Annibale Carracci, felt that Caravaggio’s refusal to emulate the mod-
els of his distinguished predecessors threatened the whole classical
tradition of Italian painting that had reached its zenith in Raphael’s
work (see “Giovanni Pietro Bellori on Annibale Carracci and Cara-
vaggio,” page 660). Yet despite this criticism and the problems in
Caravaggio’s troubled life (reconstructed from documents such as
police records), Caravaggio received many commissions, both public
and private, and numerous artists paid him the supreme compli-
ment of borrowing from his innovations. His influence on later
artists, as much outside Italy as within, was immense. In his art,
Caravaggio injected a naturalism into both religion and the classics,
reducing them to human dramas played out in the harsh and dingy
settings of his time and place. His unidealized figures selected from
the fields and the streets of Italy, however, were effective precisely be-
cause of their familiarity.
CONVERSION OF SAINT PAUL Caravaggio painted Con-
version of Saint Paul (FIG. 24-17) for the Cerasi Chapel in the Ro-
man church of Santa Maria del Popolo. He depicted the saint-to-be
at the moment of his conversion, flat on his back with his arms
thrown up. In the background, an old hostler seems preoccupied
with caring for the horse. At first inspection, little here suggests the
momentous significance of the spiritual event in progress. The
viewer of the painting could well be witnessing a mere stable acci-
dent, not a man overcome by a great miracle. Although many of his
contemporaries criticized Caravaggio for departing from traditional
depictions of religious scenes, the eloquence and humanity with
which he imbued his paintings impressed many others.
To compel interest and involvement in Paul’s conversion, Cara-
vaggio employed a variety of formal devices. Here, as elsewhere, he
used a perspective and a chiaroscuro intended to bring viewers as
close as possible to the scene’s space and action, almost as if they
were participating in them. The low horizon line augments the
sense of inclusion. Caravaggio designed Conversion of Saint Paul for
its location on the chapel wall, positioned at the line of sight of an
average-height person standing at the chapel entrance. The sharply
lit figures emerge from the dark background as if lit by the light
from the chapel’s windows. The lighting resembles that of a stage
production and is analogous to the rays in Bernini’s Ecstasy of Saint
Teresa (FIG. 24-8).Italy 65924-17Caravaggio,Conversion of Saint
Paul,ca. 1601. Oil on canvas, 7 6 5 9 .Cerasi
Chapel, Santa Maria del Popolo, Rome.
Caravaggio used perspective, chiaroscuro,
and dramatic lighting to bring viewers into this
painting’s space and action, almost as if they
were participants in Saint Paul’s conversion to
Christianity.1 ft.