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Authors: Desmond Seward
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the historian Giorgio Bonsanti as “a miracle of peace and quiet.” Unaware of the artist’s identity, one could imagine that it was the work of a saint. The model for the serene Virgin was the same model who sat for the Magdalene, a not unappealing young woman. Since the
Flight
dates from just before Caravaggio’s del Montean period, or from its beginning, she makes an interesting contrast to the so-called “homosexual pinups” from the same period.
Although painted at some time during the first half of Caravaggio’s stay at the Palazzo Madama,
St. Francis in Ecstasy
, now at Hartford, Connecticut, was not acquired by del Monte until many years after his protégé had left the
famiglia
. This is surprising in view of the cardinal’s close links with the Capuchin Franciscans of Sant’ Urbino, and given the likelihood that his friendship with them prompted his choice of subject. Del Monte’s delay in acquiring it was probably due to its novelty. Caravaggio seems to have started with the intention of painting St. Francis receiving the stigmata, a miraculous repetition on his own body of the wounds suffered by the crucified Christ. He then appears to have changed his mind. Instead of receiving the stigmata, Francis, portrayed as bearded like a Capuchin, has the wound on his right hand deliberately painted out and is shown swooning in an ecstasy of the sort later associated with Teresa of Avila or John of the Cross. It looks as if Caravaggio was aware of mystical prayer and the
Via Negativa
, the Dark Night of the Soul. The painting is so deeply felt that one almost wonders if it reflects the artist’s own experience. And, for the first time, he uses darkness and the chiaroscuro.
What made the
St. Francis
such a novelty was the ecstasy. Although mystical ecstasies were later to become familiar from Baroque representations of St. Teresa (notably by Bernini) and other saints, in the 1590s they were little known, startling, and open to an embarrassing sexual misinterpretation. Caravaggio seems to have been the first to paint this kind of mystical experience. Presumably, it was doubt about the ecstasy’s propriety that made del Monte hesitate before adding the picture to his collection. Ironically, while the cardinal saw nothing improper in the
Concert
or the
Lute Player
—both nowadays cited as evidence of homosexuality—and hung them in his gallery, it looks as if he feared the
St. Francis
might cause scandal.
Caravaggio chose a young woman with a strong, beautiful face for his
St. Catherine of Alexandria
. A fourth-century Egyptian martyr, Catherine’s executioners tried to put her to death with a spiked wheel, but when it broke, they finished her off with a sword. Here she kneels apprehensively in a white blouse and black velvet dress, her dark blue mantle partly hiding the great spiked wheel, while a martyr’s palm lies at her feet. Her large, rather coarse, red hands clutch an elegant sword, not an executioner’s clumsy tool but a gentleman’s long, slender rapier, designed for dueling. Perhaps it was Caravaggio’s own weapon.
The model for St. Catherine was a famous prostitute, Fillide Melandroni, who came from Siena, no mere streetwalker but a lady at the very top of her profession. Often, courtesans were surprisingly pious. According to Montaigne, even if making love, every young whore in Rome would jump out of bed and say her prayers when the Angelus rang. He adds, “These girls are always in the hands of some old bawd, whom they call ‘mother’ or ‘aunt.’ ”
Fillide posed for another picture. In the
Conversion of the Magdalene
, Mary is magnificently dressed, with sleeves of costly red velvet. She stands in front of a mirror but looks spellbound at her sister, Martha, who rebukes her for her vanity. The Magdalen is about to cover with a cloth the mirror that tells her of her beauty, for it is the moment of conversion. The tensionis heightened by strong light and shade. Having been lost for
Flight
dates from just before Caravaggio’s del Montean period, or from its beginning, she makes an interesting contrast to the so-called “homosexual pinups” from the same period.
Although painted at some time during the first half of Caravaggio’s stay at the Palazzo Madama,
St. Francis in Ecstasy
, now at Hartford, Connecticut, was not acquired by del Monte until many years after his protégé had left the
famiglia
. This is surprising in view of the cardinal’s close links with the Capuchin Franciscans of Sant’ Urbino, and given the likelihood that his friendship with them prompted his choice of subject. Del Monte’s delay in acquiring it was probably due to its novelty. Caravaggio seems to have started with the intention of painting St. Francis receiving the stigmata, a miraculous repetition on his own body of the wounds suffered by the crucified Christ. He then appears to have changed his mind. Instead of receiving the stigmata, Francis, portrayed as bearded like a Capuchin, has the wound on his right hand deliberately painted out and is shown swooning in an ecstasy of the sort later associated with Teresa of Avila or John of the Cross. It looks as if Caravaggio was aware of mystical prayer and the
Via Negativa
, the Dark Night of the Soul. The painting is so deeply felt that one almost wonders if it reflects the artist’s own experience. And, for the first time, he uses darkness and the chiaroscuro.
What made the
St. Francis
such a novelty was the ecstasy. Although mystical ecstasies were later to become familiar from Baroque representations of St. Teresa (notably by Bernini) and other saints, in the 1590s they were little known, startling, and open to an embarrassing sexual misinterpretation. Caravaggio seems to have been the first to paint this kind of mystical experience. Presumably, it was doubt about the ecstasy’s propriety that made del Monte hesitate before adding the picture to his collection. Ironically, while the cardinal saw nothing improper in the
Concert
or the
Lute Player
—both nowadays cited as evidence of homosexuality—and hung them in his gallery, it looks as if he feared the
St. Francis
might cause scandal.
Caravaggio chose a young woman with a strong, beautiful face for his
St. Catherine of Alexandria
. A fourth-century Egyptian martyr, Catherine’s executioners tried to put her to death with a spiked wheel, but when it broke, they finished her off with a sword. Here she kneels apprehensively in a white blouse and black velvet dress, her dark blue mantle partly hiding the great spiked wheel, while a martyr’s palm lies at her feet. Her large, rather coarse, red hands clutch an elegant sword, not an executioner’s clumsy tool but a gentleman’s long, slender rapier, designed for dueling. Perhaps it was Caravaggio’s own weapon.
The model for St. Catherine was a famous prostitute, Fillide Melandroni, who came from Siena, no mere streetwalker but a lady at the very top of her profession. Often, courtesans were surprisingly pious. According to Montaigne, even if making love, every young whore in Rome would jump out of bed and say her prayers when the Angelus rang. He adds, “These girls are always in the hands of some old bawd, whom they call ‘mother’ or ‘aunt.’ ”
Fillide posed for another picture. In the
Conversion of the Magdalene
, Mary is magnificently dressed, with sleeves of costly red velvet. She stands in front of a mirror but looks spellbound at her sister, Martha, who rebukes her for her vanity. The Magdalen is about to cover with a cloth the mirror that tells her of her beauty, for it is the moment of conversion. The tensionis heightened by strong light and shade. Having been lost for
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