Caravaggio_ A Life Sacred and Profane - Andrew Graham-Dixon [253]
1. Portrait of Caravaggio by Ottavio Leoni. A Roman barber named Luca described the painter just as he appears here: ‘a stocky young man, with a thin black beard, thick eyebrows and black eyes … dressed all in black’.
2/3. The sacro monte at Varallo, in modern Piedmont. In a series of chapels linked by mountain paths, polychrome figures play out stories from the Bible in vivid and often bloody mises-en-scène.
4. The Lamentation by Guido Mazzoni. Caravaggio was influenced by this intense form of realism. He knew Mazzoni’s work well and painted a picture for the Neapolitan church that housed this very sculpture.
5. Mary Magdalen by Donatello. Donatello’s disconcertingly lifelike sculptures may also have shaped Caravaggio’s imagination.
6. Carlo Borromeo (detail) by Carlo Dolci. Dour and ascetic, Borromeo was the dominant force in Milan during Caravaggio’s formative years. He would remain legendary in the city for centuries.
7. The Adoration of the Shepherds (detail) by Simone Peterzano. The young Caravaggio signed a contract of apprenticeship with Peterzano, but just what he learned from this feeble disciple of Titian is not clear.
8. The Farnese Gallery by Annibale Carracci (detail). For his Farnese patrons, Carracci daringly revived pagan and erotic mythology in Counter-Reformation Rome.
9. Perseus and Andromeda by Giuseppe Cesari. The young Caravaggio spent some unhappy months as an assistant to Cesari, who used him to paint fruit and flowers.
10. Boy Peeling a Fruit. This may be one of Caravaggio’s earliest surviving pictures. If so, it shows how little progress he had made as a painter by his early twenties.
11. Boy with a Basket of Fruit: ‘a blushing, smooth-skinned adolescent, with dark curly hair and an expression of amorous intensity on his face’ who may represent the Groom in the biblical Song of Songs.
12. Boy Bitten by a Lizard. In the language of the Italian street the bitten finger represented the wounded phallus.
13. Boy Bitten by a Crayfish by Sofonisba Anguissola.
14. Self-Portrait as Bacchus. ‘The picture has a sorceror’s apprentice feel to it, with hints of illicit goings on …’
15. Bacchus and Ariadne by Titian.
16. The Cardsharps. A young aristocrat is cheated by two feral and predatory conmen.
17. The Gypsy Fortune-Teller. ‘A sweet siren, she enchants with smooth incantations.’
18. Cardinal Francesco Maria del Monte by Ottavio Leoni. Friend to writers, musicians, artists and scientists, del Monte was Caravaggio’s first patron.
19. The Palazzo Madama in Rome, where Caravaggio lived for several years under del Monte’s protection.
20. Medusa. ‘Whomsoever she looks at, she freezes. From the flux of life she takes a moment and makes it last for all time. That is what Caravaggio does too. Her magic is his magic, a petrifying art.’
21. The Musicians. By painting a rehearsal instead of an actual performance, Caravaggio went behind the scenes of the traditional concert picture.
22. Le Concert Champêtre by Titian. Music in the pastoral mode.
23. Concert by Callisto Piazza. Music as erotic stimulus.
24. The Lute Player. This may be Pedro Montoya, a castrato favoured by del Monte. His swollen cheeks are consistent with the hormonal effects of castration.
25. Basket of Fruit. Caravaggio’s only surviving pure still life painting.
26. The Penitent Magdalen. In a paroxysm of repentance, she has torn off her gold and her jewels and scattered them on the ground. By seating the Magdalen so low, Caravaggio emphasized her humility.
27. St Francis of Assisi in Ecstasy. ‘The picture offers a consoling