La Buona Ventura

(The Fortune Teller)
Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio
c. 1594-95

Italian Cultural Institute, New York - May 11 - May 15, 2011 

The Speed Museum, Louisville Kentucky – May 18 - June 5, 2011

Caravaggio’s  Buona Ventura  (The Fortune Teller)  has come to us from the Capitoline Museum in Rome.  While this painting depicts a small scene from everyday life, with every day people, it greatly impacted Caravaggio’s contemporaries as well as the development of Italian art.   The Foundation for Italian Art and Culture (FIAC) is pleased and honored to present La Buona Ventura in New York and for the first time to audiences in Louisville, Kentucky as part of its ongoing mission to promote outstanding Italian works of art throughout the United States.

La Buona Ventura exemplifies Caravaggio’s preference for finding value and beauty in “real” people and “real” life rather than copying old masterpieces.  With expert use of chiaroscuro, this quiet masterpiece shows a young woman, possibly a gypsy reading the palm of young man as she slyly removes his ring.   Upon close inspection of their hands, we can see that they came from different walks of life, revealing a truth rarely seen before.   It was accomplished early in Caravaggio’s career at the age of 23, and significantly marked the beginning of art as a representation of real life.