CONFERENCE: CARAVAGGIO AND PASOLINI. NARCISSI AND DIAPHRAGMS
On Tuesday, November 3, at 6:00 PM, the Portico of Galleria Borghese will host Caravaggio and Pasolini. Narcissi and Diaphragms, a lecture bringing together Francesca Cappelletti and Andrea Cortellessa to explore the deep and contradictory connection between Caravaggio’s painting and Pier Paolo Pasolini’s imagery. What inspirations did the 20th-century director and intellectual draw from the work of the great 17th-century master? And how did they transform over the course of his artistic and intellectual career?
Leading the discussion will be two authoritative voices: Francesca Cappelletti, director of Galleria Borghese and one of the foremost experts on Caravaggio, and Andrea Cortellessa, literary historian and art critic. The event takes its cue from their recent books, Caravaggio. A Life in Ten Paintings (Mondadori, 2026) and One More Reason to Go to Hell. Seeing, Pasolini (Treccani Libri, 2025), to investigate a relationship where fascination and ambivalence intertwine, revealing new perspectives on the dialogue between images, cinema, and reality.
For Pasolini, who was always drawn to the theme of the double, Caravaggio is a presence that is both exemplary and contradictory. In an initial phase, thanks in part to the teachings of Roberto Longhi, Caravaggio’s painting became a model of vital realism, capable of inspiring a cinema rooted in the concreteness of life. Later, however, this vision inverted: Caravaggesque realism took on more restless and problematic contours, paving the way for a reflection on the image as a reflection, duplication, and ultimately as an expression of death.
It is precisely within this tension between life and death, presence and representation, that the complexity of the bond between the two artists reveals itself. Indeed, Caravaggio’s images, imprinted on Pasolini’s memory from the very beginning, continued to exert their power far beyond their initial encounter, traversing and fueling the author’s entire creative and intellectual journey.
An opportunity to rediscover, through the eyes of two scholars, how a 17th-century artist can still challenge our way of looking at images and understanding reality.
The lecture will take place on Tuesday, November 3, at 6:00 PM, at the Portico. Admission is free, but reservation is mandatory via this link, subject to availability.
Andrea Cortellessa is a literary historian and art critic, and teaches Contemporary Italian Literature at Roma Tre University. He has curated texts and exhibitions dedicated to major 20th-century and contemporary figures, and has collaborated with writers, critics, as well as theater and television directors. He writes for newspapers and journals. Among his most recent publications: Zanzotto. The Song in the Earth (Laterza, 2021), Fantastic Philology. Hypothesizing, Manganelli (Argolibri, 2022), With the Axe Behind Our Backs. Amelia Rosselli (Electa, 2024), Perhaps Yes. Joyce between Pascoli and Gadda (Quodlibet, 2025).