Michelan- gelo Merisi da Caravaggio was born on September 28, 1573. Personal confession: it's very difficult to blog about an artist one believes to be one of the best in the world, ever. He had a short, rough life and left relatively few paintings. The best remain in situ in the churches for which they were painted.
This one, The Beheading of John the Baptist, was completed in 1608 for the oratorio of the Co-Cathedral of St. John in Valletta, Malta (image source: http://www.postkiwi.com/images/2009/7/beheading-of-john-the-baptist-caravaggio.jpg). The figures are life-size; the impact of the brutality is immediate and visceral. No chubby baby angels wave palm fronds. It's not your typical Baroque martyrdom; it's a hit.
I studied this picture for many final exams. I knew what it looked like, knew it was in that chapel (it had just returned, with some fanfare, from conservation and an exhibition in Rome in July 1999). When I walked into the space, it affected me as if I did not know what it looked like, did not expect to see it. After 25 years as an art historian, few works of art could make me burst into tears. This one did.
