(jazzy piano music)
- [Male Narrator] We're in the church
of Santa Maria del Popolo, in Rome,
and we're looking at one of
the most famous paintings by Caravaggio.
This is The Conversion of Saul.
- [Female Narrator] And this is one of two paintings
that Caravaggio painted here in the chapel
called the Cerasi Chapel, named for the Cerasi family,
and, in fact, Tiberio Cerasi is buried here in this chapel.
- [Male Narrator] The painting itself shows an important
story, it shows Saul, who's job it was
to persecute Christians, and he was on the road to Damascus
when he was blinded by light and he heard a voice.
- [Female Narrator] And that voice, the voice of Christ,
said to him, Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?
And, Saul was blinded for three days.
- [Male Narrator] Now, that's important because Christ
had been in his tomb for three days before
he was resurrected and Jonah, in the Old Testament,
remained in the fish, which is often called a whale,
for three days.
- [Female Narrator] So, there is this Old Testament
tradition that this is going back to of three days
in the darkness before being saved by the divine.
- [Male Narrator] And, it puts Saul, who's name
becomes Paul, in this tradition that comes
out of the Old Testament.
- [Female Narrator] So, here, we only see
that divine supernatural force as light
flooding down on Saul.
He's fallen off of his horse.
- [Male Narrator] Caravaggio has stripped out
everything that's not essential.
He's created monumental figures that fill
the frame of the canvas.
He's pushed them forward and he's placed them against
this deep, dark background so, when elements
are illuminated, they stand out against that background.
- [Female Narrator] Saul's face is the only face here
that's illuminated.
- [Male Narrator] While the groom doesn't even seem
to notice what's going on.
- [Female Narrator] And that's what makes it all the more
personal, that it's only Saul that hears God's voice.
So, this darkness that this is set in, no architecture,
no landscape, this tenebroso, this dark style,
perhaps deriving from the art of Leonardo da Vinci,
but here taken so far by Caravaggio and that darkness
eliminating everything else that could distract us
from this incredibly powerful moment.
- [Male Narrator] It's interesting to think about why
this is happening at this particular moment
at the turn of the 17th century.
- [Female Narrator] The naturalism we see here, the way
that we're getting the rear end of the horse,
the dirt on the ground, the figure of the groom,
who's taking care of the horse, looks like a man
that Caravaggio probably asked to model for him
that he met in Rome, and that naturalism is part of
this interest in legibility, in clarity in art
that comes out of the Counter-Reformation.
- [Male Narrator] And, specifically, out of
the Council of Trent.
The idea was that painting could be didactic.
One of the questions that Luther and other Protestants
raised was whether or not it was alright to have paintings,
and the Council of Trent spoke to that directly and said,
yes, paintings had important didactic value
within a religious context.
- [Female Narrator] And, it's really interesting to compare
this to the first version of this painting,
which was apparently rejected by the patron,
where we see a narrative.
Here, although we do have a sense of a caught moment
in time, what we have is a condensation, a distilling
of this moment of personal conversion that was very popular
among Baroque artists.
- [Male Narrator] If we were looking at
a Renaissance painting, it would be a more public moment.
Figures would exist in a more rational space.
But, here, it almost seems as if we
have a privileged, private view.
The chapel itself is a narrow space.
- [Female Narrator] And the space of the painting
is confining, the figures take up side to side,
top to bottom, with very little room to spare,
and Caravaggio's definitely thinking about our view here,
as we stand in this chapel and look obliquely across
and up at the painting.
Saul seems to fall out toward us.
- [Male Narrator] In the Renaissance, the idea was to create
a sense of harmony, a sense of balance.
Here, all of that is upended.
This is precarious, it seems fleeting.
The center of gravity is high, rather than low.
The largest and most massive part of this painting
is the body of the horse and it's at the top.
- [Female Narrator] And, beneath him, Saul seems
very vulnerable, the horse's hoof is lifted up,
Saul's helmet has fallen off of his head.
There is this sense of the fragility of a human being
being confronted with the power of the divine.
- [Male Narrator] Saul is so close to us and seems so real,
he lies on the bare earth.
- [Female Narrator] And, his knees are up,
his legs are spread, his arms are spread.
- [Male Narrator] His body is actually a triangle,
but it's upended and whereas the Renaissance was concerned
often with parameatal compositions,
with creating a stable pyramid.
This is turning that pyramid up on it's point.
- [Female Narrator] And, there's so much foreshortening
here, not only is the body of Saul foreshortened,
his sword is foreshortened, the horse is foreshortened.
And, so, everything is so close to us.
In the Renaissance, we often saw a distance between
the world of human beings and realm of the divine.
- [Male Narrator] But, here Saul is present is our world.
(jazzy piano music)