30. Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio,
The Calling of St. Matthew, 1599-1600.

Oil on canvas, 322 x 340 cm.

San Luigi dei Francesi, Rome.

 

 

Spagnoletto’s preference for martyr scenes originated in Spain, as did the portrayal of holy women and men who went into spiritual ecstasies in experiencing heavenly revelations. Among these martyr scenes, his main work is certainly the etching Martyrdom of St. Bartholomew (c. 1624) who is hoisted by two executioner’s assistants onto a mast in order to be tortured and flayed. This type of picture was very popular in Spain because it fitted in so well with the religious spirit of the time. Despite this tendency to portray the ugly and terrible in almost reckless truth, this many-sided artist could also create idyllic scenes which were in sharp contrast to his mystic-lyrical religious pictures, and could depict the strengthening of spiritual might over simple feelings in naive impartiality. Something like this is shown in the pictures of Ribera’s daughter in St. Agnes (1641) who is brought a robe by an angel, and in the multiple characterisations in St. Sebastian (1651), of the saint tied to a tree and collapsed and transfixed by an arrow. In the depiction of the carpenter Joseph with Jesus, Ribera shows himself to be a true artist, whose study of the human body and insight into the soul revealed a new beauty that later made a very strong impression on another of the great Spanish masters, Bartolomé Esteban Murillo.