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If you were to die tomorrow,
how would you be remembered?

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What have you done
that has any significance?

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Will God welcome you to heaven?

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Did you do him justice?

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He tested the hell out of me.

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He gave me hands
that can create great beauty

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yet cursed me with a deep anger.

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A murderous anger.

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And now my enemies
have multiplied in the dark.

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These wounds are
testament to that.

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Idiot! Wow.

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Look at me.

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Hiding like a sewer rat

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on a boat sailing to a city that

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once embraced
me as the greatest,

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exalted me like those of old:

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Michelangelo, Raphael, da Vinci.

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My paintings, my passion,

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set on the highest altar
an artist can desire.

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They loved me.

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And now they condemn me.

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Those snakes of Rome.

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But I was good at
playing their game.

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The best.

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So why have they deserted me?

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I know that forgiveness
has been promised

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and I trust it will be honoured.

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But I will, on bended knee
and bearing gifts,

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return to my rightful place
as their master of light.

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I hate all this snivelling
and grovelling to Papal power,

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but I can't be a
fugitive forever.

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I need redemption.
I need sanctuary.

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For there are many that seek my
head on a platter... literally.

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I know what it is
to paint mortality.

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To tell a story of human drama,
of violence and betrayal.

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Of life and death.

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And yes, I may die tomorrow,

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made to disappear,
never to be seen again.

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My fate is in the
hands of others.

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So, I ask...

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who will remember my name
when mortality strikes me down?

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Will my art be my saviour?

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Who will tell my story?

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Caravaggio was
born in Milan in 1571.

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Now, Milan was a tragic city

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through the suffering from
plague, famine, warfare,

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through the years
of Caravaggio's childhood.

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The life of Caravaggio and
the art of Caravaggio overlap.

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It's not possible
to understand Caravaggio's art

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if you don't
understand his life.

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You understand Caravaggio's life
by looking at his works.

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The darkness of Caravaggio's art

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and the sort of sense
that he is an abandoned man,

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proud, satirical, difficult,
not easy to get on with,

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and it's been
suggested this goes back

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to Caravaggio's very stormy
and tragic childhood.

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Making was in my blood.

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I remember, as a child in Milan,

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hearing the sound of my
father's hammer carving stone.

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The workshop filled with a fine

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dust floating in
shafts of light.

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His virtuous toil only matched
by a deep religious conviction.

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But like most of Europe,

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Milan was going through
a period of tribulation.

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The city was
riddled with plague.

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People everywhere suffering,
starving,

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breathing in that deadly stench.

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A purgatory of souls.

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Darkness descended
on our little world

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while the devil
took his revenge.

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God knows how I survived.

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We fled to my grandfather's
house in nearby Caravaggio,

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in search of shelter
from the horrors.

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But darkness
haunted the doors of

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many a house in
Caravaggio too...

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including my own.

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His father and his grandfather

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die in the plague
on the same day.

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And his mother, Lucia Arattori,

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is left with a whole
family of small

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children to look
after and bring up.

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In 1584, Caravaggio's mother
put a large sum of money

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into buying Caravaggio
an apprenticeship

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in Milan with Simone Peterzano.

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Peterzano thought that he was,

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signed himself
as, a pupil of Titian.

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So, he brought to Milan
some knowledge of Venetian art

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which I think was important
to Caravaggio.

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My brain was buzzing with
theories, pictorial designs,

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how to mix colours,

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oils, frescos,
drawings, observing

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nature, and painting life.

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After mother died,

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I had to wait two years
for my meagre inheritance.

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Two years!

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But when it came through,
I was out of there.

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Out of Caravaggio, out of Milan,

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rushing towards my destiny
as a great artist,

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in the city I most desired...

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Rome.

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When Caravaggio arrives in Rome
from Lombardy,

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it seems that he first painted
copies of devotional works.

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This is the lowest job you could
get as an artist starting out.

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And he did that in exchange
for room and board.

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Then he's said to have painted
heads, three heads a day.

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I mean, real sort of hack work.

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And then he painted what
was called half-length figures.

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You don't get a
sense of permanence.

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You don't get a sense
of progression either.

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You get the impression he's

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jumping from
workshop to workshop.

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Rome was tricky at first.

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I remember the cramped
conditions and meagre meals

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offered at my lodgings
with Pucci, the priest.

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We used to call
him Monsignor Salad

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because that's all
you got to eat at night!

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But every artist needed
a patron in Rome.

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You worked the streets, selling
your efforts for a poor return,

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while your stomach ached.

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Rome in the 1590s was in
a process of transformation.

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After the Sack of Rome,
its population had dwindled.

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The monuments that had made it
so glorious

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were covered with
weeds and grass.

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And all travellers going to Rome
in the 16th century

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comment on the atmosphere
of desolation and poverty.

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First of all, there was a
vast building programme

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instigated by the energetic
building pope, Sixtus V,

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who wanted to turn Rome
into a symbol

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of the centre of Christianity.

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It has the Papal Court,
which is at the centre.

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And circulating
around this court

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are the courts of
the great nobles,

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the courts of the ambassadors,
the courts of the cardinals.

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And all these are sources
of artistic patronage.

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But then a stroke of luck.

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Old man Cesari offered me a

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position in his
workshop. Brilliant!

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He was a prominent artist
who was well connected.

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Pope Clement VIII, who
loved him, knighted him,

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and gave him the name
Cavaliere d'Arpino.

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His studio was like oxygen,

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but Cesari was all baby-blue
heavens, pillowy clouds,

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airy ascensions
accompanied by cherubs

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and choirs of attractive angels.

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He had me working on decorative

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motifs for his
church commissions.

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When he moved
into Cesari's studio,

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he was following
a well-worn path

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that had happened
in the Renaissance.

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I mean, artists went
into artists' studios

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and they mixed paints,
they created pigments.

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And slowly they'd
be given more to do.

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I think in Caravaggio's case,
as you see,

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there's still life with fruit,
baskets of fruit,

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then those still
lives with fruit

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become still lives
with beautiful young men.

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Two, three
figures, four figures,

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five figures, more virtuosity.

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Michelangelo, Raphael, Titian.

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I so wanted to be like them,

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to be revered by popes,
commissioned by popes,

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revel in my connection with God,
directly through my painting.

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Remembered and adored.

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I was beginning to attract the

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attention of some
influential folk.

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Like Cardinal Francesco
Maria del Monte,

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collector of the new, supporter

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of youth and with
the Pope's ear.

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Cardinal del Monte is a key
early supporter of Caravaggio's,

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and I think
Caravaggio really owes

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his turn in his
fortunes to Del Monte.

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And led to his patronage
and also lodgings in his palace.

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This was really key,

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that Caravaggio finally had a

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wealthy patron
looking out for him.

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The fact that he was painting
these unusual subjects

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of musicians, fortune tellers,
gipsies,

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everyday subjects, that
he elevated and gave status,

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almost like they
were history painting.

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Caravaggio was truly innovative.

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Everything in his painting
drags you into that space.

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I think personally,
that he also knew his market

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and they were going to end up

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in the private boudoirs
of cardinals and princes,

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and they're of
young, beautiful men.

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I think in the Sick Bacchus,
we see a self-portrait,

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and it's an
extraordinary painting

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because it's a
painting of illness.

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It's a painting, probably of him
in his early twenties,

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probably suffering from malaria,

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00:17:20,876 --> 00:17:23,667
and at that time malaria was
known as the Roman disease.

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It was thought that you got
malaria by staying out too late,

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and if anybody stayed out
too late, it was Caravaggio.

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But it's also a painting about

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the fact that
everything changes.

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It decays, fruit decays.

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The grape contains bloom.

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If you taste it, you'll have
that dry, acidic taste

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of the sweetness of the grape.

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And he's holding the grapes as
though he's about to crush them.

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He doesn't just
do a sick Bacchus,

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he does a beautiful Bacchus

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with the reflections in
the glass and the wine.

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00:17:56,042 --> 00:17:59,167
But it's almost like
he has to do a sick Bacchus

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as a counterpoint
to the beautiful Bacchus

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00:18:02,834 --> 00:18:04,565
as a warning for the ills of

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drinking wine and
eating raw flesh,

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which was what you did
in the bacchanalia.

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00:18:24,918 --> 00:18:27,042
It would seem that he always

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lived a fairly solitary life,
a bohemian life.

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00:18:34,000 --> 00:18:39,584
He frequented
the various taverns.

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00:18:39,667 --> 00:18:43,209
He went around with a sword.

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He liked to party.

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00:18:46,501 --> 00:18:51,083
As far as family is concerned,

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he never married
and had no children.

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00:18:55,334 --> 00:19:02,250
Some documents reveal that
he did have lovers though.

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00:19:07,417 --> 00:19:11,542
These are quite
sporadic testimonies

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00:19:11,626 --> 00:19:17,125
but they certainly suggest

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00:19:17,209 --> 00:19:24,209
he had lovers
both female and male.

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Boy Bitten by Lizard is one of
Caravaggio's key early works,

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painted in Rome
in the mid-1590s.

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And it shows a
boy in half length

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with this beautiful still life
beside him.

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And he is shown in a kind of
dramatic moment of pain.

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There's a lizard tenaciously
clinging to his finger

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and he's recoiling in pain, but
it's a very enigmatic picture.

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A lot has been written
about what it means.

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Is it an allegory,
perhaps an allegory of touch?

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Is it a warning of the perils
lurking behind beautiful things?

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The lizard was clearly hidden
amongst the fruit.

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The picture is very sensual.

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00:21:05,501 --> 00:21:07,841
There is a sensuality
to a lot of these

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00:21:07,924 --> 00:21:10,042
early pictures of
half-length boys

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00:21:10,125 --> 00:21:11,456
and there's something sort of

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effeminate about the
rose behind the ear

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00:21:13,667 --> 00:21:15,209
and this has often been seen

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as an interpretation
of Caravaggio's own sexuality

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00:21:17,542 --> 00:21:18,870
but we have to remember he's not

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painting these
pictures for himself,

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we think he's painting them
for the open market.

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00:21:23,000 --> 00:21:26,250
And he often gives more
prominence to the still life.

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00:21:26,334 --> 00:21:28,690
The still life is often the most

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00:21:28,773 --> 00:21:31,667
accomplished part
of these pictures.

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00:21:31,751 --> 00:21:35,375
We have to remember Caravaggio's
own words, were that, you know,

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painting still life required as

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much artistry as
painting figures.

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00:21:39,918 --> 00:21:42,375
And this was a really
revolutionary thing to say.

250
00:21:42,459 --> 00:21:44,259
In the, kind of,
genre hierarchy,

251
00:21:44,342 --> 00:21:46,334
still life is really
at the bottom.

252
00:21:49,334 --> 00:21:51,751
"Spogliando modelli
e alzando lumi."

253
00:21:51,834 --> 00:21:54,959
So, undressing models,
so, painting people from life

254
00:21:55,042 --> 00:21:58,792
and lifting or enhancing
the light effects.

255
00:21:58,876 --> 00:22:01,363
These are the two
most revolutionary

256
00:22:01,446 --> 00:22:03,459
aspects of Caravaggio's art.

257
00:22:23,751 --> 00:22:26,834
Interesting, the way
the world can turn.

258
00:22:26,918 --> 00:22:30,459
The look of horror
as you lose your head.

259
00:22:30,542 --> 00:22:33,959
The way a face
contorts in a convex mirror.

260
00:22:34,042 --> 00:22:35,917
Here is Medusa,

261
00:22:36,000 --> 00:22:40,125
feared for her ability to turn
men into stone with a glance.

262
00:22:40,209 --> 00:22:43,959
The hideous Gorgon with her
headdress of living serpents.

263
00:22:52,751 --> 00:22:56,167
I'll tell you what a bit
of talent can earn you.

264
00:22:56,250 --> 00:22:59,792
Food, board, steady work

265
00:22:59,876 --> 00:23:03,584
and the occasional introduction
to some very rich people.

266
00:23:04,959 --> 00:23:06,459
What's not to like?

267
00:23:10,125 --> 00:23:13,209
Rome has an extremely dark side.

268
00:23:13,292 --> 00:23:17,834
It is a city that is intensely
skewed towards the male.

269
00:23:17,918 --> 00:23:21,125
And to satisfy the needs
of this male population

270
00:23:21,209 --> 00:23:24,542
there's a huge
prostitute population.

271
00:23:24,626 --> 00:23:28,125
And they're confined to a part
of Rome called the Ortaccio,

272
00:23:28,209 --> 00:23:30,042
that is "the evil garden".

273
00:23:30,125 --> 00:23:32,439
And beside the
prostitutes, there's

274
00:23:32,522 --> 00:23:34,584
a huge population of the poor,

275
00:23:34,667 --> 00:23:36,959
of the dispossessed, of beggars,

276
00:23:37,042 --> 00:23:41,209
of soldiers fighting,
rowdiness in the streets.

277
00:23:43,209 --> 00:23:45,667
I got drunk on danger.

278
00:23:45,751 --> 00:23:51,000
Taverns, whores, tricksters,
thieves and lots of brawls.

279
00:23:51,083 --> 00:23:53,195
I gave off with my
knuckles if needs

280
00:23:53,278 --> 00:23:55,709
be, or with the flash
of blade on flesh.

281
00:23:55,792 --> 00:23:58,401
Honour and respect
is all you have

282
00:23:58,484 --> 00:24:01,250
in the shadows of
the Campo Marzio.

283
00:24:01,334 --> 00:24:07,375
Arrogant youth, cheats, wayward
souls and the grifting bravi.

284
00:24:30,792 --> 00:24:34,459
Caravaggio reproduced
on the canvas

285
00:24:34,542 --> 00:24:37,459
an image he knew well,

286
00:24:37,542 --> 00:24:39,792
an image of a tavern,

287
00:24:39,876 --> 00:24:45,125
of players playing cards,

288
00:24:45,209 --> 00:24:47,667
of players cheating at cards

289
00:24:47,751 --> 00:24:52,959
The important thing is
that this painting represents

290
00:24:53,042 --> 00:24:57,167
the condemnation
of the card game

291
00:24:57,250 --> 00:25:04,334
which depicts a young man
being cheated by the cardsharps.

292
00:25:04,417 --> 00:25:09,792
And he shows all this
with the typical light

293
00:25:09,876 --> 00:25:11,709
of his early artistic years.

294
00:25:11,792 --> 00:25:16,417
In those early years,
Caravaggio made very colourful,

295
00:25:16,501 --> 00:25:18,834
very bright paintings.

296
00:25:22,209 --> 00:25:24,459
I'm not stupid.

297
00:25:24,542 --> 00:25:26,375
I knew my choice of models

298
00:25:26,459 --> 00:25:29,626
offended some of our
holy brothers in the Church.

299
00:25:31,417 --> 00:25:33,627
But my models were my friends,

300
00:25:33,710 --> 00:25:36,918
available and willing
for a bit of coin.

301
00:25:37,542 --> 00:25:41,000
Like Mario Minniti, for example.

302
00:25:41,083 --> 00:25:44,501
He was a pretty boy,
I painted him a lot.

303
00:25:44,584 --> 00:25:49,918
And then there was
my vivacious little Fillide.

304
00:25:50,542 --> 00:25:53,292
She'd do anything for money.

305
00:25:53,375 --> 00:25:57,459
A queen amongst the whores
and villains of the Ortaccio.

306
00:25:59,167 --> 00:26:03,542
Fillide was hardly a virgin
and never a saint,

307
00:26:03,626 --> 00:26:06,709
but she made a great Catherine.

308
00:26:06,792 --> 00:26:09,542
Her raw beauty still haunts me.

309
00:26:15,834 --> 00:26:19,209
Now, Saint Catherine
was of noble descent,

310
00:26:19,292 --> 00:26:21,000
a virgin martyr,

311
00:26:21,083 --> 00:26:25,459
and she's usually represented
as an enchanting looking figure

312
00:26:25,542 --> 00:26:27,751
with her eyes cast heavenwards.

313
00:26:27,834 --> 00:26:31,876
Instead of this, Caravaggio
paints this young Roman woman

314
00:26:31,959 --> 00:26:35,167
who looks very directly
at the spectator.

315
00:26:36,876 --> 00:26:40,002
A kind of ambiguity
that is completely

316
00:26:40,085 --> 00:26:43,375
new in representations
of holy figures.

317
00:26:44,292 --> 00:26:48,501
These wonderful draperies in
dark violet and midnight blue.

318
00:26:54,042 --> 00:26:58,459
Hovering beside her
is this astonishing sword.

319
00:26:58,542 --> 00:27:02,209
And the sword
is Caravaggio's duelling rapier.

320
00:27:02,292 --> 00:27:04,917
And the bottom of it
seems tinged with blood.

321
00:27:05,000 --> 00:27:06,125
Though I think, in fact,

322
00:27:06,209 --> 00:27:09,375
it's the reflection of the red
from the cushion in the sword.

323
00:27:09,459 --> 00:27:11,876
But the sword is
sort of hovering there.

324
00:27:11,959 --> 00:27:14,751
And Caravaggio's arranged
Saint Catherine's hands.

325
00:27:14,834 --> 00:27:16,626
They're sort of
long and elegant,

326
00:27:16,709 --> 00:27:18,959
as though they're not quite
holding the sword,

327
00:27:19,042 --> 00:27:21,337
and I think it does
give the picture

328
00:27:21,420 --> 00:27:23,667
a strange, sexual,
erotic tension,

329
00:27:23,751 --> 00:27:25,917
this deadly rapier
in the centre,

330
00:27:26,000 --> 00:27:27,667
Saint Catherine's hands

331
00:27:27,751 --> 00:27:30,751
and this Roman woman
looking out so directly.

332
00:27:33,250 --> 00:27:35,876
Now here he is in
the city of Raphael,

333
00:27:35,959 --> 00:27:38,876
the city of Michelangelo,
and he doesn't draw.

334
00:27:38,959 --> 00:27:41,501
He paints directly
from the life model.

335
00:27:41,584 --> 00:27:42,755
But it's the first time that

336
00:27:42,838 --> 00:27:44,626
Caravaggio has
used these life studies

337
00:27:44,709 --> 00:27:47,709
to create a dramatic
historical story.

338
00:27:47,792 --> 00:27:50,667
So, it is really a big
turning point in his art.

339
00:28:10,042 --> 00:28:12,459
Of course, I also gave Fillide

340
00:28:12,542 --> 00:28:16,209
the starring role
as Judith beheading Holofernes.

341
00:28:16,292 --> 00:28:18,876
Hm. She loved it!

342
00:28:31,459 --> 00:28:33,000
That look!

343
00:28:33,083 --> 00:28:36,459
Oh, I remember that scowl.

344
00:28:36,542 --> 00:28:39,501
She could cut you with a glance,

345
00:28:39,584 --> 00:28:42,417
though the slice of a sword
was much more effective

346
00:28:42,501 --> 00:28:45,083
when it came to beheading
Assyrian generals.

347
00:28:48,000 --> 00:28:49,997
Dressed to impress
and catching the

348
00:28:50,080 --> 00:28:52,042
eye of any man
who might see her,

349
00:28:52,125 --> 00:28:56,250
she played the rich
and beautiful heroine so well.

350
00:28:57,417 --> 00:29:00,196
This general,
Holofernes, was beguiled

351
00:29:00,279 --> 00:29:02,626
into a drunken stupor by Judith

352
00:29:02,709 --> 00:29:04,667
who then approached his bed.

353
00:29:04,751 --> 00:29:08,709
She took hold of his hair and
slashed twice across his neck.

354
00:29:08,792 --> 00:29:11,151
Her maid was on
standby to bundle

355
00:29:11,234 --> 00:29:13,459
their gory trophy into a sack.

356
00:29:14,959 --> 00:29:18,366
The act of violence,
brought into

357
00:29:18,449 --> 00:29:21,834
focus by the horror on his face,

358
00:29:21,918 --> 00:29:24,959
painted at the
exact point of death.

359
00:29:25,042 --> 00:29:27,250
Deliberate on my part.

360
00:29:27,334 --> 00:29:32,167
His last thought
in all its bloody reality.

361
00:29:32,250 --> 00:29:35,209
Took hours to get the angle
of that head right.

362
00:29:36,709 --> 00:29:40,417
The chance to
convey truth, rare.

363
00:29:41,876 --> 00:29:47,709
Profound, unblinking visions
of painful truth, rare.

364
00:29:49,292 --> 00:29:54,292
The wealthy can buy chapels
to pave their way to heaven,

365
00:29:54,375 --> 00:29:57,991
but the artist can
wield his brush

366
00:29:58,074 --> 00:30:01,876
to venerate his
pathway with truth.

367
00:30:44,751 --> 00:30:45,834
At last!

368
00:30:45,918 --> 00:30:50,250
I got my chance when
the French Cardinal Cointerel

369
00:30:50,334 --> 00:30:55,209
bought a side chapel
inside San Luigi dei Francesi.

370
00:30:55,292 --> 00:30:59,417
It's a spectacularly beautiful
and awe-inspiring church

371
00:30:59,501 --> 00:31:01,375
that I used to
visit all the time

372
00:31:01,459 --> 00:31:04,417
when I started living
in the Piazza Madama.

373
00:31:05,375 --> 00:31:10,959
Del Monte shoved me forward and
I got my first major commission.

374
00:31:11,042 --> 00:31:14,792
My first series of paintings
with multiple figures.

375
00:31:14,876 --> 00:31:20,459
My first stab at real dramatic
truth. The Contarelli Chapel.

376
00:31:24,042 --> 00:31:28,167
Not one, but three
large paintings.

377
00:31:29,250 --> 00:31:32,334
The subject,
biblical, of course.

378
00:31:32,417 --> 00:31:34,834
St Matthew, the
tax collector one.

379
00:31:34,918 --> 00:31:37,501
Story done to death,
but who cares?

380
00:31:37,584 --> 00:31:39,876
Most people can't
read the Bible anyway.

381
00:31:39,959 --> 00:31:44,751
They have to witness the story
in all its pictorial glory.

382
00:31:44,834 --> 00:31:47,667
And no one had witnessed before
what I produced.

383
00:31:50,209 --> 00:31:53,417
With malachite,
bone black, red lake,

384
00:31:53,501 --> 00:31:56,584
lead white, vermilion,
and yellow ochre,

385
00:31:56,667 --> 00:31:59,292
all mixed with walnut oil,

386
00:31:59,375 --> 00:32:01,876
I created magical alchemy!

387
00:32:05,209 --> 00:32:08,626
The first thing that happens
when you enter the church

388
00:32:08,709 --> 00:32:10,917
and you see the
Contarelli Chapel,

389
00:32:11,000 --> 00:32:15,626
you have this amazing
dynamic explosion of colour.

390
00:32:16,792 --> 00:32:18,476
The scale and the grandeur of

391
00:32:18,559 --> 00:32:20,751
these things
outstrips everything.

392
00:32:20,834 --> 00:32:22,792
And then on top of that,

393
00:32:22,876 --> 00:32:25,167
you've got this
really, really intelligent way

394
00:32:25,250 --> 00:32:27,626
of constructing
the three stories.

395
00:32:29,667 --> 00:32:32,083
He'd painted fortune tellers
and card sharps,

396
00:32:32,167 --> 00:32:33,959
but he'd never done
anything like this.

397
00:32:34,042 --> 00:32:36,751
So, it was a big gamble,
with a lot resting on it,

398
00:32:36,834 --> 00:32:40,417
but the French needed this
church painted by the year 1600,

399
00:32:40,501 --> 00:32:42,751
because it was the Jubileo.

400
00:32:42,834 --> 00:32:44,808
The public unveiling of those

401
00:32:44,891 --> 00:32:47,584
pictures in 1600
caused a sensation.

402
00:32:48,209 --> 00:32:50,125
But you have to remember,
until this point,

403
00:32:50,209 --> 00:32:52,584
Caravaggio's paintings
have not been accessible.

404
00:32:52,667 --> 00:32:55,375
They've been inside
people's homes, in palazzi,

405
00:32:55,459 --> 00:32:58,501
only to a very small few
they'd been accessible.

406
00:32:58,584 --> 00:33:00,917
So, suddenly, for the
wider artistic community

407
00:33:01,000 --> 00:33:02,561
this is their first chance to

408
00:33:02,644 --> 00:33:04,626
see what Caravaggio's
capable of.

409
00:33:04,709 --> 00:33:07,709
And we know artists
flocked to Rome to see them,

410
00:33:07,792 --> 00:33:10,792
that Caravaggio received
the most exaggerated praise.

411
00:33:10,876 --> 00:33:12,339
They were jealous.
He was suddenly

412
00:33:12,422 --> 00:33:13,834
the most famous artist in Rome,

413
00:33:13,918 --> 00:33:15,699
going from being
relatively unknown

414
00:33:15,782 --> 00:33:17,334
to being a sort of superstar.

415
00:33:19,918 --> 00:33:23,501
In a gloomy chapel
lit mostly by candles,

416
00:33:23,584 --> 00:33:28,125
I harnessed the darkness
with a single shaft of light.

417
00:33:28,209 --> 00:33:31,501
Sunlight. Our light.

418
00:33:31,584 --> 00:33:34,209
God's blazing orb.

419
00:33:38,334 --> 00:33:41,165
"And Jesus saw a
man called Matthew

420
00:33:41,248 --> 00:33:43,917
at his seat in the customs house

421
00:33:44,000 --> 00:33:47,542
and said to him, 'Follow me, '

422
00:33:48,542 --> 00:33:52,083
and Matthew rose
and followed him."

423
00:34:01,959 --> 00:34:05,292
It's just an
astonishing painting.

424
00:34:05,375 --> 00:34:07,709
There's no perspective like
in the Renaissance.

425
00:34:07,792 --> 00:34:11,501
And all the figures on the left
seem to be responding.

426
00:34:11,584 --> 00:34:15,125
And there's that lovely moment
where Matthew points at himself

427
00:34:15,209 --> 00:34:17,083
saying, "What, I?"

428
00:34:18,000 --> 00:34:21,584
And then Christ's hand comes out
in this wonderful gesture,

429
00:34:21,667 --> 00:34:25,542
which is a direct copy
of the Sistine Chapel,

430
00:34:25,626 --> 00:34:28,209
this finger pointing
towards Matthew.

431
00:34:28,292 --> 00:34:31,250
And the two guys, either
side of him, the spadas,

432
00:34:31,334 --> 00:34:34,000
these kind of hired,
glamorous thugs,

433
00:34:34,083 --> 00:34:36,054
one's about to
leap off, thinking

434
00:34:36,137 --> 00:34:38,250
that Christ
threatened his master,

435
00:34:38,334 --> 00:34:41,209
and the other one's pulling back
with the light hitting him,

436
00:34:41,292 --> 00:34:43,417
thinking, what's going on?

437
00:34:43,501 --> 00:34:47,042
And the light goes
across Christ's head,

438
00:34:47,125 --> 00:34:50,876
and just picks out
a slight sliver of a halo.

439
00:34:50,959 --> 00:34:52,501
It's absolute genius.

440
00:34:54,792 --> 00:34:56,667
What Caravaggio introduces there

441
00:34:56,751 --> 00:35:00,834
is a new kind of narrative
where the actions, the gestures,

442
00:35:00,918 --> 00:35:04,209
the expressions are ambiguous.
You can't always decipher them.

443
00:35:04,292 --> 00:35:06,584
I think his contemporaries
would have enjoyed this

444
00:35:06,667 --> 00:35:08,167
in the same way that we do.

445
00:35:08,250 --> 00:35:09,368
Like us, they would have

446
00:35:09,451 --> 00:35:11,250
wondered, which
figure is Matthew?

447
00:35:11,334 --> 00:35:12,952
Is Matthew actually about to get

448
00:35:13,035 --> 00:35:15,000
up and follow
Christ, or is he not?

449
00:35:15,083 --> 00:35:18,209
Is the figure at the end of the
table meant to be the young man

450
00:35:18,292 --> 00:35:20,330
who could not
throw his riches aside

451
00:35:20,413 --> 00:35:22,417
and pass through
the needle's eye?

452
00:35:24,209 --> 00:35:29,209
Now, he did introduce a new kind
of inward turned expression,

453
00:35:29,292 --> 00:35:32,042
a new language of gesture,

454
00:35:32,125 --> 00:35:35,501
that has the, sort of,
fleeting ambiguities

455
00:35:35,584 --> 00:35:38,584
that would have interested
contemporary observers.

456
00:35:40,250 --> 00:35:45,501
Caravaggio's light
is a particular light.

457
00:35:45,584 --> 00:35:47,584
It clearly has various meanings.

458
00:35:47,667 --> 00:35:51,209
It represents precisely the
light that illuminates the scene

459
00:35:51,292 --> 00:35:53,375
in a theatrical way,

460
00:35:53,459 --> 00:35:57,792
but it also represents
the light of God, who redeems.

461
00:35:57,876 --> 00:36:04,417
And light is Caravaggio's ally.

462
00:36:04,501 --> 00:36:09,042
Caravaggio embraced
light like a friend.

463
00:36:09,125 --> 00:36:14,417
Light allowed him
to remove the dark,

464
00:36:14,501 --> 00:36:17,167
to eliminate the dark,

465
00:36:17,250 --> 00:36:20,584
to show the things
that happen in the dark.

466
00:36:20,667 --> 00:36:25,375
The dark is like a presence
that he felt inside him.

467
00:36:25,459 --> 00:36:31,042
He knew he was a great artist,
but also a great sinner.

468
00:36:31,667 --> 00:36:37,292
The shadow and the darkness
increasingly dominate the light.

469
00:36:49,292 --> 00:36:52,542
In the darkness,
recoiling on the floor

470
00:36:52,626 --> 00:36:56,125
and pierced by a shaft
of divine illumination,

471
00:36:56,209 --> 00:36:58,459
we see the apostle Matthew,

472
00:36:58,542 --> 00:37:00,292
a former tax collector,

473
00:37:00,375 --> 00:37:04,167
whose calling has redeemed him
from the dark abyss of sin

474
00:37:04,250 --> 00:37:06,792
and guided him
on a righteous path.

475
00:37:07,751 --> 00:37:10,917
The King of Ethiopia
lusted after Matthew's niece

476
00:37:11,000 --> 00:37:12,751
but Matthew rebuked him,

477
00:37:12,834 --> 00:37:15,876
because she was a
bride of Christ, a nun.

478
00:37:15,959 --> 00:37:21,334
So, the king sent a soldier
to kill Matthew for the offense.

479
00:37:21,417 --> 00:37:24,301
He was slayed
and left humiliated,

480
00:37:24,384 --> 00:37:26,417
alone in his martyrdom,

481
00:37:26,501 --> 00:37:30,250
surrounded by a crowd
of passive onlookers...

482
00:37:30,334 --> 00:37:32,542
including me.

483
00:37:32,626 --> 00:37:38,167
I made sure I was present,
a witness to the act.

484
00:37:38,250 --> 00:37:40,292
No one was rushing
to save Matthew,

485
00:37:40,375 --> 00:37:43,876
but I believe my empathy
is plain to see.

486
00:37:43,959 --> 00:37:47,011
A discerning
observer of morality,

487
00:37:47,094 --> 00:37:49,959
the human condition, and faith.

488
00:37:50,042 --> 00:37:53,209
All delivered with
consummate skill.

489
00:37:55,918 --> 00:37:57,910
He includes
himself partly to say,

490
00:37:57,993 --> 00:38:00,125
this is the world
that I have made,

491
00:38:00,209 --> 00:38:03,959
this is realistic painting, and
what an astonishing artist I am.

492
00:38:04,042 --> 00:38:06,532
And I think no
painter who didn't

493
00:38:06,615 --> 00:38:08,959
feel the sort of power of sin,

494
00:38:09,042 --> 00:38:13,250
of possible damnation, of guilt,
could have painted these works.

495
00:38:13,334 --> 00:38:16,209
And I think also,
on a very simple level,

496
00:38:16,292 --> 00:38:18,334
that no artist who didn't have

497
00:38:18,417 --> 00:38:21,542
a genuine religious response
to the Bible

498
00:38:21,626 --> 00:38:26,042
could have painted them
with such emotion for humankind,

499
00:38:26,125 --> 00:38:29,000
and I think, above all, perhaps,
in Caravaggio's paintings,

500
00:38:29,083 --> 00:38:31,334
with such a feeling for the idea

501
00:38:31,417 --> 00:38:35,667
that Christ came for the poor
and for the dispossessed.

502
00:38:41,375 --> 00:38:44,667
In the same year I painted
the Martyrdom of Matthew,

503
00:38:44,751 --> 00:38:49,667
I watched a heretic friar
called Bruno burn at the stake.

504
00:38:51,542 --> 00:38:53,000
What a spectacle!

505
00:38:55,125 --> 00:38:58,065
Like Copernicus,
Bruno had declared

506
00:38:58,148 --> 00:39:00,834
that the Earth circled the Sun,

507
00:39:00,918 --> 00:39:03,000
which was bad enough.

508
00:39:03,083 --> 00:39:07,000
What was worse was his
denial of the Virgin Mary.

509
00:39:07,083 --> 00:39:12,459
His denial of the divine Christ,
his denial of eternal damnation.

510
00:39:13,959 --> 00:39:15,250
What a madman!

511
00:39:16,792 --> 00:39:21,501
Just goes to show,
one word from the Pope

512
00:39:21,584 --> 00:39:23,626
can damn a blasphemous friar...

513
00:39:25,083 --> 00:39:26,959
or a wayward artist.

514
00:39:40,125 --> 00:39:41,709
You've got these
three paintings.

515
00:39:41,792 --> 00:39:44,584
The one you're first facing
is Saint Matthew and the angel,

516
00:39:44,667 --> 00:39:49,167
where the angel recounts
the gospel to Saint Matthew.

517
00:39:49,250 --> 00:39:51,346
It has this amazing
moment in it,

518
00:39:51,429 --> 00:39:53,542
which I love in the whole cycle.

519
00:39:53,626 --> 00:39:56,120
Just on the edge
of the painting,

520
00:39:56,203 --> 00:39:58,626
Matthew's teetering on a stool,

521
00:39:58,709 --> 00:40:01,334
and the stool just edges off
the front of the painting,

522
00:40:01,417 --> 00:40:03,584
and it's that gesture you do
when somebody says

523
00:40:03,667 --> 00:40:05,334
you've got to get this down.

524
00:40:05,417 --> 00:40:08,250
You've got to write this
down, quick. Write this down.

525
00:40:08,334 --> 00:40:09,792
And the angel's
up top recounting

526
00:40:09,875 --> 00:40:11,459
all the things he
needs to put in.

527
00:40:12,709 --> 00:40:15,501
He picks up the first thing,
a stool and it's tottering,

528
00:40:15,584 --> 00:40:16,917
like an urgency.

529
00:40:17,000 --> 00:40:18,604
Saint Matthew's
got to get this gospel

530
00:40:18,687 --> 00:40:20,459
down while the
angels are recounting it.

531
00:40:20,542 --> 00:40:22,792
That's the first
amazing thing you see.

532
00:40:49,459 --> 00:40:55,501
The other formal aspect which
has a great impact on the work

533
00:40:55,584 --> 00:41:01,792
is that the stool is falling
towards the spectator.

534
00:41:01,876 --> 00:41:06,083
It is as if the Church
and the message of the Church

535
00:41:06,167 --> 00:41:10,876
was literally falling into
the laps of the faithful

536
00:41:10,959 --> 00:41:16,417
thus strengthening the religion
of the Catholic Church.

537
00:41:16,501 --> 00:41:19,083
The congregation participates

538
00:41:19,167 --> 00:41:21,876
more directly in this story
of Saint Matthew.

539
00:41:21,959 --> 00:41:26,792
In my opinion, that's what
Caravaggio wanted to convey.

540
00:41:26,876 --> 00:41:30,733
The saint, and
therefore the Church,

541
00:41:30,816 --> 00:41:34,542
engaging and
involving the viewer.

542
00:41:36,542 --> 00:41:39,083
When it comes
to his religious paintings,

543
00:41:39,167 --> 00:41:42,792
you do have to know a little bit
about the Catholic Reformation,

544
00:41:42,876 --> 00:41:44,876
what it wanted from
a religious artist,

545
00:41:44,959 --> 00:41:48,209
what a religious painter
was actually allowed to do.

546
00:41:48,292 --> 00:41:51,042
The desire to
transform the Church

547
00:41:51,125 --> 00:41:54,209
and to free the Church
of what people saw as corruption

548
00:41:54,292 --> 00:41:56,667
and as false practises,

549
00:41:57,626 --> 00:41:59,876
was initiated by the Catholics.

550
00:41:59,959 --> 00:42:02,876
And this is why I tend to use
the term Catholic Reformation

551
00:42:02,959 --> 00:42:05,000
rather than Counter-Reformation,

552
00:42:05,083 --> 00:42:06,939
because the desire
to reform the Church

553
00:42:07,022 --> 00:42:08,959
begins, really,
before the Protestants.

554
00:42:09,042 --> 00:42:11,083
This was a very prudish time,

555
00:42:11,167 --> 00:42:14,000
nudity in churches
is entirely forbidden.

556
00:42:14,083 --> 00:42:18,584
And the Catholic Church
wanted an art that is dramatic,

557
00:42:18,667 --> 00:42:22,167
that is emotional,
that appeals to the spectator.

558
00:42:22,250 --> 00:42:24,279
One of the great
Catholic Reformation

559
00:42:24,362 --> 00:42:26,083
theorists, Cardinal Pagliotti,

560
00:42:26,167 --> 00:42:30,584
says how much more moving it is
to see a virgin die

561
00:42:30,667 --> 00:42:32,959
than to read about it in a book.

562
00:42:33,042 --> 00:42:35,959
So, they are looking for an art
that'll be really in your face.

563
00:42:36,042 --> 00:42:38,083
And, of course,
Caravaggio gives them that,

564
00:42:38,167 --> 00:42:40,959
although they don't always
like it when they get it.

565
00:43:51,250 --> 00:43:54,667
After the success
at the Contarelli chapel,

566
00:43:54,751 --> 00:43:57,053
I got asked to do a similar

567
00:43:57,136 --> 00:44:00,667
commission for Santa
Maria del Popolo,

568
00:44:00,751 --> 00:44:05,375
to paint the Apostles of Rome,
Saints Peter and Paul,

569
00:44:06,292 --> 00:44:10,709
whose martyrdoms symbolised the
rebirth of Roman Catholicism,

570
00:44:10,792 --> 00:44:13,125
so rooted in their blood.

571
00:44:14,834 --> 00:44:19,626
Another wealthy patron, Tiberio
Cerasi, paid for the commission

572
00:44:19,709 --> 00:44:23,209
and wanted the most
advanced artists in Rome,

573
00:44:23,292 --> 00:44:26,125
so, naturally, he chose me.

574
00:44:28,334 --> 00:44:31,834
And the more established
Annibale Carracci.

575
00:44:34,375 --> 00:44:37,501
The paintings in Santa
Maria del Popolo in the chapel

576
00:44:37,584 --> 00:44:40,834
are two of the first paintings
I saw of Caravaggio in situ.

577
00:44:42,459 --> 00:44:46,667
And they flank a painting
by Carracci of the Madonna,

578
00:44:46,751 --> 00:44:48,209
which when you look at it,

579
00:44:48,292 --> 00:44:52,751
immediately, it looks
chocolatey boxy, it looks sweet.

580
00:44:52,834 --> 00:44:54,000
These were contemporaries.

581
00:44:54,083 --> 00:44:56,334
And then you cast your eyes
left and right,

582
00:44:56,417 --> 00:44:59,667
and on the left you have
Saint Peter being martyred.

583
00:45:01,751 --> 00:45:05,292
He's being pushed
up on this cross

584
00:45:05,375 --> 00:45:08,417
by these brutish figures who
are straining to push him up.

585
00:45:08,501 --> 00:45:10,917
And as he looks down,

586
00:45:11,000 --> 00:45:15,626
this old man's face looking
at these nails going through,

587
00:45:15,709 --> 00:45:17,209
it's kind of controversial

588
00:45:17,292 --> 00:45:19,917
because he's not meant to
be looking at pain or suffering.

589
00:45:20,000 --> 00:45:22,083
He's meant to be
entering heaven.

590
00:45:22,167 --> 00:45:24,876
He knows this is the moment
of his martyrdom.

591
00:45:24,959 --> 00:45:27,876
He's chosen to be
martyred upside down.

592
00:45:27,959 --> 00:45:30,230
But there's this
reality in his face.

593
00:45:30,313 --> 00:45:32,417
How do you do
that in a painting?

594
00:45:37,667 --> 00:45:42,459
My workmen, with blackened feet,
twisted in the darkness,

595
00:45:42,542 --> 00:45:45,375
their faces hidden,
their bodies taut,

596
00:45:45,459 --> 00:45:49,542
veins swollen as they strained
to complete the task.

597
00:45:50,876 --> 00:45:52,751
Peter looks old,

598
00:45:52,834 --> 00:45:56,334
but I thought he needed
to appear strong, muscular,

599
00:45:56,417 --> 00:45:58,335
able to resist gravity and raise

600
00:45:58,418 --> 00:46:00,667
his head to those
who will listen.

601
00:46:02,000 --> 00:46:04,375
I was in awe of his sacrifice.

602
00:46:05,459 --> 00:46:10,292
A religious moment, brutally
performed by brutal men.

603
00:46:19,751 --> 00:46:22,959
One of Caravaggio's trademarks
is the chiaroscuro lighting,

604
00:46:23,042 --> 00:46:24,575
this very kind of forceful,

605
00:46:24,658 --> 00:46:26,751
contrasted, light
and dark effect

606
00:46:26,834 --> 00:46:28,542
that he brings to his pictures.

607
00:46:28,626 --> 00:46:30,873
And light plays
such a key role in

608
00:46:30,956 --> 00:46:33,417
carrying you around
these paintings.

609
00:46:33,501 --> 00:46:35,501
In the Crucifixion
of Saint Peter,

610
00:46:35,584 --> 00:46:38,417
it's the thing that picks out
each brutish execution.

611
00:46:38,501 --> 00:46:40,876
I mean, this whole picture
is about martyrdom,

612
00:46:40,959 --> 00:46:43,667
but it's actually about
the, kind of, physical effort.

613
00:46:43,751 --> 00:46:46,042
They're pulling and
heaving and pushing

614
00:46:46,125 --> 00:46:49,459
and the light picks up
on Peter's own face,

615
00:46:49,542 --> 00:46:52,334
which is ridden with fear.
He looks terrified.

616
00:46:57,042 --> 00:47:00,125
But he doesn't just use light
for dramatic effect.

617
00:47:00,209 --> 00:47:03,626
The lighting always has
a underlying meaning,

618
00:47:03,709 --> 00:47:07,709
whether it's a kind of divine
light, the light of revelation,

619
00:47:07,792 --> 00:47:09,334
the light of conversion.

620
00:47:09,417 --> 00:47:11,115
And what you realise
Caravaggio has

621
00:47:11,198 --> 00:47:13,125
done, he's pared
the whole thing back.

622
00:47:13,209 --> 00:47:15,667
These figures sort of emerge
from darkness.

623
00:47:17,250 --> 00:47:21,000
For my Paul, time had stopped.

624
00:47:21,083 --> 00:47:24,125
Although he had been
violently flung from his horse,

625
00:47:24,209 --> 00:47:26,917
a delicate light
illuminated his face

626
00:47:27,000 --> 00:47:30,667
as his open arms
betrayed an ecstasy.

627
00:47:45,375 --> 00:47:47,945
The light is not
blinding but enters

628
00:47:48,028 --> 00:47:50,751
Paul's soul like a
powerful epiphany.

629
00:47:51,751 --> 00:47:54,366
I wanted his stillness
to become our

630
00:47:54,449 --> 00:47:57,000
witness to a moment
of conversion.

631
00:47:57,083 --> 00:48:01,042
A sudden and
complete transformation.

632
00:48:01,125 --> 00:48:02,751
No longer an old man,

633
00:48:02,834 --> 00:48:06,792
I decided to cast him
as a young, common soldier.

634
00:48:07,459 --> 00:48:12,375
His confused groom holds the
reigns of a magnificent horse,

635
00:48:12,459 --> 00:48:15,417
a working horse, bare back,

636
00:48:15,501 --> 00:48:18,232
in reverse and
delicately hovering,

637
00:48:18,315 --> 00:48:20,501
as if from another reality.

638
00:48:27,542 --> 00:48:29,209
He came along at a time

639
00:48:29,292 --> 00:48:32,667
when the Catholic Church,
certainly, was fighting.

640
00:48:32,751 --> 00:48:36,501
They were fighting back
against the new Protestantism.

641
00:48:36,584 --> 00:48:38,125
One of things
they talk about is,

642
00:48:38,209 --> 00:48:39,763
how can we make these stories

643
00:48:39,846 --> 00:48:41,876
more viable to
the ordinary people

644
00:48:41,959 --> 00:48:45,292
and one of things they talked
about was spectacle and theatre

645
00:48:45,375 --> 00:48:48,834
and I think Caravaggio
gives them that in spades

646
00:48:48,918 --> 00:48:52,167
with these new images, these
new ideas, these new orders.

647
00:48:52,250 --> 00:48:54,542
And he was right
at the centre of all that.

648
00:49:15,375 --> 00:49:17,752
My competitors called me

649
00:49:17,835 --> 00:49:21,626
quarrelsome,
volatile and paranoid.

650
00:49:22,626 --> 00:49:24,997
Look, you will
die on the streets

651
00:49:25,080 --> 00:49:27,459
of Rome if you don't have steel.

652
00:49:29,083 --> 00:49:32,292
I wasn't just bending the rules,

653
00:49:33,501 --> 00:49:35,125
I was burning the rule book.

654
00:49:36,292 --> 00:49:40,751
I will always defend my honour,
with blunt force, if necessary,

655
00:49:40,834 --> 00:49:42,250
that's just me.

656
00:49:44,250 --> 00:49:46,792
The sword is only
one of my weapons.

657
00:49:48,083 --> 00:49:49,375
My brush is the other.

658
00:49:50,834 --> 00:49:56,584
And with that I have status
and loyalty beyond the streets,

659
00:49:56,667 --> 00:49:59,209
with the lofty
indulgence of patrons.

660
00:50:01,459 --> 00:50:05,209
The commissions flowed
with a series of smaller works

661
00:50:05,292 --> 00:50:07,667
that attracted great attention.

662
00:50:07,751 --> 00:50:11,292
The first was Christ at Emmaus.

663
00:50:16,292 --> 00:50:20,459
Two disciples journeyed
to Emmaus from Jerusalem,

664
00:50:20,542 --> 00:50:22,469
depressed and disheartened after

665
00:50:22,552 --> 00:50:25,000
witnessing the
crucifixion of Christ.

666
00:50:25,083 --> 00:50:29,125
As they travelled,
Jesus drew near and joined them,

667
00:50:29,209 --> 00:50:31,250
but was not recognised by them.

668
00:50:32,626 --> 00:50:34,975
The inn keeper
serves them supper

669
00:50:35,058 --> 00:50:37,417
while Jesus discusses scripture.

670
00:50:37,501 --> 00:50:43,125
According to Luke, "Jesus took
bread, blessed it and broke it,

671
00:50:43,209 --> 00:50:45,209
and gave it to them.

672
00:50:45,292 --> 00:50:49,000
Their eyes were instantly
opened, and they recognised him.

673
00:50:49,083 --> 00:50:52,626
But then he
vanished out of sight.

674
00:50:52,709 --> 00:50:55,959
The disciples returned to
Jerusalem to tell the others

675
00:50:56,042 --> 00:51:00,334
that they had witnessed
the resurrection of Christ."

676
00:51:12,125 --> 00:51:14,709
The Supper at Emmaus
is painted in 1601

677
00:51:14,792 --> 00:51:19,667
for the Mattei brothers, a
wealthy banking family in Rome,

678
00:51:19,751 --> 00:51:23,501
and Caravaggio's still living
in Del Monte's palace,

679
00:51:23,584 --> 00:51:24,917
under Del Monte's protection,

680
00:51:25,000 --> 00:51:28,209
but he is able to work
for other wealthy patrons.

681
00:51:28,292 --> 00:51:31,709
And there's a space
at this table for us.

682
00:51:31,792 --> 00:51:33,209
There's a way to draw you in.

683
00:51:33,292 --> 00:51:35,375
This basket of fruit
on the edge of the table,

684
00:51:35,459 --> 00:51:37,167
that's sort of falling
into our space,

685
00:51:37,250 --> 00:51:40,667
as is also the jutting elbow
of the disciple on the left

686
00:51:40,751 --> 00:51:42,501
who's leaping out of his chair.

687
00:51:42,584 --> 00:51:44,209
These are invading our space.

688
00:51:44,292 --> 00:51:46,876
And this is one of the key
things with Caravaggio.

689
00:51:46,959 --> 00:51:48,667
We're not just passive viewers.

690
00:51:48,751 --> 00:51:51,250
We become active participants
in his pictures.

691
00:51:51,334 --> 00:51:55,125
So, the innkeeper is standing
passively beside them.

692
00:51:55,209 --> 00:51:56,403
He's the only one who seems

693
00:51:56,486 --> 00:51:58,375
completely unmoved
by what's going on.

694
00:51:58,459 --> 00:52:01,626
And if you see, he's the only
one with his face in shadow.

695
00:52:01,709 --> 00:52:04,375
He hasn't seen the light.
He's completely in the dark.

696
00:52:04,459 --> 00:52:06,917
He doesn't recognise Christ
for who he is.

697
00:52:07,000 --> 00:52:09,542
And then Caravaggio
plays with his shadow.

698
00:52:09,626 --> 00:52:10,834
Behind the head of Christ,

699
00:52:10,918 --> 00:52:12,361
you have a sort of counter halo

700
00:52:12,444 --> 00:52:14,459
created by the shadow
of the innkeeper.

701
00:52:14,542 --> 00:52:16,667
It's an incredibly sophisticated
picture,

702
00:52:16,751 --> 00:52:20,209
as well as being technically
really masterful.

703
00:52:21,209 --> 00:52:22,876
So, we have to kind
of control the urge

704
00:52:22,959 --> 00:52:25,542
to push that basket
back on to the table.

705
00:52:25,626 --> 00:52:27,417
We almost feel like
pulling up a chair.

706
00:52:27,501 --> 00:52:29,709
It's something he
does again and again.

707
00:52:29,792 --> 00:52:32,042
He also does it in
his Doubting Thomas,

708
00:52:32,125 --> 00:52:35,375
where you have these three
apostles gathered around Christ,

709
00:52:35,459 --> 00:52:39,209
entirely focused
on this gesture of Thomas

710
00:52:39,292 --> 00:52:41,792
with his groping finger
going into the wound.

711
00:52:41,876 --> 00:52:45,375
And there's a space in this sort
of arc, this human arc, for us,

712
00:52:45,459 --> 00:52:47,834
and we feel that we're sort of
in the picture,

713
00:52:47,918 --> 00:52:50,918
that we're one of the apostles
witnessing this event.

714
00:53:10,292 --> 00:53:15,209
Unless you feel something,
painting is meaningless.

715
00:53:16,584 --> 00:53:18,417
We are flesh and
blood, after all,

716
00:53:18,501 --> 00:53:22,626
and should experience art
with a shiver through the spine.

717
00:53:23,751 --> 00:53:27,139
Search for humanity
and authenticity,

718
00:53:27,222 --> 00:53:30,417
even in those
cursed to damnation.

719
00:53:31,584 --> 00:53:35,292
People like Judas, for example.

720
00:53:35,375 --> 00:53:37,876
A conflicted and
complex villain.

721
00:53:54,375 --> 00:53:59,792
I show Judas
mortified by his clumsy embrace,

722
00:53:59,876 --> 00:54:03,751
with a furrowed
brow, conflicted.

723
00:54:03,834 --> 00:54:06,167
The consequences of his actions

724
00:54:06,250 --> 00:54:09,350
reflected in the look
of disappointment

725
00:54:09,433 --> 00:54:11,501
on Christ's passive face.

726
00:54:14,209 --> 00:54:17,375
It's hard to paint humiliation.

727
00:54:18,792 --> 00:54:24,083
To get all that details right
and still make it relatable,

728
00:54:24,167 --> 00:54:26,709
to patrons, to
ordinary people...

729
00:54:28,459 --> 00:54:29,709
to myself.

730
00:54:39,083 --> 00:54:41,375
The thing most people
misunderstand about Caravaggio

731
00:54:41,459 --> 00:54:43,167
is the fact that most
of the documents

732
00:54:43,250 --> 00:54:44,626
we've got are police records.

733
00:54:44,709 --> 00:54:46,751
He's seen as a kind
of blunt instrument.

734
00:54:46,834 --> 00:54:48,983
Two weeks painting, two months

735
00:54:49,066 --> 00:54:51,667
drinking, two
months of violence.

736
00:54:51,751 --> 00:54:53,041
And I think we have to look much

737
00:54:53,124 --> 00:54:54,709
further than that,
beyond the myth,

738
00:54:54,792 --> 00:54:57,417
that myth,
that violent myth of Caravaggio,

739
00:54:57,501 --> 00:55:00,167
to find the beauty
within the work.

740
00:55:00,250 --> 00:55:03,083
Most people see him
as this kind of thuggish brute

741
00:55:03,167 --> 00:55:05,250
who painted like an animal,
lived like an animal,

742
00:55:05,334 --> 00:55:07,501
but I think there must have been
so much more to him.

743
00:55:07,584 --> 00:55:08,735
He must have had a great

744
00:55:08,818 --> 00:55:10,667
intellect. He must
have read well.

745
00:55:10,751 --> 00:55:13,792
I think his paintings speak
of his intellect

746
00:55:13,876 --> 00:55:16,000
and he must have had something
going for him

747
00:55:16,083 --> 00:55:18,584
if he can be invited
into the papal court

748
00:55:18,667 --> 00:55:21,834
and the aristocracy
of Rome at the time.

749
00:55:21,918 --> 00:55:23,944
I don't think they
would invite somebody

750
00:55:24,027 --> 00:55:26,083
in who didn't have
some level of charm.

751
00:55:28,125 --> 00:55:29,959
In my opinion, the
Victorious Cupid

752
00:55:30,042 --> 00:55:32,959
is the most intellectual
painting that he did.

753
00:55:33,042 --> 00:55:35,834
Painted for
Vincenzo Giustiniani,

754
00:55:35,918 --> 00:55:38,792
and he had other paintings
by Caravaggio.

755
00:55:40,250 --> 00:55:42,433
Now, what the painting shows is

756
00:55:42,516 --> 00:55:45,292
Cupid, who is the
Roman god of love.

757
00:55:45,375 --> 00:55:48,667
And he's holding two arrows,
one black, one red,

758
00:55:48,751 --> 00:55:51,584
to suggest the pains
and the pleasures of love.

759
00:55:51,667 --> 00:55:53,871
And I think a
spectator would have

760
00:55:53,954 --> 00:55:56,501
been really stunned
by this apparition

761
00:55:56,584 --> 00:56:01,501
of this very beautiful,
very erotic young boy.

762
00:56:01,584 --> 00:56:04,751
So, I think that the painting is
really about the triumph of sex.

763
00:56:04,834 --> 00:56:06,584
Love conquers all things.

764
00:56:06,667 --> 00:56:10,792
And it's quite a common theme
in early 17th century painting.

765
00:56:14,209 --> 00:56:17,292
Musical instruments are archaic,
the strings are broken,

766
00:56:17,375 --> 00:56:18,873
they cannot be played, the

767
00:56:18,956 --> 00:56:21,083
writing of the
poet is illegible.

768
00:56:21,167 --> 00:56:23,250
They have a kind
of abandoned air.

769
00:56:23,334 --> 00:56:25,334
But Caravaggio
is the only artist

770
00:56:25,417 --> 00:56:30,000
to show it in this real triumph
of human sexuality.

771
00:56:30,792 --> 00:56:35,042
And I think that this painting
is full of comparisons with art,

772
00:56:35,125 --> 00:56:36,250
with literature,

773
00:56:36,334 --> 00:56:40,417
as well as being a shocking
painting of a 12-year-old boy.

774
00:56:43,167 --> 00:56:44,562
He was an odd personality. I

775
00:56:44,645 --> 00:56:46,542
mean, he was a
lone wolf, as well.

776
00:56:46,626 --> 00:56:49,209
He didn't train students
in how to paint.

777
00:56:49,292 --> 00:56:51,000
He very much worked alone

778
00:56:51,083 --> 00:56:54,375
and he was a revolutionary
in the way that he painted.

779
00:56:54,459 --> 00:56:57,501
And painting figures directly
from life and onto the canvas

780
00:56:57,584 --> 00:56:59,924
was the single
most revolutionary

781
00:57:00,007 --> 00:57:02,000
aspect of Caravaggio's art.

782
00:57:38,167 --> 00:57:40,501
God, this journey is relentless.

783
00:57:41,667 --> 00:57:46,459
My body aches, my arse throbs,
and my stomach churns.

784
00:57:48,334 --> 00:57:50,000
"Not long now," they say...

785
00:57:51,417 --> 00:57:52,542
and then what?

786
00:57:53,876 --> 00:57:56,501
A prodigal return or
a broken promise?

787
00:57:58,918 --> 00:58:02,167
All these thoughts of betrayal
are driving me mad.

788
00:58:04,042 --> 00:58:07,501
And yet, the spectre of my death
haunts my broken sleep.

789
00:58:10,209 --> 00:58:13,334
Am I to be sacrificed
by the fathers of Rome?

790
00:58:57,792 --> 00:58:59,876
Around 1604,

791
00:58:59,959 --> 00:59:04,792
Caravaggio paints for a
church in Rome the Deposition.

792
00:59:05,751 --> 00:59:11,167
You can see how Caravaggio is
clearly inspired by classicism.

793
00:59:11,250 --> 00:59:17,459
This work, at first glance,
almost looks like a sculpture.

794
00:59:19,626 --> 00:59:24,375
We see a Christ
that is truly dead,

795
00:59:24,459 --> 00:59:28,917
that is heavy,
and not just in spirit.

796
00:59:29,000 --> 00:59:32,375
The person who supports him
is struggling

797
00:59:32,459 --> 00:59:35,417
and needs help from another.

798
00:59:35,501 --> 00:59:37,867
They struggle to
support this weight

799
00:59:37,950 --> 00:59:40,000
that is lowered into the grave

800
00:59:40,083 --> 00:59:41,958
like a kind of freight elevator

801
00:59:42,041 --> 00:59:44,375
because there is
that slab of stone

802
00:59:44,459 --> 00:59:47,876
on which they are standing

803
00:59:47,959 --> 00:59:51,334
which seems to be descending
into the grave.

804
00:59:51,417 --> 00:59:57,375
It's both very realistic
and very significant.

805
00:59:57,459 --> 01:00:02,542
Caravaggio is representing here

806
01:00:02,626 --> 01:00:05,751
the important fact,

807
01:00:05,834 --> 01:00:11,584
the human fact of death.

808
01:00:11,667 --> 01:00:14,042
He is making death tangible.

809
01:00:48,709 --> 01:00:52,334
Like others,
the heirs of Ermete Cavalleti

810
01:00:52,417 --> 01:00:56,709
had purchased a side chapel
in the church of Sant'Agostino.

811
01:00:57,501 --> 01:01:01,167
He wanted a picture
of the Virgin of Loreto,

812
01:01:01,250 --> 01:01:04,501
and they needed
a great artist to paint it.

813
01:01:25,250 --> 01:01:30,917
In a Roman doorway, I painted
a young local girl, Lena,

814
01:01:31,000 --> 01:01:36,292
as a beautiful Madonna standing
with her child, a vision,

815
01:01:36,375 --> 01:01:41,167
blessing two pilgrims stripped
of wealth and worldly goods,

816
01:01:41,250 --> 01:01:45,667
their bare and filthy feet,
kneeling in servitude.

817
01:01:45,751 --> 01:01:48,959
The honest labourer
and devoted poor.

818
01:01:50,334 --> 01:01:54,417
The poor will always be
with you, says the Bible.

819
01:01:54,501 --> 01:01:57,209
They're not only abundant,
they're familiar.

820
01:01:57,292 --> 01:02:00,254
Grace, poverty and
piety, walking right

821
01:02:00,337 --> 01:02:03,000
up to the door
of the Holy Virgin.

822
01:02:06,459 --> 01:02:11,000
We have the rich, dark velvet
of Mary coming to the door

823
01:02:11,083 --> 01:02:15,459
to greet these pilgrims
who are in jute and hessian,

824
01:02:15,542 --> 01:02:19,876
with the soles of their feet
thrust out facing us,

825
01:02:19,959 --> 01:02:21,991
with the dirt and
the humus, this

826
01:02:22,074 --> 01:02:24,250
earthiness, thrust
out towards us,

827
01:02:24,334 --> 01:02:26,876
these two pilgrims fixated
by the Madonna

828
01:02:26,959 --> 01:02:29,709
coming to the door
holding the infant Jesus.

829
01:02:29,792 --> 01:02:33,375
And what I love about the Jesus,
the baby Jesus in this painting,

830
01:02:33,459 --> 01:02:36,542
is that he's wriggling
and she's holding him

831
01:02:36,626 --> 01:02:40,250
like you do when babies wriggle.

832
01:02:40,334 --> 01:02:42,501
And he just holds out his hand
in a little gesture

833
01:02:42,584 --> 01:02:44,709
to bless the pilgrims.

834
01:02:44,792 --> 01:02:46,584
I think it's an
extraordinary painting.

835
01:02:46,667 --> 01:02:50,250
Just to the right of the doorway
is a real Caravaggio moment

836
01:02:50,334 --> 01:02:52,375
where the plaster is unrendered

837
01:02:52,459 --> 01:02:56,375
and the brick shows through
this beautiful doorway.

838
01:02:56,459 --> 01:02:59,292
But just to the right,
there's a hint of reality.

839
01:02:59,375 --> 01:03:01,734
But I think it's a
lovely indication

840
01:03:01,817 --> 01:03:04,125
of the fact that
nothing's perfect

841
01:03:04,209 --> 01:03:07,417
in this world of humus
and knees and dirt.

842
01:03:09,042 --> 01:03:11,292
We have to realise that
he's one of the first artists

843
01:03:11,375 --> 01:03:13,250
to bring real people
into paintings.

844
01:03:13,334 --> 01:03:17,334
I mean, he turns bakers
into the aristocracy.

845
01:03:17,417 --> 01:03:19,292
He turns prostitutes
into angels.

846
01:03:19,375 --> 01:03:23,709
He's the first artist
to really put real people

847
01:03:23,792 --> 01:03:27,250
at the heart of his paintings
and the heart of the story.

848
01:03:27,334 --> 01:03:30,083
Everyone has parity.
There isn't a hierarchy.

849
01:03:30,167 --> 01:03:33,000
Throughout the Renaissance,
there's a hierarchy of subjects,

850
01:03:33,083 --> 01:03:35,459
of people, where people
are positioned in a painting.

851
01:03:35,542 --> 01:03:39,417
He places everyone in the
same claustrophobic space.

852
01:03:39,501 --> 01:03:41,206
And the idea that
he takes people

853
01:03:41,289 --> 01:03:42,917
who everybody knew, the baker,

854
01:03:43,000 --> 01:03:44,250
the candlestick maker,

855
01:03:44,334 --> 01:03:49,709
and turns them into a pope
or a disciple or Pontius Pilate,

856
01:03:49,792 --> 01:03:53,125
I think that's the thing
that he does most.

857
01:03:53,209 --> 01:03:55,125
I think it's the fact
that everybody knew

858
01:03:55,209 --> 01:03:56,792
who these characters were,

859
01:03:56,876 --> 01:03:59,917
in a very small milieu
of the Campo Marzio,

860
01:04:00,000 --> 01:04:01,959
everybody knew
who the baker was,

861
01:04:02,042 --> 01:04:05,250
the prostitute, the
barber, the surgeon,

862
01:04:05,334 --> 01:04:07,139
everybody knew who
these people were,

863
01:04:07,222 --> 01:04:08,959
they were their
own kind of locale

864
01:04:09,042 --> 01:04:10,988
and to be inserted
in paintings was

865
01:04:11,071 --> 01:04:13,042
just quite an
extraordinary thing.

866
01:04:19,209 --> 01:04:24,542
To show human grief
using a minimal action,

867
01:04:24,626 --> 01:04:29,375
to create a compelling drama,
is what occupies my mind.

868
01:04:29,459 --> 01:04:32,395
I aim to build up a complex

869
01:04:32,478 --> 01:04:36,501
pattern of gesture
and expression,

870
01:04:36,584 --> 01:04:40,751
of revelation both
melancholic and enlightened,

871
01:04:40,834 --> 01:04:44,584
in an effort to trigger
a deep contemplation.

872
01:04:46,334 --> 01:04:52,626
A revelation. Always
bathed in a dramatic light.

873
01:05:08,209 --> 01:05:10,584
Caravaggio certainly
provoked people.

874
01:05:10,667 --> 01:05:12,989
He certainly
challenged people. His

875
01:05:13,072 --> 01:05:15,542
paintings are very
often outrageous.

876
01:05:15,626 --> 01:05:18,876
And occasionally,
not as often as people make out,

877
01:05:18,959 --> 01:05:22,334
but occasionally,
his paintings do get rejected.

878
01:05:22,417 --> 01:05:26,542
But I don't think they were ever
rejected on doctrinal grounds.

879
01:05:26,626 --> 01:05:28,667
It's usually because
they're indecorous,

880
01:05:28,751 --> 01:05:31,667
because they are shocking,
because they're lascivious.

881
01:05:31,751 --> 01:05:36,542
They never seem to have
had blasphemous intentions.

882
01:05:42,542 --> 01:05:44,501
For instance, The
Death of the Virgin,

883
01:05:44,584 --> 01:05:46,711
which Caravaggio
does for a church

884
01:05:46,794 --> 01:05:48,876
in a working class area of Rome,

885
01:05:48,959 --> 01:05:50,511
it is astonishing
that he thought

886
01:05:50,594 --> 01:05:52,083
they would want that painting,

887
01:05:52,167 --> 01:05:55,417
because he paints
this very, very dead Virgin.

888
01:05:55,501 --> 01:05:59,125
He paints no heavens,
no clouds of angels, nothing,

889
01:05:59,209 --> 01:06:01,375
just a scene of terrible death.

890
01:06:02,250 --> 01:06:04,500
He was shocked
and horrified when

891
01:06:04,583 --> 01:06:06,709
it was rejected by the Church.

892
01:06:06,792 --> 01:06:10,042
So, he is pushing boundaries,
artistically, all the time.

893
01:06:12,250 --> 01:06:16,042
The Death of the Virgin
is an extraordinary work.

894
01:06:16,125 --> 01:06:18,366
It has been called
the most religious

895
01:06:18,449 --> 01:06:20,709
painting of the
seventeenth century.

896
01:06:22,542 --> 01:06:26,751
Caravaggio made this painting
in Rome

897
01:06:26,834 --> 01:06:30,626
just before he had
to flee for his life.

898
01:06:31,876 --> 01:06:35,917
She is clearly a dead woman.

899
01:06:36,000 --> 01:06:38,250
Some have suggested
he modelled her

900
01:06:38,334 --> 01:06:46,250
on a drowned woman
pulled from a river.

901
01:06:48,667 --> 01:06:55,125
The work is extraordinary
because of the set he constructs

902
01:06:55,209 --> 01:07:03,209
and the complex way
he positions all the characters.

903
01:07:05,417 --> 01:07:08,334
One is Mary Magdalene

904
01:07:08,417 --> 01:07:11,501
who is in the foreground
crying desperately.

905
01:07:11,584 --> 01:07:15,834
She is distraught
in the face of death.

906
01:07:15,918 --> 01:07:20,417
She is not shown as happy
that the Virgin Mary has died

907
01:07:20,501 --> 01:07:22,292
and is on her way to heaven.

908
01:07:22,375 --> 01:07:27,501
I believe Caravaggio
has put his mother in that image

909
01:07:27,584 --> 01:07:29,876
as he saw her on her deathbed.

910
01:07:29,959 --> 01:07:32,417
He paints this with love.

911
01:07:32,501 --> 01:07:34,569
So, when the painting was

912
01:07:34,652 --> 01:07:37,834
rejected, it was a
very heavy blow.

913
01:07:37,918 --> 01:07:42,417
This may have contributed to
his agitation that then led him

914
01:07:42,501 --> 01:07:47,125
a few months later to murder.

915
01:08:01,792 --> 01:08:06,167
May, 1606, is a
month I won't forget.

916
01:08:07,375 --> 01:08:09,679
That's when the arrogance of

917
01:08:09,762 --> 01:08:13,000
Ranuccio Tomassoni
blighted my life.

918
01:08:14,417 --> 01:08:17,876
A local enforcer
and arrogant thug,

919
01:08:17,959 --> 01:08:19,792
whose beef with me was...

920
01:08:19,876 --> 01:08:22,083
who knows what!

921
01:08:22,167 --> 01:08:26,792
But we often clashed
and his rage was inconsolable,

922
01:08:28,125 --> 01:08:30,459
mouthing off to anyone
who would listen.

923
01:08:30,542 --> 01:08:34,083
Well, I had had enough.

924
01:08:35,334 --> 01:08:39,876
So me and some friends,
Longhi and Toppa,

925
01:08:39,959 --> 01:08:42,751
organised a fight

926
01:08:42,834 --> 01:08:44,542
to teach him a lesson.

927
01:08:45,918 --> 01:08:48,792
Violence is the
language of the streets

928
01:08:48,876 --> 01:08:51,042
and I was never one
to shy away from a scrap.

929
01:08:52,876 --> 01:08:57,292
So, we marched right past
Tomassoni's house

930
01:08:57,375 --> 01:09:00,000
where he and his lackeys saw us.

931
01:09:00,083 --> 01:09:01,542
We all squared up,

932
01:09:02,834 --> 01:09:04,959
but it was between
me and him, really,

933
01:09:05,042 --> 01:09:09,959
so we went at it, with swords,
one-on-one.

934
01:09:12,209 --> 01:09:14,834
There was lots of
screaming and yelling.

935
01:09:14,918 --> 01:09:17,250
Bit of a shambles, really.

936
01:09:17,334 --> 01:09:19,584
I got cut,

937
01:09:19,667 --> 01:09:24,417
but then Tomassoni
fell to the ground,

938
01:09:24,501 --> 01:09:26,667
bleeding out like a pig.

939
01:09:28,167 --> 01:09:30,751
I was surprised. I
must have nicked him.

940
01:09:33,709 --> 01:09:37,667
Then it all kicked off,
with blades flying about.

941
01:09:37,751 --> 01:09:40,125
Toppa was severely
wounded, as was I.

942
01:09:41,542 --> 01:09:46,292
But what was worse,
Tomassoni died that night.

943
01:09:47,334 --> 01:09:49,042
It wasn't supposed to happen.

944
01:09:50,417 --> 01:09:53,792
The Tomassoni
family are powerful,

945
01:09:53,876 --> 01:09:59,584
so I had to flee
to the Alban hills to hide,

946
01:10:00,542 --> 01:10:04,542
with my old friends,
the Colonnas.

947
01:10:06,459 --> 01:10:09,334
I've been cursed by
that day ever since.

948
01:10:10,667 --> 01:10:12,831
And with a death
sentence hanging

949
01:10:12,914 --> 01:10:15,292
over me like the
sword of Damocles,

950
01:10:15,375 --> 01:10:17,959
I headed for Naples,

951
01:10:18,042 --> 01:10:22,876
ruled by the Spanish,
so out of reach from Papal law.

952
01:10:52,250 --> 01:10:57,626
This place was so full of
people, jostling, hustling.

953
01:10:57,709 --> 01:10:59,292
And the smell!

954
01:11:00,083 --> 01:11:02,751
On the salty air,
there was the sound of markets

955
01:11:02,834 --> 01:11:04,959
thriving with Spanish trade,

956
01:11:05,042 --> 01:11:08,876
whilst Vesuvius rumbled
and percolated in the distance.

957
01:11:08,959 --> 01:11:13,501
This was a city of culture
in a golden age.

958
01:11:13,584 --> 01:11:18,709
The wealthy indulged in luxury
goods, fine horses, and music.

959
01:11:18,792 --> 01:11:23,375
And there were so many churches.
So many opportunities.

960
01:11:25,876 --> 01:11:27,709
Naples is the city
of the New Orders.

961
01:11:27,792 --> 01:11:29,890
It's new found
wealth from the gold

962
01:11:29,973 --> 01:11:32,334
that was plundered
from the New World.

963
01:11:33,083 --> 01:11:35,667
Naples is hell
inhabited by angels.

964
01:11:35,751 --> 01:11:38,167
Or it's heaven
inhabited by devils.

965
01:11:38,250 --> 01:11:39,972
And the term "carpe diem" was

966
01:11:40,055 --> 01:11:42,417
written for Naples,
"seize the day."

967
01:11:42,501 --> 01:11:45,834
And they're building churches
at a rapid rate.

968
01:11:45,918 --> 01:11:48,042
The rich and the
wealthy want in.

969
01:11:48,125 --> 01:11:51,626
It's a port city,
it's a city of banking.

970
01:11:51,709 --> 01:11:53,719
Historically, it had always had

971
01:11:53,802 --> 01:11:56,501
connections with
other areas of Italy.

972
01:11:57,876 --> 01:12:02,000
And was there ever a more
chiaroscuro city than Naples?

973
01:12:02,083 --> 01:12:06,792
A city of contrasts, black and
white, of wealth and poverty.

974
01:12:06,876 --> 01:12:08,600
Caravaggio was
made for Naples and

975
01:12:08,683 --> 01:12:10,334
Naples was made for Caravaggio.

976
01:12:10,417 --> 01:12:14,626
It's like this meeting of
the city and this great artist

977
01:12:14,709 --> 01:12:17,876
had come together
by misadventure, really.

978
01:12:20,417 --> 01:12:23,083
My reputation preceded me.

979
01:12:23,167 --> 01:12:26,375
Celebrated with
commissions immediately.

980
01:12:26,459 --> 01:12:29,792
And the irony was
not lost on me, though.

981
01:12:29,876 --> 01:12:34,042
In Rome, I am considered
a murderous criminal,

982
01:12:34,125 --> 01:12:36,042
condemned to exile.

983
01:12:36,876 --> 01:12:41,626
But in Naples, I am embraced
as a Spanish subject,

984
01:12:41,709 --> 01:12:46,292
protected by my noble friends,
admired by other artists,

985
01:12:46,375 --> 01:12:48,751
and welcomed with open arms.

986
01:12:52,501 --> 01:12:55,952
Caravaggio spent
seven months in Naples

987
01:12:56,035 --> 01:12:59,125
of quite astonishing
productivity.

988
01:12:59,209 --> 01:13:02,709
And his works include
three great altarpieces.

989
01:13:03,626 --> 01:13:06,083
One of them, The
Seven Works of Mercy,

990
01:13:06,167 --> 01:13:08,709
that he painted
for a confraternity,

991
01:13:08,792 --> 01:13:10,209
shows these works,

992
01:13:10,292 --> 01:13:12,709
which are described
in the Gospel of Saint Matthew,

993
01:13:12,792 --> 01:13:16,250
in a frenzied Neapolitan street.

994
01:13:16,334 --> 01:13:20,125
Caravaggio responds so quickly
to Naples itself.

995
01:13:20,209 --> 01:13:22,125
It's the most remarkable work.

996
01:13:33,834 --> 01:13:37,584
The Neapolitans knew all
about the seven acts of mercy

997
01:13:37,667 --> 01:13:41,042
but had never before seen it
as I did it.

998
01:13:41,125 --> 01:13:47,292
One swirling maelstrom of black
showing all the mercies at once.

999
01:13:47,375 --> 01:13:49,250
Feed the hungry,

1000
01:13:49,334 --> 01:13:51,209
give drink to the thirsty,

1001
01:13:51,292 --> 01:13:53,459
clothe the naked,

1002
01:13:53,542 --> 01:13:56,125
shelter the homeless,

1003
01:13:56,209 --> 01:13:59,417
visit the sick and
the imprisoned,

1004
01:13:59,501 --> 01:14:00,751
bury the dead.

1005
01:14:02,250 --> 01:14:06,751
Do all this and you
receive salvation.

1006
01:14:06,834 --> 01:14:10,250
The characters
were pure Neapolitan.

1007
01:14:12,876 --> 01:14:17,542
People stopped me in the streets
to express their awe and wonder.

1008
01:14:19,083 --> 01:14:20,709
I loved that.

1009
01:14:24,834 --> 01:14:27,584
The Misericordia
were a fraternity,

1010
01:14:27,667 --> 01:14:29,856
and I think with the
Counter-Reformation

1011
01:14:29,939 --> 01:14:32,042
came this new kind
of responsibility.

1012
01:14:32,125 --> 01:14:34,667
If you had great wealth
or you earned great wealth,

1013
01:14:34,751 --> 01:14:36,417
you were meant to
do great good with it.

1014
01:14:36,501 --> 01:14:41,125
But this Misericordia
was set up by seven noblemen

1015
01:14:41,209 --> 01:14:44,125
in order to provide
hospital care for the poor,

1016
01:14:44,209 --> 01:14:49,876
food, and work within the tenets
of Saint Matthew's Gospel,

1017
01:14:49,959 --> 01:14:52,542
to be fed, to be
clothed, to be buried,

1018
01:14:52,626 --> 01:14:55,917
to be redeemed, to be rescued.

1019
01:14:56,000 --> 01:14:59,000
I mean, Caravaggio's genius was
to try to get

1020
01:14:59,083 --> 01:15:02,918
the seven acts of mercy
into one painting.

1021
01:15:04,209 --> 01:15:05,917
Compositionally,
it's extraordinary.

1022
01:15:06,000 --> 01:15:09,542
And all over the painting are,
like, separate light sources.

1023
01:15:10,626 --> 01:15:13,501
One of the angels' calves
lit like a spotlight.

1024
01:15:13,584 --> 01:15:15,751
The back of the
figure at the front.

1025
01:15:15,834 --> 01:15:19,375
And the breasts, on Pero,
who's feeding her father.

1026
01:15:19,459 --> 01:15:22,501
It has this wonderful detail.

1027
01:15:22,584 --> 01:15:24,417
There must have been
conversations about

1028
01:15:24,501 --> 01:15:26,292
but who's the
figure in the back?

1029
01:15:26,375 --> 01:15:29,042
Who's that at the front?
What's that there?

1030
01:15:29,125 --> 01:15:32,083
But one thing we must remember
about that painting is

1031
01:15:32,167 --> 01:15:34,876
that when it was first shown
and when it was painted,

1032
01:15:34,959 --> 01:15:37,167
it would have
been by candlelight.

1033
01:15:37,250 --> 01:15:41,959
I think, on one level, it's the
greatest painting he ever did.

1034
01:15:42,042 --> 01:15:46,000
For me, it's the most
problematic, the most difficult,

1035
01:15:46,083 --> 01:15:49,334
the most challenging,
the most intelligent,

1036
01:15:49,417 --> 01:15:51,292
and I think he knew it.

1037
01:16:10,417 --> 01:16:14,250
My altarpieces
were a hit in Naples.

1038
01:16:14,334 --> 01:16:16,074
I never stopped
working and landed

1039
01:16:16,157 --> 01:16:18,083
some pretty prestigious
commissions.

1040
01:16:19,918 --> 01:16:23,917
The Spanish Viceroy himself
commissioned a picture

1041
01:16:24,000 --> 01:16:26,821
of the apostle
Andrew who angered

1042
01:16:26,904 --> 01:16:29,209
a Roman proconsul, Aegeus,

1043
01:16:29,292 --> 01:16:32,292
by converting his
wife to Christianity.

1044
01:16:32,375 --> 01:16:33,959
The punishment?

1045
01:16:34,042 --> 01:16:36,501
Crucifixion, what else?

1046
01:16:44,209 --> 01:16:46,751
The Crucifixion of Saint Andrew,

1047
01:16:46,834 --> 01:16:49,042
which is a strange painting,

1048
01:16:49,125 --> 01:16:50,584
a haunting image

1049
01:16:50,667 --> 01:16:55,000
and Caravaggio paints his face
and his emaciated body

1050
01:16:55,083 --> 01:16:58,918
with an unparalleled
and moving expressiveness.

1051
01:17:09,667 --> 01:17:12,959
He puts a little
group of figures

1052
01:17:13,042 --> 01:17:14,213
who represent the

1053
01:17:14,296 --> 01:17:16,876
poverty-stricken
world of Naples.

1054
01:17:16,959 --> 01:17:19,375
And there's a woman at the left
with a goitre

1055
01:17:19,459 --> 01:17:23,542
who is one of his most touching
descriptions of poverty,

1056
01:17:23,626 --> 01:17:27,083
and it's particularly
southern Italian poverty.

1057
01:17:27,167 --> 01:17:32,375
So, in a really remarkable way,
he works very, very fast

1058
01:17:32,459 --> 01:17:34,919
and produces a
completely new vision

1059
01:17:35,002 --> 01:17:37,542
in his great
Neapolitan altarpieces.

1060
01:17:58,667 --> 01:18:00,292
I had to get out of Naples.

1061
01:18:00,375 --> 01:18:02,667
Despite so much success,

1062
01:18:03,459 --> 01:18:05,763
there were too
many figures lurking

1063
01:18:05,846 --> 01:18:07,834
in the shadows for my liking.

1064
01:18:07,918 --> 01:18:10,167
I was drawing
too much attention.

1065
01:18:10,250 --> 01:18:12,459
Time to leave, further south.

1066
01:18:12,542 --> 01:18:14,459
Further into sanctuary.

1067
01:18:15,167 --> 01:18:17,459
I pinned my hopes
on the Knights of Malta,

1068
01:18:17,542 --> 01:18:19,167
the Order of Saint John,

1069
01:18:19,250 --> 01:18:22,417
to save me from
Rome's retribution.

1070
01:18:36,292 --> 01:18:38,834
There is something
stoic about Valletta.

1071
01:18:39,751 --> 01:18:44,959
This new capital of Malta,
this bastion of Christianity.

1072
01:18:45,751 --> 01:18:47,584
An impenetrable fortress,

1073
01:18:47,667 --> 01:18:51,209
battle-ready to protect Europe
from infidel aggressors

1074
01:18:51,292 --> 01:18:54,209
like Ottoman Turks
and Barbary pirates.

1075
01:18:55,709 --> 01:18:58,417
Besides, I knew a
few people there.

1076
01:18:58,501 --> 01:19:02,626
Sons of some noble families
who had supported me in Rome,

1077
01:19:02,709 --> 01:19:05,918
Giustiniani, and Sforza Colonna.

1078
01:19:07,667 --> 01:19:09,813
The Knights' Grand Master, a

1079
01:19:09,896 --> 01:19:12,917
Frenchman called
Alof de Wignacourt,

1080
01:19:13,000 --> 01:19:15,083
seemed to be a fan.

1081
01:19:15,167 --> 01:19:18,417
Wisdom told me
to start with his portrait.

1082
01:19:38,959 --> 01:19:41,313
This painting was worth every

1083
01:19:41,396 --> 01:19:44,334
bit of the knighthood
I received,

1084
01:19:44,417 --> 01:19:47,292
much to the
bewilderment of others.

1085
01:19:47,375 --> 01:19:49,834
Wignacourt had
petitioned the pope,

1086
01:19:49,918 --> 01:19:52,096
asking to receive two men as

1087
01:19:52,179 --> 01:19:55,083
brothers of the
Magistral Knights,

1088
01:19:55,167 --> 01:19:57,856
stating, "Even if
one of them had

1089
01:19:57,939 --> 01:20:00,709
committed murder
during a brawl."

1090
01:20:00,792 --> 01:20:03,292
Hm. I wonder who that could be?

1091
01:20:04,876 --> 01:20:07,358
My name was never mentioned, so

1092
01:20:07,441 --> 01:20:10,334
Wignacourt's
petition was genius!

1093
01:20:10,417 --> 01:20:12,917
I guess he was
keen for me to stay.

1094
01:20:13,000 --> 01:20:16,417
I reckon that's why I got to do
my biggest painting yet,

1095
01:20:16,501 --> 01:20:18,824
for the Oratory of
the Co-Cathedral

1096
01:20:18,907 --> 01:20:20,709
of Saint John in Valletta.

1097
01:20:46,626 --> 01:20:51,250
On Herod's birthday, Salome,
the daughter of Herodias,

1098
01:20:51,334 --> 01:20:54,542
danced for guests
and pleased Herod so much

1099
01:20:54,626 --> 01:20:58,292
that he promised
to give her whatever she asked.

1100
01:20:58,375 --> 01:21:01,792
Prompted by her
mother, Salome said,

1101
01:21:01,876 --> 01:21:07,250
"Give me, on a platter,
the head of John the Baptist."

1102
01:21:07,334 --> 01:21:08,917
The king was conflicted,

1103
01:21:09,000 --> 01:21:11,223
but because of
the promise he had

1104
01:21:11,306 --> 01:21:13,542
made in front of so many guests,

1105
01:21:13,626 --> 01:21:16,834
he ordered the beheading
of John the Baptist,

1106
01:21:16,918 --> 01:21:18,584
who he had imprisoned.

1107
01:21:22,876 --> 01:21:24,959
The Beheading
of Saint John the Baptist,

1108
01:21:25,042 --> 01:21:27,324
he makes some
incredible compositional

1109
01:21:27,407 --> 01:21:29,042
choices with that picture.

1110
01:21:29,125 --> 01:21:31,149
To me, the thing
that strikes me the

1111
01:21:31,232 --> 01:21:33,167
most is just the
starkness of it.

1112
01:21:33,250 --> 01:21:35,638
I mean, more than
half of the picture

1113
01:21:35,721 --> 01:21:38,125
is given over to
nothing, to a void,

1114
01:21:38,209 --> 01:21:41,209
and all the action is happening
in the lower left corner

1115
01:21:41,292 --> 01:21:43,398
with John the
Baptist reclining at

1116
01:21:43,481 --> 01:21:45,667
the very lower
edge of the canvas.

1117
01:21:45,751 --> 01:21:48,415
And when you go
and see this painting

1118
01:21:48,498 --> 01:21:51,459
in situ it entirely
dominates the space.

1119
01:21:52,209 --> 01:21:54,209
And the space
isn't a side chapel.

1120
01:21:54,292 --> 01:21:55,501
It's quite key.

1121
01:21:55,584 --> 01:21:57,459
It's where the knights met.

1122
01:21:57,542 --> 01:21:59,667
It's a council chamber.

1123
01:21:59,751 --> 01:22:02,250
It's where Caravaggio himself
was knighted.

1124
01:22:02,334 --> 01:22:04,334
He signs this picture
in the blood "Fra",

1125
01:22:04,417 --> 01:22:07,417
showing that he's been knighted.

1126
01:22:07,501 --> 01:22:08,751
And it is vast.

1127
01:22:08,834 --> 01:22:11,209
I mean, it measures
more than five metres wide.

1128
01:22:11,292 --> 01:22:14,459
And you realise why he made
those compositional choices

1129
01:22:14,542 --> 01:22:18,709
because your head is closest
to the Saint John.

1130
01:22:18,792 --> 01:22:20,959
When you see it in reproduction,
you don't realise,

1131
01:22:21,042 --> 01:22:24,209
the picture doesn't hang off the
floor. It hangs at head height.

1132
01:22:24,292 --> 01:22:25,834
And so, the figure, the action,

1133
01:22:25,918 --> 01:22:28,626
is very close to you
when you stand in the space.

1134
01:22:28,709 --> 01:22:30,167
And they're, sort of, spot-lit.

1135
01:22:30,250 --> 01:22:33,626
So there's something incredibly
theatrical about this picture.

1136
01:22:51,000 --> 01:22:52,325
It's one of the rare occasions,

1137
01:22:52,408 --> 01:22:54,042
in fact, if not the
only occasion,

1138
01:22:54,125 --> 01:22:56,209
in which Caravaggio signs,

1139
01:22:56,292 --> 01:22:58,376
and he signs with the blood
of Saint John the Baptist.

1140
01:22:58,459 --> 01:23:01,834
And again, you would have been
able to see that in the space.

1141
01:23:01,918 --> 01:23:04,000
It's a very, very
powerful picture.

1142
01:23:04,083 --> 01:23:06,250
In fact, he's wearing
a sort of goat fur

1143
01:23:06,334 --> 01:23:11,417
and the little feet are placed
very prominently by his head

1144
01:23:11,501 --> 01:23:14,542
so it's emphasising that idea
of the sacrificial lamb.

1145
01:23:23,125 --> 01:23:27,250
And then the Knights
of Malta turned.

1146
01:23:28,000 --> 01:23:33,209
Why do I always find myself
staring down the blade

1147
01:23:33,292 --> 01:23:36,125
of some priggish
upstart who offends me?

1148
01:23:36,209 --> 01:23:38,459
And, in this case,

1149
01:23:38,542 --> 01:23:40,516
why did I pick a fight with a

1150
01:23:40,599 --> 01:23:43,292
Knight of the
bloody Justice? Idiot!

1151
01:23:44,584 --> 01:23:47,167
Just when things
were going so well.

1152
01:23:48,083 --> 01:23:53,000
A knighthood, prospects of a
pardon, brilliant commissions.

1153
01:23:54,584 --> 01:23:57,584
Again, I found
myself in a prison cell.

1154
01:23:58,667 --> 01:24:02,542
This time behind the walls
of Fort St. Angelo.

1155
01:24:02,626 --> 01:24:05,792
For what? The offense
of offending, it seems.

1156
01:24:05,876 --> 01:24:08,959
I was not in a good place,
I can tell you.

1157
01:24:10,959 --> 01:24:16,375
But I escaped,
on a boat, headed for Sicily.

1158
01:24:33,876 --> 01:24:36,751
Syracuse was much like Naples.

1159
01:24:36,834 --> 01:24:40,959
Another Spanish viceroy and
land of interesting contrasts.

1160
01:24:41,042 --> 01:24:46,334
A new start, I thought,
or, another start, at least.

1161
01:24:46,417 --> 01:24:50,042
Essentially I was a criminal
in two states

1162
01:24:50,125 --> 01:24:51,792
but artists and men of letters

1163
01:24:51,876 --> 01:24:55,501
seem to welcome me with
open arms, wherever I go.

1164
01:24:55,584 --> 01:24:59,834
"The best painter alive,"
they say, "and he's here!"

1165
01:25:01,959 --> 01:25:03,375
Lucky for me,

1166
01:25:03,459 --> 01:25:06,334
the church dedicated
to the city's patron Saint Lucy,

1167
01:25:06,417 --> 01:25:07,834
was being renovated

1168
01:25:07,918 --> 01:25:10,635
and the government
wanted to commission

1169
01:25:10,718 --> 01:25:13,167
a major work of
art for the altar.

1170
01:25:40,167 --> 01:25:44,250
In Sicily, Caravaggio began
to paint in a different way.

1171
01:25:44,334 --> 01:25:47,456
He sets his scenes
with vast areas

1172
01:25:47,539 --> 01:25:50,375
of darkness above the figures.

1173
01:25:50,459 --> 01:25:51,692
And I think this is the most

1174
01:25:51,775 --> 01:25:53,417
striking stylistic
characteristic

1175
01:25:53,501 --> 01:25:55,375
of his Sicilian works.

1176
01:25:55,459 --> 01:25:58,542
And they have
a kind of haunting gravity.

1177
01:25:59,834 --> 01:26:03,584
He paints, sort of, fragile,
piteous-looking figures

1178
01:26:03,667 --> 01:26:05,083
in the foreground.

1179
01:26:05,167 --> 01:26:09,292
And they have a strange
new quality of sympathy

1180
01:26:09,375 --> 01:26:11,751
for the poor and the
meek and the humble

1181
01:26:11,834 --> 01:26:15,167
that differentiates these works
from his earlier periods.

1182
01:26:16,584 --> 01:26:18,366
I think that
Caravaggio's biography

1183
01:26:18,449 --> 01:26:20,209
is apparent
throughout his works,

1184
01:26:20,292 --> 01:26:21,751
and what's very interesting is

1185
01:26:21,834 --> 01:26:26,917
that he manages to combine
his own personal situation

1186
01:26:27,000 --> 01:26:29,334
with a response
to the needs of his patrons,

1187
01:26:29,417 --> 01:26:32,876
and with, I think, a very
dramatic response to place.

1188
01:26:41,167 --> 01:26:45,083
In Sicily, there are hints
that he was afraid,

1189
01:26:45,167 --> 01:26:47,115
that he felt hunted,
that he slept

1190
01:26:47,198 --> 01:26:49,459
with his dagger
beside him in his bed,

1191
01:26:49,542 --> 01:26:52,167
and that his spirits,
one writer writes,

1192
01:26:52,250 --> 01:26:54,751
were as restless
as the seas of Messina.

1193
01:27:05,375 --> 01:27:07,917
His Adoration of the Shepherds,

1194
01:27:08,000 --> 01:27:09,270
when you're
standing back from it,

1195
01:27:09,353 --> 01:27:10,626
you realise it's a stable scene.

1196
01:27:10,709 --> 01:27:12,626
There's the donkey,
there's a loaf of bread,

1197
01:27:12,709 --> 01:27:16,209
there's the shepherds
crowded around, the holy child.

1198
01:27:16,292 --> 01:27:18,292
And then, as you get closer,

1199
01:27:18,375 --> 01:27:20,148
you can see the
straw on the stable

1200
01:27:20,231 --> 01:27:22,292
floor, loose straw
on the stable floor.

1201
01:27:22,375 --> 01:27:24,616
And as you get
closer to the canvas,

1202
01:27:24,699 --> 01:27:27,209
you realise he's
just taken a dry brush

1203
01:27:27,292 --> 01:27:30,042
and just dragged it across
the surface of the canvas.

1204
01:27:31,667 --> 01:27:34,292
I think he just became
more economical.

1205
01:27:35,000 --> 01:27:37,063
As he got older,
as he was on the

1206
01:27:37,146 --> 01:27:39,542
run, his palette
becomes much darker,

1207
01:27:39,626 --> 01:27:43,917
whether that's reflecting
his mood, his fear.

1208
01:27:44,000 --> 01:27:45,709
We know that he started
to feel paranoid.

1209
01:27:45,792 --> 01:27:48,792
He was sleeping with a knife
under his bed.

1210
01:27:48,876 --> 01:27:53,209
He starts using more burnt
umber, siennas, earth colours.

1211
01:28:02,709 --> 01:28:08,667
They say I rant and rave like a
madman, paranoid, deranged!

1212
01:28:10,250 --> 01:28:12,542
But I have reason to be.

1213
01:28:12,626 --> 01:28:16,792
This dark life is suffocating.

1214
01:28:18,083 --> 01:28:21,125
Traitors and
tricksters everywhere!

1215
01:28:22,834 --> 01:28:26,584
Licking their sour lips
over my demise.

1216
01:28:27,834 --> 01:28:30,626
I was hardly hiding. Hm!

1217
01:28:30,709 --> 01:28:33,209
There were knights everywhere.

1218
01:28:33,292 --> 01:28:36,417
I was attracting the attention
of some important people,

1219
01:28:36,501 --> 01:28:38,542
connected people.

1220
01:28:40,542 --> 01:28:43,250
But I never felt I could
stand still for long.

1221
01:28:43,334 --> 01:28:47,918
Have to keep moving, out
of the unseen, the unknown.

1222
01:28:49,876 --> 01:28:51,209
No, not that way.

1223
01:28:52,709 --> 01:28:53,876
That way.

1224
01:28:55,083 --> 01:28:57,417
Towards the pale
light that guides me.

1225
01:29:01,125 --> 01:29:03,334
Sicily was a safe haven no more.

1226
01:29:04,250 --> 01:29:07,626
I could sense the
vultures circling.

1227
01:29:07,709 --> 01:29:09,501
Time to head back north

1228
01:29:09,584 --> 01:29:13,167
into the arms of Naples
to await my pardon.

1229
01:29:16,626 --> 01:29:22,626
But I had only been there a
few days when trouble found me.

1230
01:29:23,709 --> 01:29:25,834
Or did I find trouble?

1231
01:29:25,918 --> 01:29:28,000
Doesn't matter. It was nasty.

1232
01:29:28,083 --> 01:29:30,292
A nasty attack, with blades.

1233
01:29:30,375 --> 01:29:34,834
Set upon by some bravi
at the Osteria del Cerriglio.

1234
01:29:35,584 --> 01:29:37,292
No reason given.

1235
01:29:37,375 --> 01:29:40,417
And I couldn't tell if they
were acting in the name of

1236
01:29:40,501 --> 01:29:43,225
the knights or the
Pope or just because

1237
01:29:43,308 --> 01:29:46,042
they took offense
to my natural charm.

1238
01:29:47,209 --> 01:29:51,042
Some reported that I was
either dead or badly disfigured,

1239
01:29:51,125 --> 01:29:53,709
which set tongues
wagging in Rome.

1240
01:29:56,042 --> 01:29:59,125
Like a dog licking his wounds,
I laid low.

1241
01:30:00,417 --> 01:30:04,751
I must admit that I became a
little obsessed with beheadings.

1242
01:30:04,834 --> 01:30:06,876
It was on my mind all the time

1243
01:30:06,959 --> 01:30:11,459
and in the narratives that
consumed me, like Salome.

1244
01:30:11,542 --> 01:30:14,709
Unable to bear the sight
of what she had ordered,

1245
01:30:15,918 --> 01:30:19,042
she looks away
from the lifeless head,

1246
01:30:19,125 --> 01:30:21,694
while an old woman
and the executioner

1247
01:30:21,777 --> 01:30:24,292
contemplate the
scene with such pity

1248
01:30:24,375 --> 01:30:28,375
that they seem to be looking on
with some emotional distance...

1249
01:30:29,584 --> 01:30:32,459
the distance between
life and death.

1250
01:30:32,542 --> 01:30:36,834
The severed head, a tragic mask.

1251
01:30:40,042 --> 01:30:42,292
The picture of Salome with
the head of John the Baptist

1252
01:30:42,375 --> 01:30:45,709
dates from the end
of Caravaggio's career.

1253
01:30:45,792 --> 01:30:49,042
And you can see just how
different the way it's painted.

1254
01:30:49,125 --> 01:30:50,606
Gone is that sort of very

1255
01:30:50,689 --> 01:30:53,125
descriptive,
hyper-realistic quality.

1256
01:30:53,209 --> 01:30:56,292
The colours are very subdued.
It's almost monochromatic.

1257
01:30:56,375 --> 01:30:59,292
Some of the late pictures
have a sort of flash of red

1258
01:30:59,375 --> 01:31:02,667
but, generally,
they use quite muted tones.

1259
01:31:02,751 --> 01:31:04,959
It's a moment of
great emotional,

1260
01:31:05,042 --> 01:31:08,459
physical and psychological
tension in his life.

1261
01:31:08,542 --> 01:31:12,125
And I think you really feel that
in his pictures, as well.

1262
01:31:12,209 --> 01:31:14,584
Painting the frail cast
of characters, you know,

1263
01:31:14,667 --> 01:31:17,201
the old woman
grieving is juxtaposed

1264
01:31:17,284 --> 01:31:19,334
with Salome's youthful face,

1265
01:31:19,417 --> 01:31:22,000
which has this
very enigmatic expression.

1266
01:31:22,083 --> 01:31:25,792
She can't bear to look at the
beheaded John the Baptist.

1267
01:31:25,876 --> 01:31:28,876
And what looks like quite a
simple, straightforward picture

1268
01:31:28,959 --> 01:31:30,727
is actually very
complex in terms of

1269
01:31:30,810 --> 01:31:32,709
the interplay between
the characters.

1270
01:31:33,834 --> 01:31:36,042
In these last four
years of his life,

1271
01:31:36,125 --> 01:31:39,667
he has a death sentence
hanging over his head.

1272
01:31:40,584 --> 01:31:43,792
I personally don't see
Caravaggio's own head

1273
01:31:43,876 --> 01:31:45,126
in the head of John the Baptist,

1274
01:31:45,209 --> 01:31:48,000
but we know that he did
insert himself in his pictures,

1275
01:31:48,083 --> 01:31:50,326
famously in the
David and Goliath,

1276
01:31:50,409 --> 01:31:52,334
today at the Villa Borghese.

1277
01:32:37,501 --> 01:32:41,542
Read into it what you want,
but that's how I pictured it.

1278
01:32:42,751 --> 01:32:47,042
My severed head,
dangling in the dark.

1279
01:32:51,250 --> 01:32:53,042
There is no relief in death.

1280
01:32:54,709 --> 01:32:56,250
Only torment.

1281
01:33:42,375 --> 01:33:44,501
The Martyrdom of Saint Ursula

1282
01:33:44,584 --> 01:33:49,751
is a truly exceptional painting
and probably his last.

1283
01:33:50,792 --> 01:33:54,250
It is a painting that,

1284
01:33:54,334 --> 01:33:58,375
fortunately, we rediscovered
only a few years ago.

1285
01:33:58,459 --> 01:34:03,125
The framing
is cinematic or photographic

1286
01:34:03,209 --> 01:34:05,250
because what do you see?

1287
01:34:05,334 --> 01:34:10,709
You see the archer
killing Saint Ursula

1288
01:34:10,792 --> 01:34:13,292
from very close range.

1289
01:34:13,375 --> 01:34:17,083
They are almost
touching one another.

1290
01:34:17,167 --> 01:34:20,626
He shoots the
arrow, she receives it.

1291
01:34:20,709 --> 01:34:23,542
The killer and the one killed.

1292
01:34:23,626 --> 01:34:26,083
Caravaggio also puts himself
in the picture,

1293
01:34:26,167 --> 01:34:32,167
even if it's unrealistic,
watching this murder,

1294
01:34:32,250 --> 01:34:38,792
perhaps as a witness,
perhaps as the victim.

1295
01:34:59,876 --> 01:35:02,667
Caravaggio's final journey
definitely started from

1296
01:35:02,751 --> 01:35:05,167
the house of Costanza Colonna
in Naples.

1297
01:35:05,250 --> 01:35:08,061
He then went to
Palo on the felucca

1298
01:35:08,144 --> 01:35:10,876
with several
works of art by him,

1299
01:35:10,959 --> 01:35:15,000
which he's intending
to take to Scipioni Borghese.

1300
01:35:17,417 --> 01:35:18,959
New evidence has just shown

1301
01:35:19,042 --> 01:35:21,584
that the aim of his journey
was to go to Palo,

1302
01:35:21,667 --> 01:35:24,417
to meet with Giovanni Francesco
Tomassoni,

1303
01:35:24,501 --> 01:35:28,042
to come to peace with him,

1304
01:35:28,125 --> 01:35:29,792
and was absolutely essential

1305
01:35:29,876 --> 01:35:33,626
before he went to Rome
and received a papal pardon.

1306
01:35:35,417 --> 01:35:37,292
It was bitterly ironic that,

1307
01:35:37,375 --> 01:35:41,000
as the papal pardon
has been granted

1308
01:35:41,083 --> 01:35:44,083
and Caravaggio's making his way
back to Rome,

1309
01:35:44,167 --> 01:35:47,125
it's actually the journey
that leads to his death.

1310
01:35:47,209 --> 01:35:50,209
And there's some discrepancy
in the early sources

1311
01:35:50,292 --> 01:35:52,959
about what exactly happened.

1312
01:35:54,792 --> 01:35:56,917
We know that he gets
into trouble, he's in prison,

1313
01:35:57,000 --> 01:35:58,209
and when he's released,

1314
01:35:58,292 --> 01:35:59,777
the felucca with
his paintings has

1315
01:35:59,860 --> 01:36:01,292
disappeared and he's desperate.

1316
01:36:01,375 --> 01:36:03,283
These are the
pictures that are going

1317
01:36:03,366 --> 01:36:05,250
to get him back
into favour in Rome

1318
01:36:05,334 --> 01:36:09,083
and, without them,
he feels really helpless.

1319
01:36:09,167 --> 01:36:10,881
It seems he probably died of

1320
01:36:10,964 --> 01:36:13,209
fever, heat stroke,
heart attack.

1321
01:36:13,292 --> 01:36:14,792
We don't really know.

1322
01:36:14,876 --> 01:36:16,751
But what we do know
is he died alone.

1323
01:36:25,542 --> 01:36:29,709
Certainly Caravaggio
is a modern painter.

1324
01:36:29,792 --> 01:36:32,959
The essence of Caravaggio's art,

1325
01:36:33,042 --> 01:36:36,125
the central thing is truth.

1326
01:36:36,209 --> 01:36:42,501
Caravaggio was a great painter
when he was alive.

1327
01:36:42,584 --> 01:36:46,167
He was then imitated,
praised by young painters

1328
01:36:46,250 --> 01:36:49,417
who saw his new way of painting

1329
01:36:49,501 --> 01:36:52,959
that broke with the
painting style of the time,

1330
01:36:53,042 --> 01:36:55,292
and therefore had
many followers.

1331
01:37:01,459 --> 01:37:03,751
Caravaggio has an iconic status,

1332
01:37:03,834 --> 01:37:08,334
and I would say on the same rank
as someone like Leonardo.

1333
01:37:08,417 --> 01:37:12,292
And I think it is the universal
appeal of his paintings,

1334
01:37:12,375 --> 01:37:15,542
the fact that you don't need
to know anything.

1335
01:37:15,626 --> 01:37:19,917
You can appreciate them for
their beauty, for their power.

1336
01:37:20,000 --> 01:37:22,417
I think he's just such
a brilliant storyteller

1337
01:37:22,501 --> 01:37:24,542
and his pictures
are so captivating

1338
01:37:24,626 --> 01:37:26,706
that you can come
to them completely

1339
01:37:26,789 --> 01:37:28,834
fresh and get
something from them.

1340
01:37:38,584 --> 01:37:42,334
I think it's because he speaks
very powerfully and directly

1341
01:37:42,417 --> 01:37:46,501
across the centuries
about humankind.

1342
01:37:46,584 --> 01:37:51,209
He strips religious art
of its traditional iconography,

1343
01:37:51,292 --> 01:37:53,667
goes back to its very meanings.

1344
01:37:53,751 --> 01:37:55,762
And I think he introduces an

1345
01:37:55,845 --> 01:37:58,834
extraordinary poetry
of light and dark

1346
01:37:58,918 --> 01:38:02,042
that still speaks to us
very directly today.

1347
01:38:13,083 --> 01:38:15,167
At last!

1348
01:38:15,250 --> 01:38:18,584
My pardon from Rome is promised,

1349
01:38:20,042 --> 01:38:25,584
so I buy my passage on this
godforsaken boat to take me back

1350
01:38:26,584 --> 01:38:28,876
to my rightful place,

1351
01:38:30,209 --> 01:38:34,417
lorded and fêted
by my noble friends.

1352
01:38:34,501 --> 01:38:36,858
I have had to move
quickly, bringing

1353
01:38:36,941 --> 01:38:38,918
canvases to sweeten the deal.

1354
01:38:41,042 --> 01:38:43,125
I can't help but feel nervous...

1355
01:38:44,709 --> 01:38:48,667
suspicious that all
is not as it seems.

1356
01:38:51,459 --> 01:38:56,876
But let's throw caution to the
wind, live off instinct and wit.

1357
01:38:58,083 --> 01:39:00,334
Not long now until we land

1358
01:39:00,417 --> 01:39:06,125
and, God permit, I can make
my long-anticipated return.

1359
01:39:06,209 --> 01:39:09,918
Back to the streets of Rome
and those who love me.

1360
01:39:11,083 --> 01:39:13,292
They will rejoice

1361
01:39:13,375 --> 01:39:15,209
and shall celebrate the return

1362
01:39:15,292 --> 01:39:20,834
of the great Michelangelo
Merisi da Caravaggio!