From September 18, 2025 to February 15, 2026, the Pinacoteca Tosio Martinengo in Brescia will host the first ever internationally organized exhibition of the Caravaggesque painter Matthias Stom (1600-1650). The exhibition, curated by Gianni Papi, one of the most influential art historians of the seventeenth century, presents all the works preserved in the Lombardy region by this Flemish painter, whose entire story, despite the quality expressed in the paintings, remains largely mysterious to this day. In addition to the works exhibited at the Pinacoteca Tosio Martinengo, the altarpiece from the church of Santa Maria Assunta in Chiuduno (BG) will be included in the exhibition path, although its large size makes it difficult to transfer physically.

In Brescia, four important masterpieces from a private collection in Bergamo will arrive (Doubting Thomas; Daedalus Attaching Wings to Icarus; Healing of Tobit; Christ Among the Doctors), three fundamental masterpieces from the Accademia Carrara including two night scenes, in which the artist specialized, and a St. John the Baptist from the convent of San Bartolomeo. Also on display will be the large painting of Vespasian Freeing Josephus, from Santa Maria Assunta in Soncino (CR), and three works from the Pinacoteca Tosio Martinengo: Doubting Thomas and two unpublished pieces.

Stom's creative journey can be divided into different seasons; from the initial one, carried out between Antwerp and Utrecht, to the Roman one, the most important and decisive for his career, the Neapolitan stay, documented between 1635 and 1638, then the Palermo period, around 1640, where he executed a remarkable quantity of large-scale works. In 1643, he was in Venice and was still present in 1645, after which there are no more documentary traces of him.