Caravaggio

Our final class field trip today was to the Co-Cathedral of St. John in Valletta. (It's called a "co-cathedral" because Malta has two cathedrals but only one bishop, so the two churches share one title.) Our primary purpose in going there was to see two famous 17th century paintings by the famous artist, Caravaggio.

Nave and high altar, St. John's Co-Cathedral. This was said to be the grandest church anywhere in Europe, south of Rome.

Prof. Keith Sciberras, head of the department of art history, was our very engaging guide. He explained Caravaggio's life, focusing on the year and a half the artist spent in Malta while a fugitive from Rome, fleeing a murder charge.

Victory of the Great Siege on the back wall of the Co-Cathedral

Caravaggio's greatest of six works completed in Malta is the Beheading of St. John. This enormous and shockingly graphic painting is the focal point of an oratory, or chapel, adjacent to the Co-Cathedral.

Looking down a side aisle at St. John's Co-Cathedral

The oratory had two primary functions. It was the place of instruction for novices preparing to become Knights in the Order of St. John. And it was the place where condemned criminals would spend the eve of their execution, being urged to repentance by priests.

Beheading of St. John the Baptist (can't be seen here, but Caravaggio, who rarely signed his paintings, signed his name on this one -- in St. John's spilled blood -- just for added macabre effect).

One guesses that both those preparing for their first battle, and those preparing for their final walk, would find Caravaggio's realist painting rather sobering! (Sorry, no photos allowed in the oratory so these last two photos of the artwork are stolen from the web.)

St. Jerome

The other work by Caravaggio, his portrait of St. Jerome, hangs in the same room