Best Caravaggio

The Calling of Saint Matthew is an oil painting made by Caravaggio around 1599 to 1600 for the Contarelli Chapel in San Luigi dei Francesi, Rome. It depicts Christ indicating Matthew among a group seated around a table, while a strong diagonal beam of light organizes the scene; contemporary dress, r...

The Entombment of Christ is an oil painting made by Caravaggio around 1602 to 1604 for a chapel in the Chiesa Nuova in Rome and now held by the Vatican Pinacoteca. It shows Christ's body being carried toward a stone slab by Nicodemus and John, with mourning women behind them; the figures form a desc...

The Calling of Saint Matthew is an oil painting created by Caravaggio around 1599 to 1600 for the Contarelli Chapel in the church of San Luigi dei Francesi in Rome. It depicts Christ entering a dim room and calling Matthew, traditionally identified as a tax collector seated among men counting money....

The Crucifixion of Saint Peter is an oil painting made by Caravaggio around 1600 to 1601 for the Cerasi Chapel in Santa Maria del Popolo, Rome. It depicts three laborers raising a cross on which the elderly Peter has been nailed upside down, emphasizing physical weight, effort, and rough materials r...

The Seven Works of Mercy is an altarpiece painted by Caravaggio in 1606 to 1607 for the Pio Monte della Misericordia in Naples, where it remains. It compresses the seven corporal acts of mercy into a crowded nocturnal street scene, including feeding the hungry, visiting prisoners, sheltering travele...

The Conversion of Saint Paul is an oil painting made by Caravaggio around 1600 to 1601 for the Cerasi Chapel in Santa Maria del Popolo, Rome. It shows Paul fallen beneath a large horse as he experiences divine light, reducing the biblical event to a few figures within a dark, confined space; the pai...

Caravaggio painted Death of the Virgin around 1601-1606 for a Carmelite church in Rome, but the completed altarpiece was rejected by its patrons. The work depicts the dead Virgin with an unidealized body, surrounded by grieving apostles and Mary Magdalene beneath a large red curtain. Acquired after...

The Entombment of Christ is a large oil painting created by Caravaggio around 1603 to 1604 as an altarpiece for the Chiesa Nuova in Rome; it is now in the Vatican Pinacoteca. It shows Christ's body being carried toward a stone slab by a tightly grouped set of mourners and attendants. Dramatic lighti...

Caravaggio painted The Martyrdom of Saint Matthew in 1599-1600 for the Contarelli Chapel in San Luigi dei Francesi, Rome, where it remains. The large oil painting shows an executioner preparing to strike Matthew amid a chaotic scattering of witnesses, while an angel reaches down with the martyr's pa...

The Supper at Emmaus is a 1601 oil painting by Caravaggio, now in the National Gallery in London. It depicts the Gospel moment when two disciples recognize the resurrected Christ as he blesses bread at an inn. Dramatic gestures, strong contrasts of light and shadow, and objects projected toward the...

Caravaggio's Inspiration of Saint Matthew, also known as Saint Matthew and the Angel, was completed in 1602 for the altar of the Contarelli Chapel in San Luigi dei Francesi, Rome. It shows the evangelist turning from his manuscript as an angel gestures above him, visually suggesting divine inspirati...

Caravaggio painted the Madonna of Loreto, also called the Pilgrims' Madonna, around 1604-1606 for the Cavalletti Chapel in the church of Sant'Agostino in Rome, where it remains. The life-size Virgin and Child appear in a plain doorway as two barefoot, travel-worn pilgrims kneel before them. Its dire...

Judith Beheading Holofernes is an oil painting made by Caravaggio around 1598 to 1599, now in the Galleria Nazionale d'Arte Antica in Rome. It depicts the biblical heroine Judith cutting off the head of the Assyrian general Holofernes while her servant waits nearby. The compressed staging, forceful...

David with the Head of Goliath is a late painting by Caravaggio, generally dated around 1610 and held by the Galleria Borghese in Rome. It shows the young David holding Goliath's severed head, which is widely interpreted as bearing Caravaggio's own features. Rather than presenting a simple triumph,...

The Conversion of Saint Paul, also called The Conversion on the Way to Damascus, is an oil painting completed by Caravaggio around 1601 for the Cerasi Chapel in Santa Maria del Popolo in Rome. It shows Saul lying blinded on the ground beneath a horse while a groom restrains the animal, presenting th...

Caravaggio painted The Burial of Saint Lucy in 1608 during his stay in Syracuse, Sicily. The large altarpiece shows Lucy's grave being prepared by two monumental diggers while mourners and clergy gather behind them, leaving an unusually broad expanse of bare wall above the figures. Its restricted pa...

Caravaggio's Madonna of the Rosary is a large oil-on-canvas altarpiece generally dated to about 1606 or 1607. It depicts the Virgin and Child above Saint Dominic, Saint Peter Martyr, other Dominican figures, and petitioners receiving rosaries, with a red curtain organizing the crowded scene. After b...

Caravaggio's The Lute Player (c. 1596) is an early masterpiece depicting a young musician with sheet music and instruments, commissioned by Cardinal Francesco Maria Del Monte and now in the Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg.

Caravaggio painted The Adoration of the Shepherds in 1609 during the final period of his career in Sicily. The large oil-on-canvas altarpiece presents Mary, Joseph, the infant Christ, and the shepherds in a sparse, humble interior, emphasizing physical fatigue and poverty instead of ceremonial splen...

Caravaggio's Madonna and Child with Saint Anne, also called Madonna dei Palafrenieri, is an oil-on-canvas altarpiece painted in 1605 or 1606. Mary and the nude Christ Child press their feet onto a serpent while the elderly Saint Anne watches, translating the doctrine of victory over sin into a natur...

Caravaggio painted The Raising of Lazarus in 1609 for a church in Messina during his travels through Sicily. The large altarpiece shows Christ extending his hand toward Lazarus as the dead man's body is lifted and supported by surrounding figures, with light cutting across the action from the darkne...

Madonna dei Palafrenieri, also known as Madonna and Child with Saint Anne, is an altarpiece painted by Caravaggio in 1605 or 1606. It depicts the Virgin guiding the nude Christ Child as their feet crush a serpent, while Saint Anne observes from the shadowed background. Commissioned for an altar asso...

Caravaggio's Crucifixion of Saint Andrew is a large oil-on-canvas painting made around 1606-1607 and now in the Cleveland Museum of Art. It depicts executioners lowering the bound apostle from a cross as spectators gather nearby, concentrating the narrative into a shallow, darkened space. Caravaggio...

Boy with a Basket of Fruit is an early oil painting by the Italian artist Caravaggio, generally dated to around 1593 and now held by the Galleria Borghese in Rome. It depicts a young man presenting a densely observed basket containing grapes, figs, apples, and other fruit. The work combines direct f...

Caravaggio's Saint Jerome Writing is an oil-on-canvas painting made around 1605-1606 and now in the Galleria Borghese in Rome. It portrays the elderly scholar-saint working at a desk, with an open book, writing materials, and a skull arranged across the composition. Strong light isolates Jerome's he...