Caravaggio‘s tightly cropped scenes and dramatic lighting are cinematic catmint, influencing many film makers including Derek Jarman and Martin Scorsese.
The Last Caravaggio, a recent exhibition at the National Gallery in London, showed “The Martyrdom of Saint Ursula”, his last painting, dated 1610. A very dark, almost monochrome piece, it captures the moment the arrow hits the saint’s breast.
She looks down in disbelief at what has happened while behind her a man (Caravaggio himself) cries out and tries to hold her.
The soldier who has shot her looks aghast at what he has just done.
Most of the canvas is so gloomy you can only glimpse the slightest of details: here of his armour.
The piece was confirmed as a Caravaggio in 1980 after the discovery of this letter by the agent for Marcantonio Doria, the painting’s commissioner.
The National Gallery’s own late Caravaggio hangs alongside it.
“Salome receives the Head of John the Baptist” is dated 1609-10 and shares the same quality of a fleeting moment caught in time.
Salome looks away as the severed head of John the Baptist is about to be placed on the platter she holds. The unnervingly pink ear is perhaps an indication of how recently he was still alive.
