A great sensuality emerges from his Boy with a Basket of Fruit and his Bacchus. Not limiting himself to a simple representation of the body from nature, the painter explored the representation of “the movements of the soul”, succeeding in animating his characters with extreme feelings such as pain, joy, fear, and metaphysical anguish (seen in Saint Catherine of Alexandria, Sick Bacchus, Amor Victorious, Boy Bitten by a Lizard, and Saint Francis in Prayer). The ambiguity of some of his figures, such as John the Baptist (Saint John the Baptist and Sleeping Cupid) is intended to lead us to a metaphysical questioning, which explains the lack of understanding on the part of others that affected the artist in his lifetime. In 1608, Caravaggio received from a Knight the commission for a painting on the theme of love. According to documents of the time, the challenge for the painter seems to have been to undertake the replica of a sculpture by Michelangelo, now lost. The use of chiaroscuro allowed him to create a young Eros in astonishing relief, comparable to that obtained in a sculpture in the round. Contrary to his Amor Victorious, in which the figure is radiant, beaming, and smiling, the painter chose, not without irony, to represent the mythological figure of Eros with the ungraceful features of a plump child sleeping with his mouth open in a nonchalant way. Was this sleeping Cupid an allusion to the celibacy to which his commissioner had devoted himself or did the painter wish to evoke the ephemeral character of amorous desire using the features of an apparently sick child?

 

In the same way, the introversion of Mary Magdalene struck by Grace, who the painter portrayed in her profound contemplation and in her gestures directed inwards, engages and touches us; we can feel the texture of Mary Magdalene’s hands, and the naturalness of her acceptance moves us. It is easy to imagine that Caravaggio, rather than simply looking at the model, sometimes enjoyed caressing and touching her, repeating the legendary gestures of his great namesake Michelangelo. What lightness in the gradation of tones he used to paint the natural skin complexion and the tone of the muscles!

 

The Madonna of the Rosary, probably painted for a Dominican Monastery, was acquired for the Dominican Monastery of Saint Paul in Antwerp, where it remained until the beginning of the 19th century. From there it went to Vienna. It depicts the handing out of the rosary to Saint Dominic and Saint Peter the martyr. To the right we see a kneeling Dominican prior, probably the donor of the painting, whilst to the left a mother with her boy is seemingly watching the scene as if from afar as a representative of the devout crowd. The flood of figures has been included in a spatial-poetic context, as can frequently be seen in Caravaggio’s paintings, though in this case only in the form of grandeur. That which he developed gradually in the painting of The Beheading of Saint John the Baptist in Malta, and in the altar-piece Burial of Saint Lucy in the Bellamo in Syracuse, as a further stylistic development of The Death of the Virgin from Santa Maria della Scala, comes out as a consciously artistic deed in this work of art, rendering the content even more important than could ever have been achieved with a composition purely dedicated to modelled figures. Now the flood of light that fills the painting does not glide vertically through the group of figures, but emanates from the depths, where the Madonna appears, to the front and then flows back to whence it came. The hues are also distributed accordingly throughout the picture, included in such a way that they seem to bring life to the whole charm of Caravaggio’s palette.

 

According to authenticated sources he did not finish the painting. The donor’s head on the right was later painted into the picture by Anthony van Dyck, who created his large rosary painting for the Oratorio del Rosario in Palermo in 1623.[77] The inferior composites of the work, which contribute to the Madonna’s majesty, have as important a role as the principal elements, and the communication between the characters as well as the supplication of the men occurs essentially in the positioning of the fingers. In the Nativity with Saint Francis and Saint Lawrence of Palermo and The Seven Works of Mercy in Naples, the great angels descending from the sky are presented in a perfectly harmonised movement. The painter also excelled in reproducing the lifelessness of a figure who sleeps deeply (Rest on the Flight into Egypt) or in ecstasy (The Ecstasy of Saint Francis), as well as the rigidity of dead bodies (The Death of the Virgin) or the tension of muscles in movement (The Conversion of Saint Paul).

 

This vision of human movement, which is embodied in Caravaggio’s characters preserved from the influence of the exterior world, is attributed by art historians to the intellectual heritage of a school that promoted the style of imitation. During his years of training in Simone Peterzano’s studio, Caravaggio had time to absorb the principles of his master. There, he acquainted himself with this painting “faithful to reality”, in which Lombard realism and the influence of the Venetian school in the treatment of light and colours were combined. These art historians consider the precursors of this style to be Jacopo Robusti, Michelangelo Buonarroti and, before him, Jacopo della Quercia. It is difficult to confirm a further origin of this manner of painting. Today, instead of constantly searching for the paternity of Caravaggio’s expressive methods in his predecessors, it would be more judicious to search for this origin within his own mind.