Another Vote (David) for Caravaggio

For some reason, I've found the disconnect between the actual events described in Scripture, on the one hand, and, on the other, their portrayal in Renaissance art (the elaborate costumes at the Cross, the zebra-striped palace where the Annunciation occurs), more offputting this winter than on our previous visits to Italy. Caravaggio is the one consistent exception. The painting that blows me away more than any of the other wonderful Caravaggios (even more than than the Crucifixion of Peter and the Conversion of St. Paul, our previous favorites) is the Madonna of the Pilgrims, which Carter nicely described a few posts ago. There's something about the contrast between Mary's elegant maroon velvet dress and the pilgrim's dirty feet that seems intensely spiritual-- and it's perfect in its niche inside a quiet lovely church just a few feet way from the crowded Piazza Navona. Caravaggio was rebelling, apparently, against the exalted tone of prior religious art. Some people think he goes too far in the other direction, that he overly humanizes Scripture, but he seems to me to beautifully capture the spirit of the Savior who came to save the sick, not the healthy.