The exhibition, produced by the Italian state radio and television network, RAI, was recently shown in Rome at the Castel Sant’ Angelo where it drew more than 145,000 visitors and attracted massive press coverage.

This acclaimed exhibition, called Caravaggio – La Mostra Impossibile (Caravaggio –The Impossible Exhibition), consists of digital, actual-size transparencies of 68 of Caravaggio’s great works of art, including the six-by-three-metre Beheading of St John the Baptist.

Speaking at the opening of the exhibition, Tourism and Culture Minister Francis Zammit Dimech explained that Malta has the honour of claiming Caravaggio’s Beheading of St John as part of its extensive art collection. This is one of the artist’s greatest works and Malta is proud to include it in its patrimony, especially considering that the artist left the work here after finding refuge on our island, he continued.

The minister said that the physical gathering of the actual works has been deemed impossible because the exhibition brings together paintings that are spread over locations ranging from the Louvre in Paris to Malta itself. Without using this innovative method of reproducing the original works of Caravaggio, bringing them together under one roof would have been impossible. The effect has been described as “visually stunning, almost overwhelming”.

Dr Zammit Dimech continued by saying that the exhibition is not only a tourist attraction but also works hand in hand with the ministry’s initiative to bring culture closer to the public. As Malta is on the brink of European Union accession, the island’s culture must be cherished and enhanced, he explained, especially seeing that the union encourages and financially supports cultural development.

The transparencies exhibited are the same size as the original canvases, unframed, backlit by four spotlights and hung on a high-tech structure. Dr Renato Parascandalo, who conceived and developed the exhibition for RAI, said “The clarity of the backlit images brings out the inner light of the original paintings. The x-ray effect makes visible the hidden corrections and cancellations made by Caravaggio, which cannot be seen in the actual works of art.”

A group of specialists in photography, lighting and digitalisation worked on the reproduction techniques for more than two years to prepare the exhibition. Assisted by the expert eye of leading art critics and restoration specialists, the RAI technicians have perfected a method of printing the original transparencies with extraordinary results, satisfying even the most demanding of authoritative art historians.

Caravaggio – La Mostra Impossibile is being brought to Malta on the initiative of the newly set up Caravaggio Foundation, with the support of the Tourism and Culture Ministry. The Cottonera Waterfront Group, developer of the Cottonera Waterfront project, has provided the use of the newly restored, historic Caraffa Stores, which provide the right ambience for the exhibition.

RAI has provided its services and the exhibition itself at no charge. And, in fact, plans to move the Caravaggio – La Mostra Impossibile to Milan were postponed, in order that the exhibition could be brought to Malta in time to mark EU accession on 1 May.

Caravaggio – La Mostra Impossibile will be open every day except Monday, between 1lam and 7pm. A programme of special events – such as talks on the life and works of Caravaggio and musical and dance performances – has been organised. Arrangements have also been made with the Education Ministry for scheduled visits by schoolchildren.

For RAI, this is the first of 15 similar exhibitions to be put up in the near future. Others in preparation cover the works of Piero della Francesca, Leonardo, Raphael, Michelanglo, Titian, Tintoretto, Guido Reni, Giovan Battista Tiepolo, Coreggio, Giottio and the ancient Roman frescoes of Pompeii.

The project was set up through the cooperation of the Italian Ministry of Cultural Heritage with RAI to record all major works of art in Italy in order to build an archive. So far, 18,000 works of art have been reproduced in this way.

The mostre impossibile are modular and, with relative ease, can be dismantled and reconstructed in various forms and in different cities. After Malta, the Caravaggio exhibition will be taken to Milan, then to Moscow’s Pushkin Museum and on to St Petersburg.

Dr Parascandalo said the technique is not intended to create in the observer the illusion of being in front of the actual painting: “The best analogy to be made is with the increased knowledge and appreciation of serious music that has been brought about by the developments in hi-fi technology. There is no doubt at all that the quality of music reproduced at home by sound-recording systems is far superior to what can be heard live, and it is also accessible to all. The same goes for our knowledge of works of art. Few can claim direct knowledge of all the works of art of even a single painter. This development makes possible exhibitions that would otherwise be impossible and, even then, accessible only to limited numbers of people. This is the democratisation of art.”

Caravaggio – La Mostra Impossibile is accompanied by audio-visual effects and several hours of documentary material, commentaries by leading Italian and international art historians and films and dramatisations of the life and work of Michelangelo Merisi di Caravaggio shown on multi-screens and panels.

For more information about Caravaggio – La Mostra Impossibile visit www. caravaggio.rai.it