Caravaggio - part 3

Michelangelo Merisi (Michele Angelo Merigi or Amerighi) da Caravaggio, born the son of Fermo Merisi of Caravaggio in Milan, he trained there from 1584 onwards as an apprentice to Simone Peterzano. The date of his arrival in Rome is not documented. In the mid-1590s, he was taken into the household of his patron, Cardinal Francesco Maria del Monte, in the Palazzo Madama. Through Del Monte, he met Vincenzo Giustiniani, another important patron. In 1599, Caravaggio received his first public commission, the painting of the altarpieces of the Contarelli Chapel; this was followed by the side paintings in the Cerasi Chapel. From 1602/03 on, he was commissioned to paint works for the most important Roman families, including the Matteis, the Barberinis and the Borgheses. In May 1606, Caravaggio killed Ranuccio Tomassoni in a dispute, whereupon he fled to Naples. From 1607 on, he stayed in Malta, but was forced to flee from the island the following year due to a conflict and, after a one-year sojourn in Sicily, returned to Naples. On his journey back to Rome, Caravaggio died in Porto Ercole on 18 July 1610.

For more biographical notes see part 1, and for earlier works, see parts 1 & 2 also.

This is part 3 of a 3-part series on the works of Caravaggio:

c1605 Christ on the Mount of Olives
oil on canvas 154 x 222 cm
(Gemäldegalerie, Berlin - destroyed in WWII 1945)

The painting's authenticity has been disputed, but it is well attested in the collection of Marchese Vincenzo Giustiniani and his brother Cardinal Benedetto Giustiniani, its dimensions being virtually identical with those of a Caravaggio of the same subject listed in the Giustiniani inventory. In addition the model for Saint Peter (the reclining figure) appears identical with the two St Jeromes from Caravaggio's Roman period, Saint Jerome in Meditation and Saint Jerome, both around 1605-1606.

The subject is the episode related in the Gospel of Matthew (Matthew 26), when Jesus and his disciples went up to the Mount of Olives outside Jerusalem on the night when Christ was arrested; Jesus goes apart to pray, and returns to find the disciples sleeping. He awakens Peter with the rebuke, "What, would none of you stay awake with me one hour? Stay awake, and pray that you may be spared the test, for the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.” Judas then arrives with the Roman soldiers, and Christ's pointing finger seems to indicate their approach. The other two figures are Saint John (centre) and Saint James.

c1605 Saint Jerome in Meditation
oil on canvas 140.5 x 101.5 cm
Museum of Montserrat, Spain

Saint Jerome, hermit, Father of the Church, and responsible for the translation of the Bible into Latin, (the Vulgate Bible) was a popular figure in Caravaggio's time, and the artist painted him at least eight times (only three survive). Whether this was from personal choice or at the request of patrons is unknown, but it gave Caravaggio the opportunity to explore the potential – from an artist's perspective – of aged and wrinkled flesh. Jerome is shown here contemplating one of his symbols, the skull, a reminder of the inevitability of death and the vanity of worldly things.

The painting is probably from the Giustiniani collection (the collection of Caravaggio's patron the banker Vincenzo Giustiniani and his brother the cardinal Benedetto). Benedetto built up a large collection of religious works by the artist, and a St Jerome of the same dimensions as this one is in the Giustiniani inventory of 1638.

1606 Madonna with the Serpent
(aka Madonna and Child with St Anne)
oil on canvas 292 x 211 cm
Galleria Borghese, Rome

The painting was briefly exhibited in the parish church for the Vatican, Sant’Anna dei Palafrenieri, before its removal, presumably due to its unorthodox portrayal of the Virgin. It was subsequently sold to Cardinal Scipione Borghese, and now hangs in his palazzo (Galleria Borghese) where it shares space along with five other paintings by Caravaggio.

While not his most successful arrangement, it is an atypical representation of the Virgin for its time, and must have been shocking to some contemporary viewers. The allegory, at its core, is simple. The Virgin with the aid of her son, whom she holds, tramples on a serpent, the emblem of evil or original sin. Saint Anne, whom the painting is intended to honour, is a wrinkled old grandmother, witnessing the event. Flimsy halos crown the upright; the snake recoils in anti-halos. Both Mary and Jesus are barefoot; Jesus is a fully naked uncircumcised child. All else is mainly shadow, and the figures gain monumentality in the light.

1606-07 The Seven Works of Mercy
oil on canvas 390 x 260 cm
Pio Monte della Misericordia, Naples

The painting was made for, and is still housed in, the church of Pro Monte della Misericordia in Naples. Originally, it was meant to be seven separate panels around the church; however, Caravaggio combined all seven works of mercy in one composition which became the church’s altarpiece. 

American art historian John Spike notes that the angel at the center of Caravaggio's altarpiece transmits the grace that inspires humanity to be merciful.

Spike also notes that the choice of Samson as an emblem of Giving Drink to the Thirsty is so peculiar as to demand some explanation. The fearsome scourge of the Philistines was a deeply flawed man who accomplished his heroic tasks through the grace of God. When Samson was in danger of dying of thirst, God gave him water to drink from the jawbone of an ass. It is difficult to square this miracle with an allegory of the Seven Acts of Mercy since it was not in fact the work of human charity.

1607 Portrait of Fra Antonio Martelli
oil on canvas 118.5 x 95 cm
Pitti Palace, Florence

The portrait depicts one of the grand knights who in 1565; efficaciously defended the island of Malta from a much larger Ottoman Army. Until recently it was thought that this painting represented Alof de Wignacourt, Grand Master of the Order of the Knights of Malta, and that it was a preparatory study for the large and famous Portrait of Alof de Wignacour and his Page, but recent documentary discoveries indicate that it is the portrait of another prominent member of the Order, Antonio Martelli of Florence, Prior of Messina.

1609-10 Salome receives the Head of John the Baptist
oil on canvas 91.5 x 106.7 cm
The National Gallery, London

The story of the death of John the Baptist is related in the Gospel of Mark (6: 16–29). John had criticised King Herod for marrying his brother’s wife, Herodias, and she sought revenge. At Herod’s birthday feast, Herodias’s daughter Salome so delighted the King by her dancing that he promised her anything she wanted. Encouraged by her mother, she asked for the Baptist’s head, and the King had John executed.

This is a late work by Caravaggio, probably painted towards the end of his life. He has reduced the story to its essentials, focusing on the human tragedy and conveying the scene’s emotional power through a restricted range of colour, pronounced chiaroscuro and dramatic gesture. The brutish executioner places John’s head on a salver held by Salome, whose serious expression and sidelong glance are enigmatic. An elderly maidservant clasps her hands in grief, setting the emotional tone. Characteristic of Caravaggio’s mature works, the composition appears simple but actually hides a sophisticated physical and psychological interplay between the main protagonists.

1607 St. Jerome Writing
oil on canvas 117 x 157 cm
Saint John's Co-Cathedral, Valetta, Malta

The coat of arms in the bottom right corner of the painting is that of Ippolito Malaspina, Prior of the Order of the Knights of Saint John (the Knights of Malta) in Naples. Malaspina was a relative by marriage of Caravaggio's patron Ottavio Costa, a friend of his other patrons the Giustiniani brothers, and a cousin of Giovanni Andrea Doria, Prince of Genoa, who two years before had sheltered the artist after an earlier flight from Rome. It's possible that he may have had himself represented as the saint. Saint Jerome was thus a very important painting for the artist.

The subject seems oddly un-martial for a commission by a man whose raison d'etre was to fight the Turks – St Jerome was venerated as the translator of the Bible, which he is seen doing here. But Malaspina was not only a famous warrior, he was also a commissioner for the poor, orphans, and widows, and the painting may have been intended to emphasise both this aspect of his work and also the asceticism of the Order.

1607 The Crucifixion of Saint Andrew
oil on canvas 202.5 x 152.7 cm
The Cleveland Museum of Art, Ohio

The martyrdom of Saint Andrew, was supposed to have taken place in Patras, Greece. The Saint, bound to the cross with ropes, was said to have survived two days, preaching to the crowd and eventually converting them so that they demanded his release. When the Roman Proconsul Aegeas - depicted lower right, ordered him taken down, his men were struck by a miraculous paralysis, in answer to the saint's prayer that he be allowed to undergo martyrdom. From the 17th century Saint Andrew was shown on a diagonal cross, but Caravaggio would have been influenced by the 16th century belief that he was crucified on a normal Latin cross.

1607 The Flagellation of Christ
oil on canvas 286 x 213 cm
Museo di Capodimonte, Naples

According to art biographer Gian Pietro Bellori (1672), this work was commissioned by the di Franco (or de Franchis) family for a chapel in the church of San Domenico Maggiore in Naples. The family were connected with the Confraternity of the Pio Monte della Misericordia, for whose church Caravaggio had already painted “The Seven Works of Mercy.” It was moved to the museum at Capodimonte in 1972.

The The Flagellation of Christ had long been a popular subject in religious art—and in contemporary religious practice, where the church encouraged self-flagellation as a means by which the faithful might enter into the suffering of Christ. Caravaggio would have had in mind the famous fresco by Sebastiano del Piombo in the church of San Pietro in Montorio in Rome (see below). Caravaggio has reworked Piombo's composition by drastically reducing the picture space so that the sculptural figures seem presented on a shallow stage. He has, however, retained Piombo's sense of the flagellation as a kind of sadistic ballet, with the figures arranged rhythmically across the canvas.

The Flagellation of Christ  by Sebastiano del Piombo (1485-1547)
mural painting
San Pietro in Montorio, Rome

1607-08 St. John the Baptist at the Fountain
oil on canvas  73 x 100 cm
Collezione Bonello, Malta

St John the Baptist at the Fountain, in a private collection in Malta, is difficult to gain access to and consequently few scholars have been able to study it. John Gash treats it as by Caravaggio, pointing out the similarity in the treatment of the flesh to the “Sleeping Cupid,” recognised as by the artist and dating from his Malta period. The painting has been badly damaged, especially in the landscape. The work is known in two other variants, each slightly different.

The theme of the young John drinking from a spring reflects the Gospel tradition that the Baptist drank only water during his period in the wilderness. The painting displays typically Caravaggist extreme chiaroscuro (use of light and shadow), and is also typical in taking a young John the Baptist as its subject, this time set in a dark landscape against an ominous patch of lighter sky. "The mechanics of drinking and the psychology of thirst are beautifully conveyed through the artful manipulation of limbs and the carefully constructed head”. If it is in fact by the artist, it would have been painted during his approximately 15 months in Malta in 1607–1608.

1607-08 Portrait of Alof de Wignacourt and his Page
oil on canvas 195 x 134 cm
Louvre, Paris

Alof de Wignacourt joined the Order of the Knights of Saint John (the Knights of Malta) in 1564, aged seventeen, and distinguished himself the next year at the Great Siege of Malta, when the Turks were defeated and never returned to the island. He was elected Grand Master in 1601, determined to enhance the prestige of the Order and its new post-siege capital, Valletta. It was not surprising, therefore, that he would welcome the opportunity to have at his court the most famous painter in Rome and Naples, Michelangelo da Caravaggio.

Caravaggio arrived in Malta from Naples in July 1607 and according to his early biographers Giovanni Baglione and Giovanni Bellori, he began at once with portraits of Wignacourt and other knights from the highest ranks of the Order. This famous portrait shows the Grand Master in formal armour, holding his baton of command, every gleaming inch an image of the military might of the Knights. At the time Wignacourt was about sixty years old.

c1607-09 Salome with the head of St. John the Baptist
oil on canvas 114 x 137 cm
Royal Palace of Madrid, Spain

The early Caravaggio biographer Giovanni Bellori, writing in 1672, records the artist sending a Salome with the head of St. John the Baptist  from Naples to the Grand Master of the Knights of Malta, Fra Alof de Wignacourt, in the hope of regaining favour after having been expelled from the Order in 1608.^[1] It seems likely that this is the work, according to Caravaggio scholar John Gash. Gash also notes that the executioner, looking down at the severed head, helps transform the painting "from a provocative spectacle into a profound meditation on death and human malevolence."

c1607 Christ at the Column
(aka The Flagellation of Christ)
oil on canvas 134.5 x 175.5 cm
Musée des Beaux-Arts de Rouen, France

1608 Sleeping Cupid
oil on canvas 72 z 105 cm
Galleria Palatina, Pitti Palace, Florence

This unidealised Cupid, brightly lit before a shadowy background, sleeps with his characteristic bow and arrow of love still in hand. The sleeping Cupid was a familiar subject in antiquity and enjoyed a revival among sixteenth- and seventeenth-century writers and artists. It was commissioned for Fra Francesco dell'Antella, Florentine Secretary for Italy to Alof de Wignacourt, Grand Master of the Knights of Malta, and an old inscription on the back records that it was painted in Malta in 1608.

The subject of a sleeping Cupid, bowstring broken and arrows cast aside, usually signifies the abandonment of worldly pleasures, and dell'Antella may have commissioned it as a reminder of his vow of Chastity. 

1608 The Annunciation
oil on canvas 285 x 205 cm
Museum of Fine Arts of Nancy, France

The painting has been considerably damaged and retouched, and what remains of Caravaggio's brushwork is the angel, who bears a resemblance to the figure in John the Baptist at the Fountain. The illusionistic treatment of the angel, floating on his cloud and seeming to protrude outside the picture plane, is more Baroque than is normal for Caravaggio, but the contrast between the energetic pose of the heavenly messenger and the receptive Mary is dramatically and psychologically effective. The loose brushwork is typical of Caravaggio's later period.

The painting was given by Henry II, Duke of Lorraine, to his primatial church in Nancy as the main altarpiece, and was perhaps acquired by one of the Duke's sons in the course of a visit to Malta in 1608.

1608 The Beheading of Saint John
oil on canvas 361 x 520 cm
Saint John's Co-Cathedral, Valetta, Malta

On a nearby table stands Salome, who has a golden platter in her hands ready to receive the head of John the Baptist. Herodias or a bystander who realises the execution is wrong, stands by in shock as a jailer issues instructions and the executioner draws his dagger to complete the beheading. The Golden Legend, not the Bible, is the source of the scene's popularity among Italian artists, including Caravaggio himself. Caravaggio's signature, which he inked into the red blood oozing from the Baptist's cut throat, can be found nowhere else in the artist's work. Figures are roughly life-sized, but there is a lot of empty space in this image because the canvas is so large.

For Caravaggio, a prisoner of the Knights of Malta, his time there provided the inspiration for his work. The number of props and the level of detail in the props used are typical of his later paintings.

1608-09 The Toothpuller (attributed to Caravaggio)
oil on canvas 140 x 195 cm
Galleria Palatina, Pitti Palace, Florence

The case in favour of recognising The Tooth Puller as was first advanced by the scholar Mina Gregori in 1992, and discussed by John Gash in an article in Melita Historica in 1998. On the side of arguments for genuineness, almost every figure in the painting is based on figures in other, genuine, works by Caravaggio, and from such a variety of sources and cities that it is almost inconceivable that any Caravaggisti could have seen them all; the style is typical of Caravaggio's late style, specifically his Maltese stay in 1607/1608; and he had begun his career in Rome with broadly similar genre works. On the other hand, there is no other surviving example of a genre painting by Caravaggio after about 1600, and, of course, there is no mention of the painting – or of any late-period genre painting – in sources such as Giovanni Bellori, who otherwise seems to have been thorough in seeking out Caravaggio's works.

c1608 Burial of Saint Lucy
oil on canvas 408 x 300 cm
Santa Lucia al Sepolcro, Syracuse, Italy

According to The Golden Legend, Saint Lucy had bestowed her wealth on the poor, in gratitude for the miraculous healing of her mother. Denounced as a Christian by her own suitor who wrongly suspected her of infidelity, she refused to recant, offered her chastity to Christ, and was sentenced to be dragged to a brothel. Miraculously, nothing could move her or displace her from the spot where she stood. She was pierced by a knife in the throat and, where she fell, the church of Santa Lucia al Sepolcro in Syracuse was built.

Caravaggio had escaped from prison on Malta in 1608, fleeing to Syracuse. There, his Roman companion Mario Minniti helped him get a commission for the present altarpiece. Caravaggio painted it c1608, for the Franciscan church of Santa Lucia al Sepolcro. The choice of subject was driven by the fact that St. Lucy was the patron saint of Syracuse and had been interred below the church.The subject was unusual, but especially important to the local authorities, who were eager to reinforce the local cult of St. Lucy, which had sustained a setback with the theft of her remains during the Middle Ages.

1609 Adoration of the Shepherds
oil on canvas 314 x 211 cm
Interdisciplinary Regional Museum of Messina, Sicily

In this painting, Caravaggio has made a very spiritual and famous legend appear like a much more human and realistic affair. Historically, The Adoration of the Shepherds is based around several shepherds arriving not in time for the birth of Jesus Christ, but shortly after. In this scene, Jesus, Joseph and Mary can be seen laying on the floor of the famously stark and barren stable; a very humble setting for one of the most famous figures of all time.

The legendary donkey and ox are both present in the background, giving weight to the circumstances of this historically unproven, but no less revered event. The shepherds themselves appear equally humble, devoid of the typical opulence one often associates with this story, and wait to be introduced by Joseph himself. Perhaps of most importance overall is the fact that Caravaggio has, it has been claimed, deliberately left out many of the spiritual elements of the birth of Christ. This is a simple pauper mother giving birth to her child; the witnesses do not sit in stark admiration, but instead appear to appreciate the significance nonetheless. There is no almighty beam of light coming into the stable, despite there definitely being room for it in the top left of the image. Jesus himself is not surrounded by any spiritual or non-earthly aura; he is a simple, believable newborn.

1609 Nativity with St. Francis and St. Lawrence
oil on canvas 268 x 197 cm

This painting has been missing since 1969 when it was stolen from the Oratory of Saint Lawrence in Palermo, Sicily. Investigators believe the painting changed hands among the Sicilian Mafia in the decades following the robbery and may still be hidden. A replica was commissioned in 2015 and now hangs in the altar of Saint Lawrence.

1609 The Raising of Lazarus
oil on canvas 380 x 275 cm
Museo Regionale, Messina, Italy

In August 1608 Caravaggio fled from Malta, where he had been imprisoned for an unknown crime, and took refuge in Sicily with his friend, the artist Mario Minniti. Through Minniti's intercession he procured a number of important commissions, including this for the church of the Padri Crociferi in Messina, where it was presented by the wealthy Genoese merchant Giovanni Battista de' Lazzari on 10 June 1609. The fee was a thousand scudi, more than double any Caravaggio had received previously.

The old story that Caravaggio had a freshly buried body exhumed for this painting is probably apocryphal, but not beyond the bounds of possibility. Some of the figures were said to be modelled on members of the community, but Caravaggio has also relied on his memory—the whole design is based on an engraving after Giulio Romano and his Jesus is a reversed image of the Christ who called Matthew to join him in The Calling of Saint Matthew. The painting is in poor condition and much restored, and it's possible that some passages are the work of assistants.

1609-10 Salome receives the Head of John the Baptist
oil on canvas 91.5 x 106.7 cm
The National Gallery, London

The story of the death of John the Baptist is related in the Gospel of Mark (6: 16–29). John had criticised King Herod for marrying his brother’s wife, Herodias, and she sought revenge. At Herod’s birthday feast, Herodias’s daughter Salome so delighted the King by her dancing that he promised her anything she wanted. Encouraged by her mother, she asked for the Baptist’s head, and the King had John executed.

  This late work by Caravaggio, probably painted towards the end of his life. He has reduced the story to its essentials, focusing on the human tragedy and conveying the scene’s emotional power through a restricted range of colour, pronounced chiaroscuro and dramatic gesture. The brutish executioner places John’s head on a salver held by Salome, whose serious expression and sidelong glance are enigmatic. An elderly maidservant clasps her hands in grief, setting the emotional tone. Characteristic of Caravaggio’s mature works, the composition appears simple but actually hides a sophisticated physical and psychological interplay between the main protagonists.

1610 David with the Head of Goliath
oil on canvas 200 x 100 cm
Galleria Borghese, Rome

According to Giovanni Pietro Bellori (1672), this artwork was executed for Scipione Borghese, and Goliath’s head was, in reality, Caravaggio’s self-portrait. Moreover, a document of 1613 connected to the payment for the frame of work having similar sizes. In addition, Scipione Francucci Imola’s poem, in a manuscript of 1613, included a description of this artwork, which was already in the Galleria Borghese.

There is an assumption that the boy is the same model as the one who posed for St John the Baptist. Caravaggio also treated the subject of this painting as a work from 1607, located in the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna, and an earlier work from 1600, located in the Prado in Madrid.

1610 Saint John the Baptist reclining
oil on canvas 106 x 179.5 cm
Private Collection

This painting is one of the seven versions of the Lombard painter has dedicated to the theme of "Saint John"where John the Baptist as a child or as a teenager portrait.

The canvas is identifiable with the painting that was at Palazzo Cellammare in Naples, at Costanza Colonna, Marchioness of Caravaggio, along with a work of the same subject (the San Giovanni Battista of the Borghese collection) and a Magdalene, as evidenced by the letter the Apostolic Nuncio in the Kingdom of Naples Deodato Gentile to Cardinal Scipione Caffarelli-Borghese in Rome, on July 29, 1610.

1610 The Denial of Saint Peter
oil on canvas 94 x 125.4 cm
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

Caravaggio’s late works depend for their dramatic effect on brightly lit areas standing in contrast to a dark background. The picture, a marvel of narrative concision, was painted in the last months of Caravaggio’s tempestuous life and marks an extreme stage in his revolutionary style. Standing before a fireplace, Peter is accused of being a follower of Jesus. The pointing finger of the soldier and two fingers of the woman allude to the three accusations and to Peter’s three denials. In 1613 the painting belonged to Guido Reni, who received it from the engraver Luca Ciamberlano as compensation for debts.

c1610 Saint John the Baptist
(aka John in the Wilderness)
oil on canvas 159 x 124 cm
Galleria Borghese, Rome

St John the Baptist was one of Caravaggio’s favourite subjects. John the Baptist is depicted in this painting as younger than in other artworks. It is one of Caravaggio’s late works datable to 1610. The subject has a simple pose and thoughtful gaze, and it would appear to be the portrait of a shepherd boy at rest with the striking red drapery on the side.

In the painting, John the Baptist is shown as a boy slumped against a dark background, and a sheep nibbles at a dull brown vine. Since the Renaissance, he has often been portrayed not as a mature man but as a young boy. In the painting, he is sitting lost in thought.

The canvas was created with one of Caravaggio’s last works, St John and a Magdalen. It was part of the baggage the artist brought with him to Rome as a gift for Scipione Borghese in exchange for a papal pardon. In 1613, the artwork was already in the collection, as mentioned in the poem by Scipione Francucci d’Imola. The canvas first appeared in the inventory of 1693 with an attribution to Caravaggio. From the inventory of 1790 to the fidei-commissum of 1833, the painting was assigned to the French painter Valentin de Boulogne.