In an itinerary of around 40 works, the Accademia Carrara is hosting the first exhibition ever devoted to Cecco del Caravaggio (1580 -1630), born Francesco Boneri, the most mysterious of Caravaggio’s direct pupils.

Cecco was not only a follower but a model as well, posing for at least six paintings by Merisi (including: David and Goliath and Amor Vincit Omnia).

After the project dedicated to Simone Peterzano in 2020, Accademia Carrara confirms its commitment and focus on artists with important regional and cultural connections to the Bergamo collection, documented by works of great quality but which, to date, have not yet been given proper attention.

Through his tumultuous apprenticeship with Merisi, Boneri became a skilled artist and one of the most interesting exponents of European Caravaggism. The exhibition brings together, for the first time ever, around 20 signed works, of the no more than 25 that comprise his catalogue, from important public and private collections in Italy and around the world.

Through important loans, including works by Caravaggio, the exhibition journey focuses not only on painters from whom, in addition to Merisi, Cecco drew inspiration (Savoldo, for example) but also a series of artists who were influenced by him. In addition to focusing attention on a painter who is too little known, this project also explores and examines those “painters of reality” (according to Roberto Longhi’s definition) who first influenced young Caravaggio’s formative years and then continued, over the decades, with success and to whom this exhibition seeks to restore a proper role in the European artistic panorama of those years.