With this understanding of the intentions of the Roman Baroque artists, Caravaggio decided to use light to an even greater extent in his paintings, in order to highlight their demonic effect; this was the “light from above”[48], which in reality resulted from the increasing use of lateral lighting in Baroque rooms, whether in churches, chapels or halls in the palazzi. With these natural architectural conditions, Caravaggio achieved a brilliant illumination in his paintings which, when positioned correctly, produced a wondrously harmonious effect.

 

The choice and application of the pigments went hand in hand with Caravaggio’s sense of artistic style. A distinct sulphur-yellow for the background and a luminous colour for the intermediary plane created the bearings from which he was able to form the space with his subject, and gave, from the first glance, a primary hierarchy to the scene. According to Baglione, however, this disorientated young artists, even the most talented amongst them. With these essential tools, Caravaggio created the foundations of a Baroque style which prevailed throughout the 17th century, and which was entirely different to the style of his pre-Roman works. Therefore, when Federigo Zucchero declared in front of Caravaggio’s paintings in San Luigi dei Francesi that he saw nothing in them but Giorgione’s thoughts[49], then his judgement meant little more than an exhortation that Caravaggio should work towards an even more personalised manner of painting. At heart, the heroic character of the works had nothing in common with the balanced style of the Venetian master of the High Renaissance.

 

The chapel achieved its full effect through Caravaggio’s work of art, which at that time was on the altar. It depicts Saint Matthew and the Angel and is now in the art gallery of the Berliner Museum, in trust[50]. “The work pleased no one,” reported Baglione, so that it required the artistic sense of the Marchese Vincenzo Giustiniani to save the rejected picture. “The latter took them, because they were the works of Caravaggio,” adds the biographer. If we look past the extremely realistic figure of the Evangelist, which at first does not stand out, and focus on the activity of the scene, the eye is drawn into a whirl of highs and lows, of heights and depths, of light and shade, and of coloured and monochrome areas, whose harmonious application and distribution suggest an eminently personal artistic sense. Palestrina’s style of mass setting would have to be called upon in order to characterise this peculiar overlapping of arioso and recitativo secco, and to describe the attraction of this most daring of Caravaggio’s compositions. The angel, who holds the hand of the bending Evangelist in a slightly affected manner, is very close in style to the shepherd boy from the Capitolinian Collection, and the Cupid of the two allegories of love. However, here, he appears even more natural and sovereign-like – a real model for Saraceni, who tried to capture this element of Caravaggio’s art, without, as the angel in his Rest on the Flight into Egypt in the Galleria Doria Pamphilj in Rome shows, achieving the rigorous strength of his teacher[51]. Caravaggio’s attempt to depict the messenger from heaven in a more adult, and at the same time more human, way than art had done so far cannot go unnoticed. In the same way that Cupid, traditionally represented as a putto, becomes an adolescent boy full of self-confidence and coquetry, Caravaggio’s depiction of the celestial companions of the holy figures is also radical.

 

His first successes, however, had a shadow cast over them by the refusal of several major works by some of his commissioners, as was the case in the cycle of Saint Matthew in the Church of San Luigi dei Francesi. This was also the case in The Conversion of Saint Paul and The Crucifixion of Saint Peter destined for the Cerasi Chapel. Next, Caravaggio painted a Saint Anna Metterza, the Madonna dei Palafrenieri, which makes reference to the commissioners. Today, this painting can be found in the Borghese Gallery, and it is of the same style as that of the Madonna di Loreto, but further developed. The three figures, Saint Anne, the Virgin Mary, and the child Jesus, are depicted standing, almost like sculptures, an aspect which is all the more emphasised by the neutral background. The figure of the young Christ, who is portrayed as a boy of around ten years of age, symbolically crushes the head of a snake, and shows a close resemblance to the adolescent models of the altar-piece of San Luigi dei Francesi and the Madonna di Loreto. Mary appears more mature and detailed in comparison with the picture in San Agostino, while Saint Anna, as donna abbrunata, evokes the wailing old woman in The Entombment in the Vatican. The pale greenish tone that permeates the painting clearly highlights Caravaggio’s light from above, and removes all familiar warmth from the colours and complexion. This was probably the excuse for the church authorities of San Pietro in Vaticano to have the painting removed from the altar. It was probably the reason why the Roman Curia of Saint Peter’s in the Vatican removed the work from the altar. Baglione reports that following this decision, the work was offered to Cardinal Scipione Borghese as a present, and it went from the Cardinal’s possession to the Borghese Gallery.

 

In his great altarpiece for the Church of Santa Maria della Scala in Rome, Caravaggio used a more favourable light. From the possession of the Duke of Mantua, who acquired the piece, and in whose gallery it was kept until the beginning of the 19th century, this work came into the collection in the Louvre[52]. It depicts a subject rarely seen in Italian paintings: The Death of the Virgin.