“The Beheading of St John”, (detail), 1608, Caravaggio, Cathedral of St John, Valetta, Malta.
This painting (3.7m X 5.2m) was the largest altarpiece that Caravaggio ever painted. It still hangs in situ in the Oratory of the Co-Cathedral of St John in Valetta. In 1606 Caravaggio had been involved in a fight in Rome in which a man died. With the charge of murder hanging over him, Caravaggio fled south. He went first to Naples and then to Malta where the superior of Knights of Malta became his patron. He sought to join the knights, perhaps, because as a Knight of Malta the Roman murder charge would be automatically commuted. To do so, he would need to spend a year on the island and pay a fee. This painting was given in lieu of the fee as Caravaggio had very little money. The painting was commissioned as an altarpiece for the Knight’s Chapel in the Cathedral. Perhaps the grisly subject was intended to remind those joining the Order that they too must be prepared to face death in defence of Christendom. Caravaggio also painted Salome with the severed head of the Baptist a number of times. Those works are half-length close-up compositions. But here Caravaggio paints the execution underway in a dark prison courtyard. Pools of shadow suggest the darkness of the what has just taken place. The Baptist’s throat has been cut, but his head is not fully severed. The sword has been dropped, and now, grabbing the Baptist by his hair, the fellow will finish the job with a knife. Trussed like a lamb to the slaughter, the Baptist lies on a fleece. This is surely an allusion to the one whom the Baptist heralded. The customary red garment and spilt the blood on the ground stand out in the gloom. A serving girl holds out the platter to receive the head. An older woman is horrified at what she has witnessed, while two prisoners look on from the right. A jailer seems to be in charge. There is a telling detail which is hard to see. Caravaggio has signed his name in the Baptist’s blood. Or rather he has signed it as F. Michelangelo. As a Knight of Malta this was to be his new name. However, by the time the Feast of the Beheading of John the Baptist came around and the painting was hung in the Oratory, Caravaggio had been arrested and imprisoned by the Knights because he had assaulted someone in a brawl. He had then escaped to Sicily. He was tried in absentia in the space where this painting still hangs. He was disgraced and formally defrocked, but, nonetheless, the Knights kept the painting. The Memorial of the Beheading of St John the Baptist is on Friday.
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