Caravaggio: A Life Sacred and Profane (4 page)

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 dream of transfiguration, a condition of oneness with Christ.’ It seems to be a self-portrait.

28.
The Rest on the Flight to Egypt.
A scantily draped adolescent angel stands between Mary and Joseph. Caravaggio borrowed the figure from a composition by Annibale Carracci (below).

29.
The Judgement of Hercules
by Annibale Carracci.

30.
Jupiter, Neptune and Pluto.
Decorations for the ceiling of del Monte’s alchemical laboratory, in his house near the Porta Pinciana.

31.
Bacchus.
The model for Caravaggio’s second depiction of the god of wine was probably his Sicilian friend and fellow painter, Mario Minniti.

32.
Martha and Mary Magdalen.
Fillide Melandroni, not so penitent courtesan, modelled for the Magdalen. Her friend Anna Bianchini possibly sat for the figure of Mary’s sister Martha.

33.
St Catherine.
Fillide also posed for this depiction of the Christian martyr Catherine. ‘She leans towards the wheel and its vicious spikes of grey steel as if leaning towards a lover.’

34.
Portrait of Fillide Melandroni.
She kept this portrait with her until her death. It later passed into the German national collections and was destroyed by fire during the Second World War.

35.
Judith and Holofernes.
Fillide once more, frowning with concentration as she plays the part of the Old Testament biblical heroine beheading a tyrant.

36.
The Entombment.
Caravaggio’s dead Christ is punishingly unidealised . . . a real corpse weighing heavily on those who struggle to put him to rest.

37.
Pietà
by Michelangelo. Caravaggio adapted the limp right arm of Michelangelo’s dead Christ for his own version of the same figure in
The Entombment
(above).

38.
The Calling of St Matthew.
‘And as Jesus passed forth from thence, he saw a man, named Matthew, sitting at the receipt of custom: and he saith unto him, Follow me. And he arose, and followed him’ (Matthew 9).