The Resurrection

Francesco Boneri was one of the closest followers of Caravaggio, the groundbreaking and influential painter of the Italian Baroque period. Boneri may have assisted and modeled for Caravaggio during the elder painter’s last years in Rome, a personal connection suggested by his contemporary nickname, Cecco (a diminutive of Francesco) del Carravaggio. The Resurrection exaggerates the bold contrast of light and dark and the realistic treatment of sacred figures that were hallmarks of Caravaggio’s revolutionary style. The only documented painting by Boneri, this work was commissioned in 1619 by the Tuscan ambassador to Rome, Piero Guicciardini, for his family’s chapel in Florence. For reasons lost to history, the painting was rejected, a not uncommon event in Rome’s rapidly evolving art scene. It was eventually sold to another important collector, Cardinal Scipione Borghese.