Triumph and Drama in Rome and the Vatican

As we walk out each day during our 8 days in Rome, we encounter rain and sun, chilliness and heat. We walk through the ancient Forum, remnants of empire, and skirt the construction site of expansion of Rome’s modern Metro system, Linea C.

While in Rome we learn, with the world, that Pope Leo will undergo lung surgery and we pray for his recovery.

The Vatican Museums and St Peter’s Basilica are together probably the most visited place in the world. This is our fifth or sixth visit to Rome, and these sites are more crowded than ever by orders of magnitude. Arguably the visitation levels are unsustainable and they are definitely unbearable.

Rafael and tapestries at Vatican Museums

It is at the Vatican Museums that we suffer our first, and most severe, disappointment of the Camino Caravaggio.

The single Caravaggio in the Vatican collection, The Entombmemt of Christ (1594), is not on display! The guard who gave me this news clearly saw the disappointment on my face. The work is undergoing restoration for an unknown period of time. By the way, there is no indication on the musIum website or anywhere on the internet that I can find of this absence.

Visiting the Vatican’s (often closed) Egyptian collection and the Sistine Chapel was some consolation, along with the thought that we’ll have to retum to Rome on another occasion…

Glimpses of the Vatican’s extensive Egyptian collection

There remain only three more Camino Caravaggio stops to be made in Rome: Palazzo Barberini, Santa Maria del Popolo and the ultimate collector’s dream, Galleria Borghese.

Palazzo Barberini was (yet another) Cardinal’s home, later acquired by the Italian state to become the National Gallery of Ancient Art

**Judith Beheading Holofernes** (1598-9). The artist uses one of his favorite models. The older woman-onlooker is a frequent theme underscoring with her business-as-usual implacability the drama and horror of the scene.

**Saint Francis in Prayer** (1606) is a powerful reminder to Ed and Anne of our walking of the Camino San Francesco in 2016 through the Appenines to many of Francis’ favorite places.

**John the Baptist** portrays an older John than the two seen earlier (Capitoline and Dora Pamphilj) and to be compared to the one to be seen at the Borghese. This John is post- pubescent and brooding.

**Monsignor Maffeo Barberini (later, Pope Urban VIII)** (1598)

Just this year, in March 2026, the Italian state acquired the Barberini portrait from a private collection in Florence. The price, almost $35 million, was the most ever paid by Italy for an artwork. The timing was excellent for us to be able to see one of the relatively few portraits, of which three survive, painted by Caravaggio (perhaps this is another consolation for missing the Entombment)?

**David with the Head of Goliath** (1609-10), believed to have been painted by the artist as a gift to Cardinal Borghese for help securing a papal pardon for a murder charge.

At the church of Santa Maria del Popolo can be found two powerful paintings.

**Conversion of Saint Paul** (1601) at Santa Maria del Popolo

Paul is knocked off his horse and blinded by a brilliant light. Although his eyes are closed, he sees his Savior for the first time.

**Crucifixion of Saint Peter** (1601) is installed opposite the **Paul** in the Cerasi Chapel.

Millions of pilgrims to Rome arrive from the north through the Porta Flaminia into the Piazza del Popolo. They visit Santa Maria del Popolo as their first visit in Rome and are greeted by Paul and Peter.

Our Canino capstone is a visit to the Galleria Borghese, party house and collector’s showcase of Cardinal Scipione Borghese (1577-1633), set in an extensive park in the north part of the city. This is home to six Carravaggios (but we only see five). This is the largest number in a single collection anywhere in the world.

**Boy with a Basket of Fruit** (1593-4), an early work

**Saint John the Baptist** (1604) John is no longer carefree and laughing

**Madonna and Child with Saint Anne** (1605-6) commissioned for an altar in St Peter’s but deemed inappropriate for showing too much cleavage

Six Caravaggios usually adorn a single room at the Borghese. It’s a poorly lighted room and **Boy with Basket** is disappointingly mounted behind glass.

This visit, Young Sick Bacchus (1593) is on loan to an exhibit in London and Genoa. As with Entombment unviewable at the Vatican Museums, there is no indication that Young Sick Bacchus is not on view.

On this Camino Caravaggio, we set out to visit 30 of the 65 extant Caravaggios in the world. Only 28 were available to see (although we had seen Young Sick Bacchus during our previous visit to the Borghese a few years ago). We were fascinated and amazed by the observations and time we spent with these brilliant works. The focus and perspective of our Caravaggio concentration provided an excitement and motivation that enhanced every aspect of our travels, including numerous bus, train and air trips and many thousands of steps.

Now that we are back in the US we will continue to contemplate Caravaggio and the insights we have gained about his art and his illustrations of a passionate faith.

Thanks to you, our readers, for accompanying us on Camino Caravaggio. Since we have viewed only 29 of the 65 extant Caravaggios, perhaps it is the first in a series of such journeys?