Mint Museum in Charlotte plans rare Caravaggio exhibit for first time in 20 years
Another bold-name artist is coming to the Mint Museum in uptown Charlotte. This time, it’s Baroque master Caravaggio.
“Caravaggio | Revolution: Baroque Masterpieces from the Roberto Longhi Foundation” will be on exhibit with more than 30 paintings from April 25 to Oct. 25, 2026 at Mint Museum Uptown, the museum announced Monday. One of Caravaggio’s painting from over 420 years ago will be the centerpiece of the show.
This is the second time The Mint has had a Caravaggio on exhibition, museum spokeswoman Michele Huggins told The Charlotte Observer. The last time was 20 years ago.
Caravaggio, born Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio in Milan in 1571, helped shape the Baroque style. His painting method, developed in Rome at the beginning of the 17th century, influenced artists across Europe for generations, Todd Herman, president and CEO of The Mint Museum stated in the news release.
Caravagio is best known for his mastery of dramatic and realistic images, often from the Bible. These paintings are infused with contrasting light and shadow in a process he helped refine and elevate, known as chiaroscuro. He also used everyday people as live models in real-world settings and with real emotions.
The exhibition has been three years in the making, since Roberto Longhi Foundation representatives met with Herman in 2022 and pitched the idea.
“Caravaggio, in today’s world, would be considered an ‘influencer,’” Herman said. “His works are dramatic, raw, and emotional — and became a reference point for filmmakers like Martin Scorsese.”
The Mint has hosted other masterworks in the past couple of years, including the first ever traveling exhibition of Pablo Picasso landscapes in 2023. Three masterpiece paintings by Edgar Degas, Georgia O’Keefe and Alma Thomas have been on exhibit since April. The National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., loaned the masterpieces for two years.
In fall 2005, “Saint Francis of Assisi in Ecstasy” by Caravaggio was among 60 works in the “Renaissance to Rococo: Masterpieces from the Collection of the Wadsworth Atheneum” at Mint Museum Randolph, Huggins said.
What to expect in the Caravaggio exhibit
The exhibit will include paintings by leading European Baroque masters and Caravaggisti — artists influenced by Caravaggio’s techniques and style. The paintings showcase Caravaggio’s impact through his use of shadow and light, realism, and dramatic intensity for a generation of painters.
Caravaggio’s painting “Boy Bitten by a Lizard” stands as the focal point of the exhibition.
The oil on canvas painting dates to around 1597. “A rare treasure among the fewer than 80 works attributed to the artist, who died at age 38,” the Mint said.
The works in the exhibition are on loan from the collection of Roberto Longhi, the Italian art historian who began his study of Caravaggio and his followers in the beginning of the 20th century. He re-introduced Caravaggio’s influential work to the world, the Mint said.
Other artists whose work will be in the exhibition include Spanish painter Jusepe de Ribera, French artist Valentin de Boulogne, known as Le Valentin, and a Dutch, or possibly Flemish artist known as Matthias Stom or Stomer.
All were active around or after Caravaggio’s time.
About Caravaggio
In 1595, when Caravaggio was in his early 20s, Cardinal Francesco del Monte recognized his works and he received his first public commissions. Caravaggio became a celebrity almost overnight, according to The National Gallery of London.
“He can be said almost single-handedly to have created the Baroque style,” according to caravaggio.org.
At the time, Caravaggio’s paintings were controversial for their naturalism depicting religious figures and often questionable choice of models, for example it has been suggested the model in his Death of the Virgin was a prostitute, according to caravaggio.org.
Some of his major works include “David with the Head of Goliath,” in the Galleria Borghese in Rome, “The Calling of Saint Matthew,” in Contarelli Chapel, San Luigi dei Francesi, Rome, and “Medusa,” depicting her head, which he painted on a wooden shield that can be found in Florence’s Uffizi Gallery. Caravaggio also had quite the notorious reputation, and had to flee Rome in 1606 after killing a guy in a street brawl.
He was convicted in absentia and sentenced to death with a bounty on his head, allowing anyone in the Papal States to kill him for a reward. Caravaggio remained a fugitive for the rest of his life but kept painting. He died in 1610 at age 38.
Caravaggio influenced more than painters
The Mint Museum exhibition will also include film and music video clips that depict how Caravaggio’s “radical realism” transformed modern film and photography through chiaroscuro.
Film clips, photographs and commentary include Martin Scorsese; American photographer David LaChapelle known for elaborate celebrity portraits of the likes of Angelina Jolie and the Kardashians; and British filmmaker and artists Isaac Julien and Tom Hunter.
Music videos like R.E.M.’s “Losing My Religion” and Johnny Cash’s “Hurt” also showcase how Caravaggio’s vision continues to influence storytelling. l.
Admission to the Caravaggio exhibition costs $10, plus regular museum pricing.
Want to go?
What: “Caravaggio | Revolution: Baroque Masterpieces from the Roberto Longhi Foundation”
Where: Mint Museum Uptown, 500 S. Tryon St., Charlotte
When: April 25–Oct. 25, 2026
Cost: Admission $10, on top of regular admission.
Arts Editor Adam Bell contributed to this report
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This story was originally published December 8, 2025 at 3:10 PM.
