From September 18, 2025 to February 15, 2026, the Pinacoteca Tosio Martinengo in Brescia will host in its exhibition halls the exhibition Matthias Stom. A Caravaggesque in the Lombard Collections, curated by Gianni Papi and promoted by the Municipality of Brescia, Fondazione Brescia Musei and Alleanza Cultura.
Theunprecedented exhibition will present all the works by Matthias St om kept in Lombardy. Four important paintings from a private collection will arrive in Brescia from Bergamo: The Incredulity of St. Thomas, Daedalus Gives Wings to Icarus, The Healing of Tobias and Christ among the Doctors. These are joined by three key masterpieces from the Carrara Academy, including two night-lit scenes, a genre in which Stom excelled in technical mastery and luministic intensity. Completing the Bergamasque nucleus is a Saint John the Baptist from the convent of San Bartolomeo.
Also among the works on view is the large painting depicting Vespasian freeing Josephus Flavius from his chains, from the church of Santa Maria Assunta in Soncino (Cremona), along with three works from the Pinacoteca Tosio Martinengo: anIncredulity of St. Thomas and two previously unpublished paintings, both of prestigious provenance.
With the exception of the imposing altarpiece of theAssumption in Chiuduno, which for reasons of size cannot be transported but will nevertheless be included in the suggested itineraries, the exhibition includes Stom’s entire pictorial heritage preserved in Lombardy. This extraordinary collection testifies to the considerable circulation and collecting fortune that the artist had in the Lombardy territory.
A Flemish painter whose biography remains largely shrouded in mystery, despite the high painterly quality that emerges from his canvases, Matthias Stom was most likely born around 1600 at a location in southern Flanders. However, neither the date nor the place of his death is currently known.
His artistic career is divided into several stages. After an initial training period between Antwerp and Utrecht, he moved to Rome, a crucial stage in his career. In the capital, Stom developed a strongly naturalistic pictorial language, always remaining faithful to the lesson of Caravaggio, which was to represent the common thread of his entire production.
Following his stay in Rome, his presence in Naples between 1635 and 1638 is documented, followed by a stay in Palermo around 1640, where he produced a surprising number of large works. In 1643 he was in Venice, where he was active until at least 1645. From then on, however, all documentary evidence about him disappears.
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| A never-before-seen exhibition on Flemish painter Matthias Stom at Brescia's Pinacoteca Tosio Martinengo |
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