The heirs of one Ermete Cavalletti had…
November 1605 CE
The heirs of one Ermete Cavalletti had in 1603 commissioned Caravaggio for the decoration of the family chapel of the church of Sant'Agostino, near the Piazza Navona in Rome, with a painting on the theme of the Madonna di Loreto.
It depicts the apparition of the barefoot virgin and naked child to two peasants on a pilgrimage; or as some say it is the quickening of the iconic statue of the Virgin.
Giovanni Baglione, a competing painter of lesser talent, but who had successfully obtained Caravaggio's jailing during a libel trial, said that the unveiling of this painting "caused the common people to make a great cackle (schiamazzo) over it".
The uproar is not surprising.
The Virgin Mary, like her admiring pilgrims, is barefoot.
The doorway or niche is not an exalted cumulus or bevy of putti, but a partly decrepit wall of flaking brick is visible.
Only the merest halo sanctifies her and the baby.
While beautiful, the Virgin Mary could be any woman, emerging from the night shadows.
Like many of Caravaggio's Roman paintings, such as the Conversion on the Way to Damascus or the Calling of St. Matthew, the scene is a moment where everyday common man (or woman) encounters the divine, whose appearance is also not unlike that of a common man (or woman).
Images
Caravaggio: Madonna di Loreto (1604-1606) Oil on canvas, 260 cm × 150 cm (100 in × 59 in), Sant'Agostino, Rome
Locations
Regions
Southwest Europe
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