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By Root 1401 0

of avoiding the pursuing knights, but Caravaggio exposed himself to other risks. Such was the discontent with Spanish rule that by the early years of the seventeenth century much of the island’s interior had degenerated into lawlessness, with many regions at the mercy of competing clans of banditti. The Spanish authorities had retaliated against these roaming gangs with a degree of success, but travel in the rural hinterlands of Sicily was still considered dangerous by George Sandys in 1615: ‘This Vice-Roy hath well purged the country of Bandities, by pardoning of one for the bringing in or death of another: who did exceedingly, and yet do too much infest it. Besides, the upland inhabitants are so inhospitable to strangers, that betweene them both there is no travelling by land without a strong guard; whom rob and murder whomsoever they can conveniently lay hold on.’83 Despite the dangers, Caravaggio made it to Syracuse safely around the middle of October 1608.

The main source of information about Caravaggio’s activities in Sicily is a manuscript of 1724 entitled The Lives of the Messinese Painters, written by a priest and amateur painter called Francesco Susinno. Susinno’s sources were in the painters’ studios of Sicily, where memories of Caravaggio’s unprecedentedly emotive style of painting and perplexing personality were still strong more than a century after his death. In Susinno’s words, Caravaggio ‘was welcomed by his friend and colleague in the study of painting, Mario Minniti, a painter from Syracuse, from whom he received all the kindness that such a gentleman could extend to him. Minniti himself implored the Senate of that city to employ Caravaggio in some way so that he could have the chance to enjoy his friend for some time and be able to evaluate the greatness of Michelangelo, for he had heard that people considered him to be the best painter in Italy.’84

A commission from the Senate would mean protection from the Knights of Malta. The knights maintained an active presence in Syracuse, but so long as he was working for them, the city’s fathers would look after him. Once again, Caravaggio’s predicament would be his patrons’ opportunity. Once again, he would be given the chance to paint his way out of trouble.

The timing of his arrival in Syracuse could hardly have been more opportune. Previously strained relations between the religious authorities and the Senate had improved in the early years of the seventeenth century, as a result of which the city had embarked on a vigorous programme of renovating its churches and monasteries, commissioning new altarpieces and boosting the cults of local saints.

One of the most actively venerated of those saints was the fourth-century martyr St Lucy, a native of Syracuse said to have met her end during the persecutions of the Emperor Diocletian. In the severe climate of the Counter-Reformation, with so many in the Roman Catholic faith calling for a return to the simple piety of the early Church, the cults of the ancient Christian martyrs were resurgent. A statue of St Lucy had already been placed on the ramparts of Syracuse, and the Senate had agreed to finance the creation of a costly silver reliquary to house some of her supposed remains. Not long before Caravaggio’s arrival in the city, the authorities had also decided to restore the church most closely associated with her, the medieval basilica of Santa Lucia al Sepolcro. The church lay outside the city walls, having been built directly above the ancient Christian catacombs where, according to her legend, the virgin martyr had been interred. A local archaeologist and historian, Vincenzo Mirabella, had made a study of the site, re-emphasizing its significance in the sacred history of ‘Syracuse the Faithful’. The newly restored church would need a painting telling the story of Lucy’s martyrdom for its main altar. Who better to create it than ‘the best painter in Italy’? The altarpiece that he produced can still be admired in the Franciscan church outside the old city walls.85

The subject given to Caravaggio was The