in the ?Geniuses and Masterpieces? series, ?Titian and the Madonna of Venice?, ?Sea Battles?, ?Little Bacchanal?, ?The Mysterious Man? and ?Picasso in Love? all attracted big crowds.
Caravaggio?s David, one of the most famous works of Rome?s Galleria Borghese, shocks the viewer with its brutally naturalist depiction of the horror of death, with the severed head of Goliath. The David and Goliath of one of Caravaggio?s anonymous followers, lent for the exhibition by the Caylus Anticuario Collection in Madrid, softens with idealisation and classicising beautification the unsparingly true-to-nature portrayal of the story. Lucas Cranach the Elder?s Salome from the Museum of Fine Art?s own collection, on the other hand, bears such a close resemblance to the much later Femme Fatale in Symbolism, that it is regarded as an antecedent to this type of image. The German Renaissance artist, with ironic reserve, places at the focus of the work the extraordinarily effective power of the woman over the man, and his defencelessness in the face of the erotic power. A good number of painters have followed suit in this manner, among them Johann Liss (1597-1631), also appearing in the exhibition with his painting Judith and Holofernes
The exhibition?s curator is Vilmos Tátrai
The Museum of Fine Arts is located at Heroes? Square.
Source: art.net / Museum of Fine Arts
