Italian Notebook

Here's looking at you, kid . . Rome, ca. 1598

Rome - Among the other incredible works of art visible at Palazzo Barberini is one (below) by Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio (self-portrait right). While it might not be one of his most famous pieces, its impact upon viewers today (as well as those 400 years ago!) is really no less than that from his major canvases.

Here Caravaggio paints Narcissus from Greek mythology . . one of the great "cautionary" myths of antiquity. For not loving the nymph Echo back, he is damned! "May he who loves no one only love himself". He sees his own reflection in a pool of water, falls in love with himself AND into the pool and drowns.

Caravaggio masterfully manages to tell Narcissus' whole story with one single motif. A closed circle . . gaze locked eternally and exclusively with his own . . within a world of his own making that rotates about himself as delineated by his knee and the boundary of his arms . . . to the exclusion (by simply keeping the outer area dark and empty) of all else outside of that boundary.

And the irony of people gazing at a painting about a gaze? Caravaggio was a sharp fellow . . . safe bet to assume that was intentional too.

Galleria Nazionale D'Arte Antica, at Palazzo Barberini, Via delle Quattro Fontane, 13

--contributed by GB, Editor, Italian Notebook

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