Caravaggio's Entombment Considered in Situ

Author(s): Georgia Wright

Source: The Art Bulletin , Mar., 1978, Vol. 60, No. 1 (Mar., 1978), pp. 35-42
Published by: CAA

Stable URL: http://www.jstor.com/stable/3049742

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Caravaggio's Entombment Considered in Situ*
Georgia Wright

Many of Caravaggio's works depend for their effect upon local same time. The figures exist and act in an ideal space outside of
conditions of lighting or viewpoint so that they ought to be time.3
seen in situ, but nowhere is this more critical to the meaning of Leo Steinberg has taken exception to Shearman's interpre-
the work than in the case of the Entombment. As the original tation of the action, believing that the bearers, because they
now hangs in the Vatican Gallery, one should view the copy in look up, cannot be about to lower the body to the altar; rather
the Chapel of the Chiesa Nuova (S. Maria in Vallicella) they are angels who have taken Christ from the Virgin's lap
during the celebration of Mass (Fig. 1). The painting is a and are about to fly across the Chapel to place him in God's
dramatic adjunct to the Mass, its action incomplete until the lap.4 The idea that an altarpiece might represent a transitional
priest stands ready to receive the body that is being lowered to moment between a Pieta and a Trinity composition, both of
him. After the words, "This is my very body," when the priest which must be painfully reconstructed, defies all expectations.
elevates the newly consecrated Host for the adoration of the Nonetheless, Steinberg is justified in finding Shearman's
worshippers, perfectly juxtaposing Host and body, even the description of a lowering action less than convincing. The
most simple communicant might see that the celebration of action in the left corner of the painting is actually arrested.
the unbloody sacrifice of the Mass is a mysterious reenactment The woman who reaches forward to support Christ's head and
of the original, perfect sacrifice. Whereas Raphael's Disputa is the woman who holds his left hand and looks back reduce the
a visual counterpart to scholastic proofs of Transubstantiation, potential for movement in any direction. The crouching youth
Caravaggio's work as it is experienced during the Mass has the carries Christ's legs over his far shoulder so that he cannot
force of revelation. lower the body out of the picture onto the altar. Neither does
To my knowledge it has not so far been remarked how much he appear ready to rise. The body is in effect displayed, albeit
the Entombment may owe to Pontormo's altarpiece for the in a less static fashion than would be the case in a half-length
Capponi Chapel in S. Felicita in Florence, painted in 1525 PietA by Bellini or in the Last Farewell (Uffizi) by Rogier van
(Figs. 2 and 3). First there are similarities in the designs, the der Weyden. The three figures elevating the body gaze up to
vertical form with a compressed grouping, the body of Christ Heaven, shifting our attention from the terrible human loss
fully displayed in the front plane, the isolated hand of the expressed on the right side to the mystery of God's sacrifice of
Virgin over the head of Christ. Recently Shearman has his son as predicted in the Old Testament, recounted by the
proposed that Pontormo actually represented the Entombment, Evangelists, and perpetually reenacted in the liturgy. The
using as a model Raphael's Entombment of 1507 but substitut- Eucharistic meaning that Shearman emphasized is not
ing for the lateral procession toward the tomb a forward contingent upon a lowering of the body to the altar, but it is
movement toward the altar.' The pitiful gesture of the Virgin implied in the elevation of the body over the altar in the sight
as Christ's hand is removed from hers and she falls back of God and before the celebrant.
emphasizes the finality of the separation that is expressed in One should always be suspicious of interpretations of one
the diagonal fissure opening between the two groups. If one work that depend upon interpretations of another. I do not
followed the gaze of the bearers up to the dome, one found, mean to suggest that it was the liturgical significance of
according to Vasari, God the Father and four patriarchs, nowPontormo's painting that influenced Caravaggio. Long before
covered by a lower dome. The drawing identified as depictingthe Entombment was commissioned he would have been
God shows him seated on a parapet, probably just above the interested in the action and the gazes directed outward, the
supporting ring and across from the altar, as Shearman protruding half-figures in the pendentives, the exciting
suggests, reaching out compassionately toward his son.2 The interplay of figures across the space of the chapel. When, years
figures of the altarpiece and dome along with the Evangelistslater, he was charged with painting an Entombment, he might
in the pendentives were all bound together by glance andhave remembered this painting, with the body of Christ
gesture and by their roles in the mystery of perpetual sacrifice. brought well forward, the Virgin's poignant separation from
Indeed, this Entombment is not a historical action in anher son, and the bearers' gazes encompassing the space of the
chapel.
identifiable place, represented for a viewer standing in one
spot. One could not have seen God and the altarpiece at the The action of Caravaggio's Entombment is much less

* The ultimate inspiration for this paper was an undergraduate lecture by 2 Ibid, 17-18 and fig. 9.
Hedley Rhys. I am indebted to Loren Partridge for measuring the altarpiece 3 Ibid, 24.
in situ and to David Wright for measurements and for photographs.
4 Leo Steinberg, "Pontormo's Capponi Chapel," Art Bulletin, LvI, 1974,
1 John Shearman, Pontormo's Altarpiece in S. Felicita (Charlton Lectures on 385-398 (esp. 387f.)
Art), Newcastle-upon-Tyne, 1971, 10-14.

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36 THE ART BULLETIN

In her article on the Entombment Mary Ann Graeve c

ambiguous than Pontormo's, yet it too has been misinter-
to conclusions
preted, or, when it has been understood, the implications have very different from my own, based upo
interpretations of the action, the stone, and the setting.
been missed because of its present unsympathetic setting.5
proposesof
Whereas in Pontormo's altarpiece the circular configuration that the altarpiece, designed to aid private pra
the group adds to the uncertainty of the movement- combines a Pieta and a Last Farewell on the Stone of Un
Deposition or Elevation-in Caravaggio's work theShe is quite correct in pointing out the derivation of the
step-like
of Christ
progression of the forms allows of no misreading. The womanfrom Michelangelo's Piet& (Fig. 4), but she ven
with arms raised begins a carefully planned, open-ended
too far in presuming that the observer will imagine wa
around
descending movement through the bent figures of the Virginthe painted group in order to reconstruct the im
Christ
and weeping woman, the doubled-over forms of Saint John across
and the lap of the Virgin,8 the kind of effort
Nicodemus, the sagging body of Christ, and finallySteinberg
the stone would insist upon in the Pontormo. Carava
that projects into the space over the altar. undisguised reference to Michelangelo's Christ is compa
In the Caravaggio, two men carry the body oftoChrist,
his adaptation of Michelangelo's Victory in his A
diagonal to the picture plane. Saint John, identifiedVictorious
by his (Berlin) or a Sistine Ignudo in his "Pastor Fri
youthful appearance and striking red cloak, supports(Capitoline
the torso Museum).9 In the latter cases he satirize
of Christ upon his right knee with his right arm, heroic models in his erotic transformations. In the form
the other
evidently under the hips, and bending over the torso, he gazes the idealism of the model with the realism o
challenges
beyond the body into the space before the picture.6 corpse. Every graceful curve is translated into a painful
Nicodemus, his feet planted close to the edge ofWhereasthe slab, Michelangelo's Christ is comfortably supported
grasps the knees in his left arm, bending well over whileheavily between the bearers, and the head and
body sags
turning toward us as he prepares to lower the body jut out the
over stiffly. Whereas the carved hand is cradled in a
edge in the direction of his glance. Already the legsfold, the painted hand in the identical configuration, se
of Christ
protrude toward the observer. Caravaggio has struckfinger projecting, hangs over the stone slab. In the most
a delicate
balance between a stable and dignified position for ofthetransformations,
body the Virgin's veiled hand supporting
torso Just
and a shifting and transitory movement for the bearers. is replaced by Saint John's naked hand inadverten
opening
behind Saint John, the Virgin, in a nun's habit that frames herthe wound. Caravaggio's competition w
face brightly, leans forward while opening her arms Michelangelo
wide, is an intriguing but little-understood facet
palms down; her right hand appears abruptly behind work and his personality. He does not borrow casually f
John's
head, her left is barely visible between the other two this master as he would from other artists, plundering
women.
So disjunctive is this gesture that it seems likely to works for ideas or motifs, but he approaches the models
have been
conceived late in the course of painting in order towitty
bringinsolence
the or a proud challenge.
Graeve believes that the bearers are about to set the b
Virgin forward. Nonetheless it is a perfectly natural expression
downason
of maternal solicitude, an involuntary steadying motion the Stone of Unction in order to anoint it, but
the
body is about to be lowered. things contradict this reading. Nicodemus's pose is prec
The two mourning women act as a chorus and calculated
are not to indicate an outward and downward movem
distinctively identified. Either might be the Magdalene. The
His left foot is at the very edge of the slab so that his elbo
woman with her face buried in her handkerchief is Christ's
usually solegs already hang over the void. Christ's hand s
over
identified because of her loose hair and slightly more the edge so as to establish the spatial relation of bod
elaborate
slab.10 The stone itself conspicuously lacks the attri
dress, but the second raises her arms in a gesture characteristic
of the Magdalene. The costume of the first is found into its identification as the Stone of Unction: t
essential
Caravaggio's Repentant Magdalene (Doria-Pamphily); the white streaks of the relic and the rectangular p
color with
second with her cast eye and oddly bent finger lookspictorial
more liketradition.11 Even more decisive is the absen
the model for the Conversion of the Magdalene (Detroit).
ointmentThe
jars. Evidently it was the sharp, precise angle o
fanning arms, however, are as much a compositionalslab that
device as inspired the speculation upon its iconogra
an attribute, opening the composition at the top while
significance. Friedlaender was reminded of a cornerstone
is associated
beginning the downward movement. Nicodemus is the pivotal with Christ in Matthew 21:42, "the stone w
figure, his elbow jabbing outward, his eyes, located the builders
on the axis rejected, the same is become the head o
of the painting, fixing the recipient of the body. corner."'12 Such a literary metaphor appears very much

s Valerio Mariani, Caravaggio, Rome, 1973, 84, comes closest 8 Ibid.,

to my 225. own
reading of the action. "Cost ii Caravaggio imagina la sua 'Deposizione' come
9 Walter Friedlaender, Caravaggio Studies, Princeton, 1955, 89-94.
vista del basso e, pia precisamente, da chi fosse nel vano del sepolcro nel
10 Graeve, "The Stone of Unction," 225, "Were Nicodemus' action to be
quale verri calato ii pallido corpo del Cristo .. ."
completed, Christ would lie half propped up against John's knees and half
6 The hand resting on the torso must be Christ's if Caravaggio recliningthought
on the stone."
through the bearing action. His alla prima approach not infrequently
11 Ibid., 228 and see her figs. 6, 7, 8, and 12. Evidently she was unaware that
resulted in confusing passages. Compare this with the two hands on the
Caravaggio's stone is dark gray with brown streaks.
table in the Calling of Saint Matthew, both of which appear to belong to the
young man. 12 Friedlaender, Caravaggio Studies, 127f.
SMary Ann Graeve, "The Stone of Unction in Caravaggio's Painting for
the Chiesa Nuova," Art Bulletin, XL, 1958, 223-238.

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 CARAVAGGIO'S ENTOMBMENT 37

1 Copy of Caravaggio's Entombment now in situ in

Rome, S. Maria in Vallicella, Chapel of the Pieta

2 Pontormo, Altarpiece, 1525. Florence, S. Felicita,

Capponi Chapel

3 Caravaggio, Entombment, 1601-03. Rome, Vatican

4 Michelangelo, Piet&i, 1498. Rome, St. Peter's (photo:
Gallery (photo: Musei Vaticani) GFN)

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38 THE ART BULLETIN

place. Actually, the problem is not an iconographic but a

technical one, that of choosing a form that will produce a
convincing illusion of projection through the picture plane.
Unpredictable forms will not work so effectively as right angles
(or as foreshortened figures). The angled slab and the void
beneath it are more evocative of a precipitous incline than
either an irregular base or sheer wall would be. The slab,
finally, serves to identify with precision the horizon or eye
level, about five and a half feet above the altar step or
approximately the eye level of the priest.
Graeve concludes that the scene precedes entombment
because she supposes that the action occurs in front of the
tomb. An eighteenth-century line engraving of the altarpiece
shows a large doorway on the left and plants growing out of a
bank overhead.13 Even in the brightly lit Vatican the plants
are all but invisible and the doorway is a smudge of light. The
tomb entrance, of course, does not preclude the likelihood
that the setting is the interior of the tomb.
Rubens's free adaptation of the painting is instructive
because, in representing Saint John stepping down into the
grave, the painter was obviously inspired by Caravaggio's
lowering action and sought to make it more explicit (Fig. 5).
Rubens's figure of Saint John, however, brackets Christ's head
and shoulders rather than standing behind his torso so that the
action of proffering the body is destroyed. Similarly, in
rearranging the figures in an ample circle, Rubens made a
contained composition out of an open-ended one, even
though he clearly understood the forward and downward
movement.
5 Rubens, variation on Caravaggio's Entombment, ca. 1617?
Generally, I have attempted to explain the meaning of the
Ottawa, National Gallery (courtesy National Gallery)
Entombment through a basic reading of the images, choosing to
see the painting as a narrative and compositional problem
rather than a symbolic puzzle. This approach runsone counter to
diminishes the importance of the dramatic narrativ
the tendency to find layers of allusions in Caravaggio's
one attempts to find a liturgical meaning in the substit
religious works and poetic and moral meanings inSaint his secular
John for Joseph of Arimathea, one misses an ob
works, for such interpretations, I think, frequently reason
ignorefor
theit, that Saint John's proximity to Christ is
immediate impact that Caravaggio strove so assiduously to
poignant. Indeed Caravaggio borrowed the red cloak, th
produce. If the Virgin is dressed as a nun, I believeandthethe facial type from the Saint John of Pu
artist
thought first of drawing her face forward from theCrucifixion
background in the next chapel, giving some continuity
and so he settled upon the white wimple as a solution. Her
drama unfolding in the twelve altarpieces representin
dress was consonant with the unhistorical costuming Mysteries hein which the Virgin appears."15
generally used. Her gesture, too, may have been conceived in
The dramatic immediacy and the verisimilitude of Ca
gio's
order to draw her forward, but it is also an appropriate painting make the offering of Christ's body to th
response
to the separation and especially to the motion of both
lowering.
bold If
and shocking. The homely tears and supplica
one interpets the Virgin as Ecclesia blessing the Sacrament,
the tender involuntary gesture of the Virgin, and the

'3 Graeve, "The Stone of Unction," 225 and fig. 4. Graeve takes
299. Guattani's
The program was established by Saint Philip himself, acco
engraving as a good replica of a bright, clean Caravaggio.Pietro
Actually, the
Bacci, The Life of St. Philip Neri, trans. Frederick Antrobu
painting has been cleaned and it is clear that Guattani had added details
London, 1902, I, 154; "When the altars were being erected in
like a ground plane below the slab in order to make a more reasonable
church, he ordered that a mystery of our Savior should be painted o
outline composition. The engraving medium was most inappropriate for the Madonna should appear in the mystery." Gra
them, and that
transcribing a chiaroscuro painting. Stone of Unction," 233-38, interpreted this passage to mean that
14 See Graeve, "The Stone of Unction," 236f, "The Madonna Rosary
... is Mysteries
His was intended, but the disparity between those
altarpiecesbears
acolyte in fulfilling the mystery of the Redemption. Her appearance is clearly explained by Neri's emphasis on the presenc
Madonna. Rosary
out her priestlike role. Her outstretched arms suggest benediction or Mysteries represented in the altarpieces: Annun
Visitation, ..Nativity,
protection in a manner recalling figures of the Madonna Misericordia " Circumcision, Crucifixion, Ascension, Pe
Assumption,
Further allusions are suggested by Maurizio Marini, lo Michelangelo daCoronation. Rosary Mysteries omitted: Christ am
Caravaggio, Rome, 1974, 399, who sees Communion, Baptism, Doctors, Agony
the in the Garden, Scourging, Crowning with Thorns
cornerstone-pietra-Peter-Church. Calvary, Resurrection. Altarpieces not numbered among th
Mysteries: Presentation of the Virgin, Adoration of the Magi, Entom
'~ Sydney Freedberg, Painting in Italy, 1500 to 1600, Baltimore, 1975, pl.

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 CARAVAGGIO'S ENTOMBMENT 39

canonization
efforts of the bearers are calculated to move us to participate in process that was being completed in 1602 records
testimony
the scene, to raise our hands to receive the body, and to renew of the presence of blood in Philip's chalice and
our sense of mystery in the presence of the Host. The describes
paintingthe often-witnessed phenomenon of Philip levitating
during Mass.23 In the last years before his death in 1595 he
represents the event to which the liturgy bears a symbolic
relationship. Caravaggio links the two worlds throughcelebrated
illusionMass in his room and would remain at it for hours,
arrested
and not through symbols of the one laid over the drama of theat the "Domine non sum dignus."24 When he was ill
other. and the Sacrament was brought to his bedside, he said, "Give
me my Love quickly."25 This simple fervor must have colored
the Masses in the Oratory in the period so soon after his
The documentary history of the Entombment is brief. It was death.
commissioned for the Oratorian Chiesa Nuova and for the It remains now to examine the works that Caravaggio
Chapel of the Pieta, which had been endowed by an painted in the period around the dates of the Entombment. In
influential follower of Philip Neri, Pietro Vittrice.16 Pietro his first commission for a church, the lateral panels for the
died in 160017 and perhaps as a memorial, his nephew Contarelli Chapel in S. Luigi dei Francesi representing the
Francesco Vittrice ordered a new painting to replace the old Calling and Martyrdom of Saint Matthew (1599-1600), he
Pietca.18 On 9 January 1602 work on the painting or its proved his ability to modify his easel style to suit the new
architectural frame necessitated the temporary transfer to setting and the more serious subject matter.26 He reduced the
another altar of the privilege attached to Vittrice's altar.19 detail and increased the scale, darkened the background and
Thus the painting may have been begun by mid-1601. A strengthened the shadows so that the figures would emerge in
terminus ante quem for its installation is 6 September 1604 the dim chapel as if picked out by the light from the window.
when Francesco asked for and received the old painting and its These adjustments were made toward one end, that of
frame which were no longer needed.20 The Entombment was heightening the illusion of the actuality of the event.
removed to Paris in 1797 and returned in 1815 when it was All of these characteristics were intensified in the Crucifix-
hung in the Vatican Gallery and a copy made for the chapel. ion of Saint Peter and the Conversion of Saul, of 1600-01, in the
The Oratory was a suitable setting for this bold, almost Cerasi Chapel in S. Maria del Popolo, and in addition
vulgar dramatization of Transubstantiation. We associate the Caravaggio introduced diagonal compositions (Figs. 6 and 7).
Oratorians with simple discourses, lay preaching, and the lack As Steinberg has pointed out, the figures of Saul and Peter are
of monastic rule, and are apt to forget that one of Philip Neri's not arbitrarily foreshortened but are arranged parallel to the
most important contributions to the reform of the Church lay line of sight of a spectator standing in the entrance bay of the
in his vigorous insistence upon frequent Communion and chapel from whence he would view the paintings obliquely.27
Confession.21 Twenty Masses per day were offered in the The unusually low viewpoint in the paintings is as nearly as
Oratory,22 but those celebrated by Philip were particularly possible that of the observer. The direction of the internal
moving, converting many by virtue of their sweetness. The light is determined by the strongest external source, the

'6 Pietro Vittrice, guardarobba of Pope Gregory XIII, and an intimate sua cortesia fatto fare il quadro nuovo del Caravaggio al quale non serve il
(penitente) of Philip Neri's, was the first person to obtain a chapel in the sop. detto ornamento di legno." Whether the nephew in question was
original church (June 1577); it was dedicated to the Pieth. See L. Ponnelle actually Francesco is not known, since Hess printed documents showing
and L. Bordet, San Filippo Neri . . ., Florence, 1931, 351: "Otteneva per that he died on 19 November 1636, aged 48. (An Alessandro Vittrice, who
quella della Pieth, da lui domandata, il favore dell'altare privilegiato, may have owned Caravaggio's Fortune Teller, died on 6 October 1650, aged 54
convenendosi nel 1580 di una dotazione di mille scudi." (The mistaken date or 57-hence he was probably not the first owner and could hardly have
"1571" for the chapel, found in Friedlaender, Caravaggio, 187, is based on a been the nephew mentioned in 1604-Hess, Kunstgeschichtliche Studien, I,
misprint in the English edition of Ponnelle-Bordet, London, 1937, 416). 288.) Still, it seems possible that someone in the family already owned a
These early chapels were destroyed when the church was widened in the painting by Caravaggio in 1600; and after the success of the Contarelli and
mid-1580's: the old lines of chapels were made into narrow aisles, and a new Cerasi Chapels (the latter finished in May 1601) Caravaggio was famous.
set of chapels was built out from there (see Jacob Hess, "Contributi alla 19 Lopresti, 116; her document is taken from Generoso Calenzio, La vitae gli
storia della Chiesa Nuova," Kunstgeschichtliche Studien, Rome, 1967, I, 357). scritti del cardinale Cesare Baronio ..., Rome, 1907, 630 (Lopresti cited the
I am grateful to Howard Hibbard for this information, and for what follows wrong page and has errors of transcription). Calenzio's citation, from "Libro
in notes 17-19.
IV, pag. 15" of the Oratorian Decrees, reads as follows: "9 Gennaio 1602.
17 The date of Pietro Vittrice's death was first published by Hess in 1954 Che il P. Prometheo (Peregrini) tratti col Sig. Cardinal Baronio che N. S. ne
(reprinted in Kunstgeschichtliche Studien, I, Appendix v, 188; cf. Mia Cinotti dia licentia di dir la messa a un'altro altare, sin che s'accomoda il
in G. A. dell'Acqua, Il Caravaggio e le sue grandi opere da San Luigi dei privilegiato."
Francesi, Milan, 1971, 118 and 176, n. 65). The report of Pietro's death reads 20 Note 18 above.
as follows: "1600. 26. marzo + I1 signor Pietro Vittricio che fu guardarobba
di Papa Gregorio XIII. abitava alla Lungara passato il portone di S. Spirito 21 Ponnelle and Bordet, St. Philip Neri, 182ff.
in Sassia." (Biblioteca Vaticana, Vat. lat. 7875, fol. 4; a following citation 22 Ibid., 388.
mentions that he was buried in the Vallicella.) 23 Bacci, The Life of St. Philip Neri, I, 150, 342ff.
18 Friedlaender, Caravaggio, 187, attributed the commission to Pietro 24 Ibid., I, 146.
himself, although he transcribed and translated the correct information
25 Ibid., II, 93.
given by Lopresti (L'Arte, xxI, 1922, 116). Of the 1000 scudi given by Pietro
in 1580 (note 16 above), 700 were in cash and 300 were to be given at his 26 Herwarth R6ttgen, "Die Stellung der Contarelli-Kapelle in Caravaggios
death. This money which was probably used to pay for Caravaggio's Werk," Zeitschrift fiir Kunstgeschichte, xxviiI, 1965, 47-68 (esp. 47-50).
altarpiece, was thus available in 1600. An archival note of 6 September 27 Leo Steinberg, "Observations in the Cerasi Chapel," Art Bulletin, XLI,
1604, discovered by Lopresti, states: "Si dia al nepote del sig. Pietro Vittrici 1959, 183-190 (esp. 186).
il quadro della PietA con il suo ornamento di legno, che dimanda havendo di

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40 THE ART BULLETIN

6 Caravaggio, view of Crucifixion of Saint Peter, 1600-01, 7 Caravaggio, Conversion of Saul, natural light. Cerasi
artificially lit. Rome, S. Maria del Popolo, Cerasi ChapelChapel
(photo: GFN)

clerestory window of the west wall of the transept.28 These
devices draw the spectator into the emotional life of the
protagonists. In the Conversion of Saul Caravaggio eliminated
the subsidiary figures of Christ and the angel, which he had
used in the Balbi-Odescalchi version, so that the spectator
must empathize with Saul's gesture and expression in order to
understand the painting and not be confused by the threaten-
ing bulk of the horse. Saul is not in pain nor does he fend off
the hoof but he listens to an inner voice. The light he blindly
embraces is the external manifestation of the inner voice and
the efficient cause of the action. When on summer afternoons
the sun rakes the painting at exactly the angle of the internal
light, the effect is that of a revelation (Fig. 7).
In the Crucifixion of Saint Peter on the opposite wall, poorly
illuminated at best, light plays no such central role. Saint
Peter raises his torso in a purposeful movement, reminiscent of
Michelangelo's Saint Peter in the Cappella Paolina, but rather
than turning his fierce gaze upon the spectator, he looks down
at the cross on the altar. Caravaggio has exploited to the
utmost the possibilities of the oblique view. Not only does the
observer penetrate the picture space quite easily, but he can
see the object of Peter's thoughts without turning, something
Pontormo's chapel would not permit. Thus in the same year in
which he began the Entombment, Caravaggio extended the
world of the painting to include the space, objects, and light of
the chapel. More fully than before, he depended upon a few
physical actions to reveal the significance of the story.
The first altarpiece for the Contarelli Chapel was commis-
sioned in February 1602 and thus may have been painted
shortly after the Entombment was begun.29 As well as we may
judge from photographs of the destroyed work, the first Saint
Matthew and the Angel fits stylistically and compositionally into
the time of the Vittrice Altarpiece (Fig. 8). If we accept
R6ttgen's reasonable hypothesis that the painting has been
severely trimmed and that once it was large enough to fit the
altar frame of the second version, we may conclude that the
sculptural effect must have been overwhelming. In Raittgen's
reconstruction the angel's wing would not have been cut by
the frame and thus would not have been locked within the
pictorial space. The Evangelist's foot would have projected
right over the altar, lifted out by the shadow cast by the high
strong light.30 This shocking intrusion helps to explain why
the "feet crudely exposed to the people" is cited by Bellori as
one of the reasons why the painting was rejected by the

28 Steinberg suggests that the light comes from the dome or area of Heaven, 30 H. Rdttgen, "Caravaggio-Probleme," Miinchener Jahrbuc
ibid., 185, but Caravaggio makes no adjustment that would suggest that Kunst, xx, 1969, 143-170 (esp. 150 and figs. 5 and 6.)
source.

29 R5ttgen, "Die Stellung der Contarelli-Kapelle," 54.

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 CARAVAGGIO'S ENTOMBMENT 41

9 East wall of nave with

south window of the Chapel
of the Pieth, S. Maria in
Vallicelliana

Entombment, Caravaggio there reduced the huge size of the

figures of the first Matthew to more moderate if still over-life-
size proportions. The body of Christ, approximately seven and
a half feet long, correctly dominates the priest rather than
seeming too small when seen from the altar rail (Fig. 1). The
internal light does not follow the dominant external light
source, the south or right window in the wall oblique to the
altar. In the Contarelli Chapel the window is at a right angle
to the scenes, and its light is used effectively in the Calling.
8 Caravaggio, Saint Matthew and the Angel, 1602. Formerly
Kaiser-Friedrichs Museum, Berlin (courtesy Staatliche
TheMuseen,
direct light in the Cerasi Chapel at times strengthens the
Berlin) miraculous light in the Conversion of Saul. The lateral walls of
the Vallicelliana chapels, however, are returned from the
continuous exterior wall so that the windows admit only dim,
Fathers of S. Luigi.31 No doubt the questionable relationship diffused light (Fig. 9).32 Caravaggio could arrange the
between Matthew and the angel must have been even more composition around the citation of Michelangelo's Piet& and
offensive. The first Matthew may always defy profound light it according to the demands of the diagonal mass without
interpretations because the more sophisticated these become, concern for the dim external light.
the less appropriate they seem. But for the purposes of this With the Entombment and the first Saint Matthew, Caravag-
study, the wedge-shaped composition introduced here deserves gio climaxed a long if episodic period of experimentation with
attention. Here too the figure impinges upon the space before illusion. The Ambrosiana Fruit Basket, exquisite in texture and
the picture, whereas the Cerasi panels, obliquely sited, invite play of light, extends over the edge of a painted brown frame
the viewer to enter the picture space via diagonals and voids. that is so convincing that it is sometimes trimmed off in
In the second Saint Matthew, paid for in September of 1602, reproductions. This trompe-l'oeil effect is repeated in the
Caravaggio had to relinquish the close-knit grouping, but he second Matthew. In such early pictures as the Boy Bitten by a
still stressed projection. Matthew rests his knee upon a stool Lizard, the Musical Scene (Metropolitan Museum), or Bacchus
that teeters over the edge of the painted platform substituted (Uffizi), Caravaggio utilized a half-length format to draw the
for the lower part of the frame. The table and the angel are observer close to the picture while the subjects reach out to
sharply foreshortened, a fact that is almost obscured by the him with glance or gesture. Donald Posner proposed that
enveloping darkness. Caravaggio attempted to use the Bacchus solicits the observer under the guise of offering him a
diagonals of the Cerasi panels and the projection and raking glass of wine." Although the Entombment is from another
light of the first Matthew and the Entombment in order to world, Caravaggio again uses the directed glance and the
create a forceful illusion. offering gestures to force the spectator to assume a specific
Perhaps because of the greater number of actors in the role, that of the assistant in the grave. The development of the

3 Cited in Friedlaender, Caravaggio, 178. fainter then, and the presence of buildings on this side dictated the unusual
32 Eugenie Strong, La Chiesa Nuova: S. Maria in Vallicelliana, Rome, 1923, lighting of the apses of the chapels from wells at the sides.
pl. Iv, engraving of 1638. Originally there was no street on this flank, but xx Donald Posner, "Caravaggio's Homo-Erotic Early Works," Art Quarterly,
adjoining buildings; thus the light in the chapel would have been rather xxxIV, 1971, 301-324 (esp. 302f.).

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42 THE ART BULLETIN

larger scale, the reduction of detail, the dense shadow and dark
background combined with a more skillful foreshortening,
enabled the artist to blend together the painted scene and dim
chapel interior.
The Vittrice Altarpiece is all too frequently cited as an
example of a classic composition in Caravaggio's otherwise
more daring oeuvre. Historians have been led to this
conclusion because of its popularity with copyists and
biographers or because of its superficial resemblance to a
pyramidal form.34 But surely a classic composition is closed
and stable, whereas this one is open both at the top and
through the front plane, while being too compressed to be
stable. There is insufficient space for the figures, for which
reason C6zanne may have been attracted to copy it and further
compress it, whereas Rubens, although attracted, rearranged it
more spaciously. The popularity of the altarpiece with respect
to the Contarelli Chapel may be readily understood; it could be
easily seen, whereas the Matthew cycle was very dimly lit. The
Cerasi panels may have failed to please because of the lack of
heavenly hosts or because of some offense against decorum.
Neither drastic foreshortening nor rude characterization can
be found in the Entombment. Indeed Bellori, while praising it,
may have understood its revolutionary action: "Ben tra le
migliore opere, che uscissero dal pennello di Michele si
meritamente in istima la Depositione di Christo nella Chiesa
Nuova . ..; situate le figure sopra una pietra nell'apertura del
sepolcro. Vedesi in mezzo il sacro corpo, lo regge Nicodemo da
piedi, abbraciandolo sotto le ginocchia, e nell'abbassarsi le
coscie, escono in fuori le gambe."35
The works for the Cerasi Chapel and the experiment with
the first Saint Matthew prepared Caravaggio to improve upon
Pontormo and to do what had never before been done, to
produce a painting whose action is meaningful only in the
context of the Mass when the priest stands ready to receive the
body and to place it in the form of the consecrated Host upon
the altar tomb.

Berkeley, California

34 See for example Ottino della Chiesa, L'Opera completa, 97f.

35 Friedlaender, Caravaggio, 240, translated 249: "The figures in the
painting are placed on a stone in the opening of the sepulcher. In the center
Nicodemus supports the Sacred Body under the knees, embracing it, and as
the hips are lowered, the legs jut out."

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