Finally feeling well enough to go back to Santa Maria del Popolo and look at the Caravaggios. I rallied for long enough yesterday to go to the one church with a Caravaggio that I hadn’t been to yet — Sant’Agostino — dedicated to St. Augustine and his mother, Monica, whose bones are kept there in the Basilica. The painting is “Madonna dei Pellegini,” or Madonna of Loreto, Loreto being the Italian town where it is said the original house of the Virgin Mary in Nazareth was transported to by angels. Archeological research has supported the claim that it is indeed the original house, though most think it was more likely transported by boat (maybe with an angelic crew?). This painting was extremely controversial for depicting the Virgin Mary and child in such an ordinary way. She could be any woman and her child, standing at the threshold of any house. She is shown barefoot, as are the two pilgrims who have fallen to their knees before her. Caravaggio’s rival, Giovanni Baglione, who worked to have Caravaggio jailed for libel, said the painting "caused the common people to make a great cackle (schiamazzo) over it.” It reminds me of the controversy over Colm Toibin’s beautiful novel,
The Cerasi Chapel (August 1)
The Cerasi Chapel (August 1)
The Cerasi Chapel (August 1)
Finally feeling well enough to go back to Santa Maria del Popolo and look at the Caravaggios. I rallied for long enough yesterday to go to the one church with a Caravaggio that I hadn’t been to yet — Sant’Agostino — dedicated to St. Augustine and his mother, Monica, whose bones are kept there in the Basilica. The painting is “Madonna dei Pellegini,” or Madonna of Loreto, Loreto being the Italian town where it is said the original house of the Virgin Mary in Nazareth was transported to by angels. Archeological research has supported the claim that it is indeed the original house, though most think it was more likely transported by boat (maybe with an angelic crew?). This painting was extremely controversial for depicting the Virgin Mary and child in such an ordinary way. She could be any woman and her child, standing at the threshold of any house. She is shown barefoot, as are the two pilgrims who have fallen to their knees before her. Caravaggio’s rival, Giovanni Baglione, who worked to have Caravaggio jailed for libel, said the painting "caused the common people to make a great cackle (schiamazzo) over it.” It reminds me of the controversy over Colm Toibin’s beautiful novel,