5 Revealing Paintings by Caravaggio

Caravaggio transformed the religious art of his time, using bold compositions and an uncompromising sense of realism to give his pictures a genuine feeling of immediacy. The Conversion on the Way to Damascus is one of his best-known paintings, produced when he was at the height of his powers. The biblical story of Saul’s conversion was a popular subject for artists. A Roman citizen (he is dressed as a Roman soldier in this picture), he was actively persecuting Christians when, on the road to Damascus, he was thrown from his horse and blinded by a heavenly light. Following his conversion he changed his name to Paul. Characteristically, the artist played down the supernatural element, reducing the blinding, celestial rays to a modest glimmer in the upper right-hand corner of the picture. The process of the saint’s conversion is internalized—the unkempt groom is unaware of the drama, and seems more concerned with calming the frightened horse. Caravaggio’s critics accused him of undermining the sanctity of his religious themes by focusing on squalid details. Here, for example, they were unhappy with the veins on the groom’s leg and at the dominant role of the horse’s behind in the composition. Nevertheless, Caravaggio’s talent was recognized at the highest level. The Conversion was commissioned by Tiberio Cerasi, the treasurer-general of Pope Clement VII, to hang in his chapel in the church of Santa Maria del Popolo. The picture was viewed from the side, which accounts for the exaggerated perspective and foreshortening. (Iain Zaczek)

At the time of this painting, Caravaggio lived in great poverty and was moving from studio to studio to find work. He eventually set up on his own in 1595 and found a patron, Cardinal Francesco del Monte, who not only gave him board and lodging but opened the door to many commissions. Boy with a Basket of Fruit is a portrait of Caravaggio’s friend, the Sicilian painter Mario Minniti, as a young man. The overt eroticism of the image is accentuated by the steep light, which picks out Minniti’s bare shoulder, face, and hand. The sultry, provocative gaze may be an invitation to eat the fruit, but other interpretations are more convincing in the light of Caravaggio’s treatment of similar subjects and his known sexual interests. The basket of fruit appears in many of Caravaggio’s paintings, and on its own in Basket of Fruit (1597). He painted fruit with all its imperfections—bruised, rotten, and blighted. In this painting, however, the fruit is almost perfect. Fruit has many symbolic meanings, but the abundance here suggests that the artist painted them for their voluptuousness. Caravaggio led a disreputable life culminating in murder. He fled to Naples and then to Sicily, where Minniti sheltered him. Although he continued to paint, Caravaggio’s last years were spent in flight from various authorities. A pardon arrived three days after his death. His work influenced Orazio and Artemisia Gentileschi in Italy, Georges de la Tour in France, Rembrandt van Rijn in Holland, and Diego Velázquez in Spain, to name only a few. (Wendy Osgerby)

Caravaggio’s enduring fame stems partly from his extraordinary life and partly from his even more remarkable art. In life he earned a reputation as a swaggering brawler, became a fugitive after killing a man over a bet, and died at the age of 38. Caravaggio also produced paintings of breathtaking originality, becoming the most influential Italian artist of his generation. Narcissus belongs to the early part of Caravaggio’s career, and comparatively little is known about his work at this stage—indeed, some critics have even questioned whether this painting is actually by Caravaggio. Nevertheless, some of the artist’s trademarks are already apparent. From the outset, he favored the dramatic device of placing large, boldly lit figures in dark settings, like actors caught in a spotlight. He also had a tendency to use sensual young men as his models. More importantly, the composition is simple but eye-catching. Narcissus and his reflection form a loop, revolving around the boy’s illuminated knee. A similar effect can be found in Caravaggio’s Conversion on the Way to Damascus, which focuses on a horse’s hoof. The subject is drawn from Ovid. Narcissus was a handsome youth who fell in love with his own reflection and gradually pined away. At his death, he was transformed into the flower that now bears his name. Here, the doleful expression of the reflection already hints at this fate. Mythological subjects are quite rare in Caravaggio’s work, and the circumstances of any commission are unknown. (Iain Zaczek)

Caravaggio’s The Entombment, as well as being one of his most admired works (several artists, including Peter Paul Rubens, Jean-Honoré Fragonard, and Paul Cézanne made copies or adaptations of it), represents a point at which he began to depict mainly religious themes. The most striking aspects of the painting—the emphatic naturalism, the stark and almost cinematic use of light (Caravaggio, in effect, radicalized the technique of chiaroscuro), and the depiction of figures frozen in a moment of heightened emotional tension—are all representative of his mature style. Compositionally, the painting is organized around a strong diagonal that begins at the point of the Virgin Mary’s sister Mary Cleophas’s raised left hand, continues down through Mary Magdalene’s slumped shoulder and the elbow of Nicodemus, to finally rest upon the corner of the shroud within which Christ’s dead body is about to be wrapped. The four figures who surround Christ’s body are remarkable for their unconventional treatment; the Virgin Mary appears as a nun, and the arched figure of Nicodemus, historically a man of means, is dressed modestly as a symbol of his humility. Caravaggio makes the viewer occupy a position directly below ground level—essentially, the same space where the dead body of Christ is soon to be interred. This, along with Nicodemus’s imploring gaze, demonstrates the artist’s unflinching desire to evoke a degree of empathy within the viewer that is entirely at one with the emotive force of the scene itself. (Craig Staff)

Commissioned as a ceremonial shield by Cardinal Francesco Maria Del Monte, the Medici family’s agent in Rome, The Head of Medusa was presented to Ferdinand I de’ Medici, the grand duke of Tuscany, in 1601. For its subject matter, Caravaggio drew on the Greek myth of Medusa, a woman with snakes for hair who turned people to stone by looking at them. According to the story, she was killed by Perseus, who avoided direct eye contact by using a mirrored shield. After Medusa’s death, her decapitated head continued to petrify those that looked at it. Caravaggio plays with this concept by modeling himself for Medusa’s face—making him the only one who is safe from Medusa’s deadly gaze—and having to look at his reflection to paint the shield in the same way that Medusa caught her own image moments before being killed. Although Caravaggio depicts Medusa’s severed head, she remains conscious. He heightens this combination of life and death through Medusa’s intense expression. Her wide-open mouth exudes a silent but dramatic scream, and her shocked eyes and furrowed brow all suggest a sense of disbelief, as if she thought herself to be invincible until that moment. But Caravaggio’s Medusa does not have the full effect of scaring the viewer, since she does not look at us, thereby transferring the power of the gaze to the viewer and emphasizing her demise. Caravaggio displays huge technical achievements in this work by making a convex surface look concave and Medusa’s head appear to project outward. (William Davies)