Caravaggio: Riding the wave

I visited the Caravaggio 2025 exhibition earlier this year in Rome and had a number of issues with it. One of my peeves was the organization of painter's oeuvre.  In a series of posts, I am attempting to place the paintings from the 2025 exhibition, and Caravaggio works that I have seen post that visit, into a more easily understood framework. This post continues that series.  

Caravaggio's work in the Contarelli Chapel received widespread acclaim and lifted him up on a wave that he rode with gusto until he came crashing back to earth in 1606. 

The first evidence of Caravaggio's newfound fame was a commission from Monsignor Tibero Cesari -- Treasurer-General to Pope Clement VIII -- to provide two paintings for the side panels of the Cesari Chapel of the Basilica di Santa Maria del Popolo. Cesari had recently bought the patronage rights to the chapel and commissioned Carracci and Caravaggio to provide the necessary artwork. Caravaggio's two paintings were supposed to commemorate Saints Peter and Paul but his first two submittals (Crucifixion of Saint Peter, c. 1600 - 1601 and Conversion of Saul, c. 1600 - 01) were not accepted. It is thought that Caravaggio painted the pieces prior to getting accurate measurements and the finished paintings did not fit the space. 

Basilica di Santa Maria del Popolo

These two paintings were subsequently bought by the Catholic Cardinal Giacomo Sennesia with the surviving one -- Conversion of Saul -- now resident in the Nicoletta Odescalchi Collection and shown at Caravaggio 2025. The two rejected paintings were replaced with Conversion on the Way to Damascus, 1601 and Crucifixion of St Peter, 1601. Both of these paintings were accepted and are present in the named chapel to this day.

Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio,
Conversion of Saul, 1600 - 01
(Nicoletta Odescalchi collection, Rome;
viewed at the Caravaggio 2025 exhibition,
7/18/2025)

The Conversion of St. Paul has the belly of the horse as the central point with St Paul almost out of the picture at the bottom of the frame. The foreshortened St Paul is held down by the power of the blinding light while the groom seems to be less aware than the horse of what is happening. 

Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio,
Conversion on the Way to Damascus, 1601
(Basilica di Santa Maria del Popolo, Rome;
viewed in situ, 9/24/2025)

According to Dr Ruggiero, the Crucifixion of St. Peter is one of the most moving works in the history of art. The burliness of the models suggest neighborhood recruits and the entire scene is rendered up close and personal to the viewer. The single rock is the only item that gives a sense of where we are. Dr Ruggiero suggested that it could also be a play on Peter as the rock on which the church will be built.

Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio,
Crucifixion of St Peter, 1601
(Basilica di Santa Maria del Popolo, Rome;
viewed in situ, 9/24/2025)

Neither of the two Cerasi Chapel paintings were included in the Caravaggio 2025 exhibition.

Two of Jesus' disciples were walking to Emmaus and are joined by a third traveler. This traveler is Jesus but he remains unrecognized until he reveals himself to the disciples while they are having dinner at an Inn in the town of Emmaus. According to the National Gallery, The Supper at Emmaus, 1601 was "painted at the height of Caravaggio's fame," was recorded at the Villa Borghese (Rome) in 1650 (likely having been in the collection of Cardinal Scipione Borghese, who died in 1633), and listed in a Borghese inventory of 1693.

Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio, The Supper at
Emmaus, 1601 (National Gallery of Art, London;
viewed in situ, 12/5/2024)

The museum sees the painting as "among his most impressive domestic religious pictures." The symbolism associated with the painting is illustrated below.

The Taking of Christ was painted for the Roman Marquis Ciriaco Mattei and continued the flurry of commissions that fell into Caravaggio's lap following his Contarelli Chapel success. The figures, according to the National Gallery of Ireland (the home of the painting), are placed close to the picture plane and "a strong light-and-dark contrast" gives the scene an" extraordinary sense of drama." In the painting, Judas has identified Jesus with a kiss and the Temple Guards are moving in for the arrest. John The Evangelist flees the scene in disarray at the far left while Caravaggio peers in on the far right.

Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio,
The Taking of Christ, 1602
(National Gallery of Ireland, Dublin;
viewed at the Caravaggio 2025 exhibition,
7/18/2025)

This painting has led a storied life. It remained in the Mattei Family for over 200 years. By the second half of the 18th Century a number of the Mattei paintings were reattributed, including the Caravaggio which was attributed to a Dutch Caravaggiste named Gerrit van Honthorst. In 1602 the painting was sold to William Hamilton Nisbett, a wealthy Scottish art collector doing business in Rome. The painting remained in his family for 119 years after which it was sold at auction in 1921 and again in 1922. Post the final auction it was held by Major Charles Hubert Francis Noel. In 1924 it was acquired by Dr Marie Lea-Wilson who brought it to Ireland. In the 1930s Dr Lea-Wilson presented the painting to the Jesuit Fathers of Leeson Street in Dublin where it hung in their dining room for 50 years. In 1990 Father Noel Barber contacted the National Gallery of Ireland to have its holdings assessed. Three years of careful study followed and the painting was once again attributed to Caravaggio and was placed on long-term loan to the National Galley of Ireland.

Saint John the Baptist in the Wilderness, 1602 - 04, is one of about eight Caravaggio paintings dealing with this topic. The painting was initially commissioned by the banker Ottavio Costa who thought to send it to a small church in Liguria. He was unable to let the painting go, however, and kept it with him in Rome all his life.

The subject is shown "sitting on a rock, leaning on his reed cross, caught in. a moment of deep meditation. Light and shadow, engulfing the ribcage and falling across the eyes, wrestle on the figure of this saint ..."

Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio,
Saint John the Baptist in the Wilderness, c. 1602 - 04
(The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO;
viewed at the Caravaggio 2025 exhibition,
7/18/2025)

In Caravaggio's Sacrifice of Isaac, a black-winged angel stays Abraham's knife-wielding right hand while Isaac stares out at us with a look of abject terror and a scream to match. The sheep looks imploringly at Abraham as if to say "You've got the wrong guy buddy."The action is taking place on high ground as there are buildings below the event level.While this event took place somewhere in today's Middle East, the background is reminiscent of a Renaissance Tuscan countryside.

Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio,
Sacrifice of Isaac, 1603 - 04 (Uffizi, Florence;
viewed in situ, 10/2/2025)

Another treatment of John the Baptist in the wilderness (1604 - 06). This one features a younger-faced John stripped of his ever-present camel skin robe and with elements of the cross cut off by the edge of the painting.

Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio,
John the Baptist (John in the Wilderness), c. 1604 - 1606
(Galleria Nazionale d'Arte Antica, Rome;
viewed at the Caravaggio 2025 exhibition,
7/18/2025)

In 1603 Ermete Cavalleti became patron of the Chapel of the Madonna of Loreto in the Basilica di Sant'Eustachio and commissioned a painting from Caravaggio which would represent the Madonna of the Pilgrims (also known as the Madonna of Loreto). The final product was placed in the chapel at the beginning of 1606.

Basilica di Sant'Eustachio

Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio,
Madonna of the Pilgrims (Madonna of Loreto),
1604 - 06 (Sant'Eustachio, Rome;
viewed in situ, 9/24/2025)

It was shortly after the completion of the Madonna of Loreto that things came crashing down around Caravaggio's head. He had always been on the wrong side of the law (Google Arts and Culture):

• He was in and out of prison
• He carried a sword
• He loafed about taverns
• He did not pay his rent for 6 months
• He harassed women
• He harassed anyone who slighted him
• He assaulted waiters, notaries and public officers.

But all that paled in comparison to the events of May 28th, 1606 when he killed Ranuccio Tomassoni in a duel and was sentenced to death by beheading. Caravaggio had been befriended by Costanza, daughter  of Marcantonio II of the famed and respected Colonna Family, and had visited the family palace in Rome in the past. And it was there that he sought refuge. 

At this time Caravaggio was no longer riding the wave; he was now embarked on the life of a man on the run.

Caravaggio: Scaling the Heights

The Caravaggio 2025 exhibition placed the paintings on show into categories with which I remain less-than-thrilled. For example, the paintings presented under the heading “Invigorating the Dark Shades,” are, to my mind, actually a subset of the earliest-mentioned category “Making a Name for Himself in Rome” because Caravaggio did not really become widely known until after his completion of the paintings in the Contarelli Chapel. 

 I traveled to a number of churches in Rome — the homes of these period pieces — so that (i) I could have pictorial evidence of their existence and (ii) to slot them into this discussion of the works of the Master. I title these paintings that bring Caravaggio fame “Caravaggio: Scaling the Heights.”

The first of these paintings was installed at the Contarelli Chapel of San Luis dei Francesi. This chapel was named after Matteo Contarelli, a Frenchman from Anjou and Cardinal Datary for Pope Gregory XIII. Contarelli had personally been involved with the design of the chapel since 1563 but died in 1585 prior to its completion. After his death, the Executor of his estate, and the congregation, resumed the project sometime between 1591 and 1593. They modified the initial plan to instead have Cavalier d’ Arpino work in the vaults and lunettes while the Flemish sculptor Jacob Cobert would work on the altar statue. This plan was itself abandoned in favor of a plan for paintings by Caravaggio. 

In 1599, thanks to the intervention of Cardinal Francesco Maria del Monte, Caravaggio received his first public commission to paint canvases for the Contarelli chapel in the church of San Luigi dei Francesi. The cycle, focused on the life of Saint Matthew, was not only a challenge for Merisi, who had to grapple with paintings of "historia" for the first time, it represents a crucial watershed in his production because, from that moment on, Caravaggio painted almost only religious paintings, and in them, we begin to see that "tragic" style that came to characterize his production. This chapel features some of the most emblematic religious-themed works of the mature Merisi.

The first painting that he did was the Martydom of St. Matthew. The painting captures the scene after Matthew had already been struck. He is reaching upwards for the palm, the symbol of martyrdom. Caravaggio can be seen leaning in from the back left. 

Contarelli Chapel

Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio, 
The Martyrdom of St. Matthew, 1599 - 1602
(San Luigi dei Francesi, Rome; viewed in situ, 9/24/2025)

According to the literature accompanying the display, “The great innovation … lies in the use of light in the composition: the natural light coming through the window and the light masterfully rendered in the painting by Caravaggio’s genius.”

The most famous of the paintings in the chapel, according to Dr. Rocky Ruggiero, is the Calling of St. Matthew. 

Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio, 
The Calling of St. Matthew, 1599 - 1600
(San Luigi dei Francesi, Rome; viewed in situ, 9/24/2025)

I have previously analyzed this painting and present the results herein.

He had two passes at St. Matthew and the Angel for the altarpiece. The first effort was rejected because it did not present St Matthew in the finest light. That piece was destroyed in Berlin in 1942. The second version is shown below where St Matthew writes his gospel, inspired by an angel.

Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio, 
St. Matthew and the Angel, 1602
(San Luigi dei Francesi, Rome; viewed in situ, 9/24/2025)

By this time Carravaggio had gained critical and popular acclaim.  The next phase of his career, as I see it, was him "riding the wave."