Unique chance to see Caravaggio’s only mural

It looks like there’s an end in sight for the crazy drama over the ownership of the Villa Aurora, aka the Casino Boncompagni Ludovisi, the 16th century mansion a stone’s throw from the American Embassy in Rome that boasts the only mural ever painted by the Baroque genius Caravaggio.

Quick recap: the last undisputed owner of the priceless estate, Prince Nicolò Boncompagni Ludovisi, died in 2018, bequeathing 50% ownership of the villa and the right to live there until her death to his second wife, the Texas-born former Playboy cover girl Rita Boncompagni Ludovisi, nee Rita Carpenter. The prince’s sons from this first marriage contested the will in court, and the judge ordered a sale at a price set by the court at a nosebleed-inducing €471 million ($534 million). Not only did nobody buy it, but nobody even made a bid, so they tried again dropping the price 20%. Again, not a single bid. So they tried again. And again. And again. After seven attempts at a sale and a final price drop down to €108.5 million ($118 million), there were still no takers.

The princess, who had continued to live on the premises during all these foreclosure sales, was evicted in 2023. She refused to leave and had to be carried bodily out of the home by police. Homeless and now depending on the kindness of her (very, very wealthy) friends for a roof over her head, she began to work out a deal with her stepsons. Last year, they finally came to some sort of legal settlement and got the house back from the court. It will be privately sold and the scuttlebutt is it will be turned into a museum, but none of the parties are saying anything about the terms of the deal so who knows what will happen when the papers are actually signed.

What bodes very well for the museum outcome is that for the first time since it was built in the late 1500s, the Villa Aurora will be opened to the public in conjunction with the blockbuster Caravaggio 2025 exhibition at Palazzo Barberini just down the Via Veneto. One of the major events organized for the 2025 Jubilee, the exhibition brings together the greatest collection of Caravaggio paintings from museums and private collections all over the world, including the Detroit Institute of Arts, the Nelson-Atkins Museum in Kansas City, the Wadsworth Atheneum of Art in Hartford, the Kimbell Art Museum in Fort Worth, the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, the National Gallery of Ireland and the Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum in Madrid, plus Italian museums like the Galleria Borghese, the Musei Capitolini, the Museo e Real Bosco di Capodimonte in Naples and the Pinacoteca di Brera in Milan.

Now to that unprecedented collection of masterpieces, ticket-holders can add Caravaggio’s only ceiling mural. The mural was commissioned by the original owner of the villa and one of Caravaggio’s early patrons, Cardinal Francesco Maria Del Monte. He was an avid alchemist, and the fresco adorned the ceiling of his small laboratory on the first floor of the villa.

The allegorical painting depicts Paracelsus’ alchemical triad of sulphur/air (Jupiter), mercury/water (Neptune) and salt/earth (Pluto), and the animals that represent them (eagle for Jupiter, hippocamp for Neptune, Cerberus for Pluto). Jupiter is shown reaching for the celestial sphere of the sun to move it around the earth. Caravaggio executed a perspective trick, foreshortening the figures to make them look as if they’re standing on the ceiling.

From Saturday, March 29th, through Sunday, July 6th, people who buy a ticket to the exhibition can get a unique downside-up view of Pluto’s genitals and taint in a guided tour. The tours are offered every hour from 10:00 AM to 5:00PM on Saturdays and Sundays for a maximum of 20 people at a time. Prior reservations are required and must be made online.

* This article was originally published here