The serene sky reflected in the calm water, the caress of light on the oak tree, the cherry laurel and the white poplars; the tender flair of the marshland reeds with their frayed leaves surrounding the three-leaved brambles have been brought together in order to create a harmony, a source of beauty to which the young artist was sensitive. In addition, Caravaggio paid particular attention to the expression of the face, as one can see in the apparent pain of the child in Boy Bitten by a Lizard. The instantaneousness of the boy’s reaction and the mask of pain on his face are so unmistakeably realistic and accurate that they cannot help but evoke feeling in the viewer. The working of the facial expression is remarkable and the intensity of feeling within the work is extraordinary. Throughout his career, Caravaggio worked ceaselessly at the expressions and feelings of his subjects.

 

After several months, according to Baglione, Caravaggio, independent of a master, occupied himself with painting some self-portraits in the mirror. There are several works today which could be examples of these, but their attributions are still debatable[28]. Amongst the impressions collected in Venice, for example, there was a painted self-portrait made up of warm tones, essentially brown in colouring, with which the thick white paint of the collar and clothes contrasted strikingly, and a soft, gentle face despite the sword “which sat so loosely in its sheath”. The somewhat heroic golden tone sets the painting within his early Roman period. Another self-portrait, at one time in the collection of the Duke of Orleans, is currently missing[29]. It showed the artist in a beggar-like outfit, seen almost entirely from behind in a lost profile pose, holding a mirror in front of him, in which his weathered but not unattractive face is reflected; next to him is a skull. He next painted Baglione as Bacchus with grapes “with much diligence, but little sentiment”[30]. This painting, which was at one time lost, was seized by tax officials from the Cavalier d’Arpin in 1607. It can now be found in the Galerie Borghese, where it has been for several years. Caravaggio may have represented himself here as the sick Bacchus, excited to be recreating reality. The youth’s pale and wan complexion gives away his poor health. Is this the malaria, as many critics like to think, that debilitated Caravaggio? Whether or not this is so, the dubious whiteness of the cloth indicates the painter’s convalescence. The fruit in the foreground is also noticeable as a silent witness to the still lifes of Caravaggio’s early work. Likewise, the fact that he placed this fruit in the foreground, rather than the god Bacchus, betrays the artist’s typical will to go against all the supposed “rules” of the time. Sensuality reigns in this painting, and the exposed shoulder of the figure only serves to reinforce this impression. Gorging himself on grapes, the youth turns towards the viewer as if in invitation. The realism in this painting is striking, and one can see the extent of Caravaggio’s mastery of the art of feeling and suggestion. The figure’s contrapposto pose highlights the influence of the statuary art of the artist’s namesake, Michelangelo Buonarotti.