The commercial and critical rise of the Caravaggisti

APOLLO MAGAZINE
By Emma Crichton-Miller
St Stephen taken to his Martyrdom (c. 1625-30), Andrea Vaccaro Courtesy of Otto Naumann, price undisclosed
You only need to drop the magic name of Caravaggio for people to queue around the block. But it is not just the work of the tempestuous, radical genius that commands interest; his followers too are on the rise, celebrated in three major exhibitions this year (‘Beyond Caravaggio’ at the National Gallery, London; ‘Valentin de Boulogne: Beyond Caravaggio’ at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; ‘Caravaggio and the Painters of the North’ at the Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid). ‘There is a growing number of collectors with an interest in dramatic pictures,’ says Henry Pettifer, Christie’s head of Old Master and British paintings. [link]
The Sacrifice of Isaac (c. 1617), Bartolomeo Cavarozzi Courtesy of Sotheby’s London, £3.7m