THE ART OF CARAVAGGIO

BACCHUS (c.1598) (above) According to an early biographer, the artist painted this portrait from his own image in a mirror. The androgynous Bacchus is shown in a provocative pose, displaying his rounded, plump shoulder and lazily fingering his velvet bow. The overripe still-life and the god's dirty fingernails are striking examples of Caravaggio's realism.

THE GIPSY FORTUNE TELLER (c.1594) (above)Caravaggio's biographer Bellori tells us how he "called a gipsy who chanced to pass in the street, and having led her to his inn, portrayed her in the act of predicting the future, as these women of the Egyptian race are wont to do". Above, the foppish man, who is evidently smitten with the girl, does not notice she is removing his ring.

JUDITH BEHEADING HOLOFERNES (c.1598) (above) In earlier dipictions of the subject, the Jewish heroine Judith is usually shown holding the severed head of the enemy general she has killed, but Caravaggio gives us the full, undiluted horror of the death agony; she appears almost to be sawing his head off.

DECORATIONS FOR THE CONTARELLI CHAPEL (above) In 1599 Caravaggio recieved his first major commission for the two paintings of the life of St Matthew which decorate the side walls of the Contarelli Chapel. An alterpiece was added in 1603.

BACK TO MAIN PAGE>
BACK TO CARAVAGGIO>