The bare feet

Caravaggio has given his picture a strict hierarchy. The woman and child are at the bottom; she is the only person looking up at Mary while her child watches the 3 men. In the foreground the 3 barefooted men in cloths are pushing forward with outstretched arms to receive rosaries from the hands of St. Dominic.

As with most Caravaggio works this painting captivates with its use of light and shadow. As a virtuoso in the play of light and shadow he revolutionises painting and adds a sense of hyperrealism to his mainly religious motifs. Saints have dirty feet and faces drawn from life. He often picks his models off the street.

Caravaggio clears away the conventions of the Renaissance and doesn’t give a jot about ideals of beauty or superseding reality. Ensembles of figures are directed as on a theatre stage, with spotlights in the centre and bystanders in the shadows. His realism is in-your-face, portraying Apostles as simple day labourers with weather-beaten faces, thinning hair and furrowed brows. Instead of perfect bodies he gives us dirty fingernails, rotten teeth and varicose veins.

Caravaggio’s world is not a happy one, it’s cruel, sordid and corrupt. The naturalism of his work is hardly the subject of undivided acclaim among his contemporaries. More than a few accuse Caravaggio, the events of whose own life offer themselves up for criticism, of perverting the pious subjects of his work.