Pitiful Relics: Caravaggio's Martyrdom of St. Matthew Author(s): Todd P. Olson Source: Representations , Vol. 77, No. 1 (Winter 2002), pp. 107-142 Published by: University of California Press Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1525/rep.2002.77.1.107

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This content downloaded from 85.72.204.160 on Fri, 01 May 2020 12:49:55 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms TODDP.OLSON

PitifulRelics: Caravaggio’s Martyrdom ofSt. Matthew

Beneaththesurfaceof Caravaggio’s Martyrdomof St. Matthew (plate1) isanotherpai nting(Ž gs. 1 and2). X-rays reveal an abandonedpreliminar y versionof the scene ofviolent martyrdom.The underlyingprovisional execution- ersthreaten toobstruct the saint’s visibility.Amuscularthug dominates the fore- ground.His helmeted head,broad back, buttocks, and tightly syncopatedlegs step awayi ntounspeciŽ ed depth. T ohisleft, another soldier ,inproŽle, lunges violently towardthe same object.He stepsfor ward,his naked torsopivots on its axis, exposinghis chest toour view .He cocksback his arm and thrusts the swordin tandemw ithhis other extended hand,which balances and directs the attack.Be- tween the twoŽ gures,in depth,a thirdman elevates hishand, poised to plunge downwardstoward the shareddestination. The doubling and tripling of the gesture providesnarrative focus and through its replicationconjures a conspiratorialmove- ment.The manin proŽle onthe left isaskewed doubleof the centralŽ gure,com- pensatingfor the viewer’s limitedcomprehension of apersonseen frombehind. Multipleassassins, through repetitive action and variation of pose,produce a sense ofanatomicalcompletion. One thinks ofthe executionersin Antoniodel Pollaiu- olo’s Martyrdomof St. Sebastian ,wherethe multiplicationof partialaspects compen- sates forthe constraintsof an impliedsingle pointof view (Žg .3).The mechanical repetitionof socially and ontologically ‘ ‘incomplete’’ Žguresin bothpaintings also recalls depictionsof the massacreof the innocents,where soldiers i nthe actof visceralpenetration display the artists’anatomical virtuosity .Multipleaggressors underscorethe vulnerability ofthe sacriŽcial body and its imminentdisintegration. InCaravaggio’s initialpainting, Matthew stood trapped in the intersticesof that screen ofbrutality,holdingout his fragile hand in the pathof the plungingsword. ToMatthew’s left stooda nudeephebic acolyte or angel feebly repeatingthe saint’s pathetic,defensive gesture.Matthew was tooeasily upstagedby this youthfulŽ gure. Moreover,the saintwas obscured by the clash ofarmsto the pointof beingmade inconsequential. Caravaggio’s initialpainting of the desecrationof the saintly bodyparticipated inoneof the contradictionsof westernart beginning in the early modernera: the

Representations 77 · Winter 2002 q theregentsoftheuniversityofcalifornia is sn 0734-6018 pages107– 142. Allrights reserved.Send requests for permission toreprint toRights andPermissions, University of CaliforniaPress, Journals Division, 2000 CenterSt., Ste.303, Berkeley,CA94704-1223. 107

This content downloaded from 85.72.204.160 on Fri, 01 May 2020 12:49:55 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms figure 1.Caravaggio, X-ray photographof underpainting for TheMartyrdom ofSt. Matthew ,c.1599–1600.Contarelli Chapel, San Luigi dei Francesi,Rome. Photo: Instituto centrale peril restauro,Rome.

bodiesof untouchables became central to the depictionof heroic narrative. W aiting onthe wingsof altarpiecesor in sacredconversations, martyrs were traditionally arrestedin theirmovement. They held the instrumentsof victimizationagainst a gilt ground,but their assassins were not rendered visible. Eyes inthe handor breasts ona plate,sword wedged or stonesembedded in the skull served asindicesof pene- tration,torture, and disŽ guration (Ž g .4).Narrative and, by extension, mutability andmortality were held incheck. When hagiographyentered narrative, as itdid inPollaiuolo’s painting,the impassivemartyr was subjectedto the gyratingpattern ofexecutioners. The displayof anactive,virtuous, and noble body ,the ostensible organizingprinciple of narrative pai nting( historia)asdeŽned by the Žfteenth- centuryart theorist Leon Battista A lbertiand later adumbrated by others, was

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This content downloaded from 85.72.204.160 on Fri, 01 May 2020 12:49:55 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms figure 2.Caravaggio, digitally enhanced X-ray photographof underpainting for Martyrdomof St. Matthew .Photo:Instituto centrale peri lrestauro, Rome.Design: Brian Ewing . paradoxicallyperformed by those brutes that carry out orders, or the imagined interchangeableunits of amercenaryarmy . 1 The humanisttradition of ennobling exemplarity coexisteduneasily withthe demandsof Christianmartyrolog y.Asthe CatholicChurch promoted the cultof the saintsand promulgated their martyr- dom,narrative pai ntingwas obligatedto put the passivevictim at the centerof the composition.Rather than beingactive, the martyrwas acted upon and violated bysubaltern Ž gures.Violent action performed by a bodyor series of bodieswith accidentalfeatures and typological particularity introduced a variety ofe Vects that dispersedattention. The pictorialinterest provided by the ignobleŽ gurethereby challenged the centralityof the noblebody .By reversingthe relative termsof domi- nance andsubordi nation,by turnin gthe profaneagai nst the sacred,the active

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This content downloaded from 85.72.204.160 on Fri, 01 May 2020 12:49:55 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms figure 3.A ntoniodel Pollaiuolo, TheMartyrdomof St. Sebastian , 1475. q NationalGallery ,London.

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This content downloaded from 85.72.204.160 on Fri, 01 May 2020 12:49:55 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms figure 4.Master of the Louvre Annunciation,‘ ‘SaintStephen and a Blessed Carmelite,’’ rightwing of the LouvreAnnuciatio n , Muse´eduLouvre,Paris. q Re´uniondes muse ´es nationaux/Art Resource,New York.

againstthe passive,the violent martyrdomseemed tocontradictA lberti’s theoryof historia.Heroand victim were made equivalent. The underlyingpainting rejected by Caravaggio betrays the di Yculty of the pictorialproblem he faced.Indeed, the ambitiouscomposition was in itselfa chal- lenge tohis limited skills andexperience asapainter.Caravaggiohad been accus- tomedto painting modestly scaled, ready-made pictures for private consumption duringhis Ž rstyears inRome:androg ynousboys being bitten by lizards, playing the lyre, oro Vering fruit(Ž g .5).The pro Veredmerchandise, oi lpainton stretched canvas,thematized its own production of mimeticdeception, seduction, and un- consummateddesire. In these pictures,the painterhad astutely combinedtwo genres overwhich he hadcommand: the still life andthe half-length Žgure.Cara- vaggio’s early small picturesof multipleŽ gures,such as the Cardsharps, depicted only afewŽ gurestruncated by a table(Ž g .6).A simplecomposition and a limited displayof anatomy provided the occasionfor selective andconcentrated attention tothe representationof textures and the rudimentarynarrative of a conŽdence game,in thiscase, the victimcaught in the conspiratorialdeception of cardsharp

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This content downloaded from 85.72.204.160 on Fri, 01 May 2020 12:49:55 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms figure 5.Caravaggio, Boywith Basket ofFruit ,c.1595. Vi lla Borghese,Rome. q Alinari/ArtResource,New York.

andaccomplice. When Caravaggiowas given the commissionfor a chapeli n France’s nationalchurch in Rome,he easily adaptedthe pictorialstructure of his small paintingsto the demandsof the Calling ofSt. Matthew onthe lateralwall of the chapel:Christ enters atavern scene; half-length Žgurescount money ata table, andMatthew is singledout from the motley crewfor sainthood (Ž g .7).However , the representationof violent martyrdomon the facingwall posedother challenges. Caravaggio’s initialcomposition for the paintingof Matthew’s martyrdomhad failed to oVersemantic clarity and triumphal resolution (Ž gs. 1 and2). The rude ganghad created confusion at the center,upstagingand obscuring the plot.Recog- nizingMatthew had required a greatdeal of e Vort.Caravaggio seems tohave ap- prehendedthe early version’s failurein hisradically modiŽ ed composition. In the Žnal painting,Matthew has receiveda swordthrust from behind ( plate1). T urning awayfrom the altar,he spiralsdownward. His assai lant liftshim atthe wristfor the Žnal assault.The woundedsaint is fully cognizantof hisimminent death. Martyr- domhas becomea couplet:assai lant andvicti m,executioner and condemned. At the center,the violence isseemingly clariŽed into a simpleopposition: Matthew gives intosuperior force and brutality .Whereas inthe initialcomposition Mat- thew’s bodywas suggestedby a facepeering out through the screen ofexecutioners,

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This content downloaded from 85.72.204.160 on Fri, 01 May 2020 12:49:55 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms figure 6.Caravaggio, TheCardsharps (IBari) ,c.1594. Kimball A rtMuseum, Ft.W orth,T exas. the overpainting’s recumbentsacriŽ cial body is prominentlydisplayed, overlapped only bya single executioner’s leg. Wemightpresume that the painterhad learned his lesson. The specialistin genre pictureshad taught himself howto paint a historia,or,rather,he appearsto have learnedhow to shoreup the contradictionsof ahistorypainting depicting amartyrdom.One mightinfer from these changes that historia triumphs.Some observershave putit thisway: the Counter-ReformationChurch had attempted todiscipline painting, calling for clarity after the obscurityof mannerismand the challenges todevotional art byRefor mationiconoclasts. In hisŽrstbid for a major publiccommissio ninRome,Caravaggio successfully represented martyrdom withinthe structuralconstraints ofthe humanist’s historia.Strictnarrative rele- vance dictatedthe processof selectionand arrangement. A lberti’s call forpictorial andsemantic intelligibil ity requiredclarity of formandthe integrityof the heroic, masculineŽ gureat the centerof the picture.In Alberti’s theory,the interdepen- dence ofthe constituentparts of pictorialcomposition adhered moreover to astrict hierarchicalstructure based on an analogytothe imaginedwholeness ofthe human body:‘ ‘Theparts of the historia arebodies, the partsof the bodiesare members, the partsof the memberare plane surfaces.’’2 AsMichael Baxandall has argued,Al-

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This content downloaded from 85.72.204.160 on Fri, 01 May 2020 12:49:55 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms figure 7.Caravaggio, Calling ofSt. Matthew ,1599–1600. Contarelli Chapel, SanLuigi dei Francesi, Rome. q Alinari/ArtResource,New York.

bertii maginedthe historia asbothcoherent and explicable. Modeled after the grammarof aperiodicsentence, compositionwas conceived as a‘‘hierarchyof formswithin the frameworkof whichone assesses the roleof each element inthe total eVectof the picture.’’3 The pressureof Alberti’s theoryon artisticpractice is registeredin Pollaiuolo’s scene ofmartyrdom,where the executionersare sixregu- larunits subsumed by the symmetrical,pyramidal composition. The twoŽ guresin the foregroundŽ ringlongbows at the centralnude are frontal and rear views ofthe same pose.The twoarchers loading their crossbows are similarly areplicativepair ofstudied anatomies. Each of theirmembers is reducibleto their constitutive mod- eled surfaces,uniformly shaded on the left.At center,underthe martyredsaint, the tree trunko Versa controlfor the simpliŽed and predictable shadows cast across these membersby a lightsource to our right. Surfaces therefore systematically cor-

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This content downloaded from 85.72.204.160 on Fri, 01 May 2020 12:49:55 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms respondto the logicof volumes,volumes constitute members, and members consti- tutebodies, which in turnconstitute the composition.The partsof the painting andthe partsof the bodyare subsumed within the whole. Ithas been assumedthat Caravaggio’ s destructionof the initialpainting of the Martyrdomof St.Matthew late initsproductionwas motivated by his realizationthat the compositiondid not ser ve the subject’s narrativepurpose. That is tosay ,the underpainting didnot su Yciently impressupon the viewerthe homologybetween pictorialstructure and the integrityof the humanbody .Infact,scholars have largely assumedthat the overpaintingwas an attemptto increase the picture’s clarityand legibility. 4 Tomastersemantic and narrative relevance wasthe painter’s brief, weare told. The artist was pressed to make the bodyof the martyrsu Yciently intel- ligibleeven asit was subjected to the threatof violent subordinationand dis- memberment. Theargument is convincinginsofar as Caravaggiodid achieve aŽgureof Mat- thewthat has apersuasivepresence in the Žnal painting.Facedwith the task of painting a historia,Caravaggiosought to sustain the phantasmof an anatomy.Given the theoreticallegacy ofAlbertiand a historiographythat privi leged Tuscantonal painting,his successat the time wouldhave been measuredin partby this achieve- ment.If the owerpainter cum specialisti nhalf-Žgures was toobtain further presti- giouscommissions, he wouldhave tosucceedas apainterof the fully articulated bodyin asigniŽcant narrative. Thus, the ambitioustransformation of Caravaggio fromthe painterof half-length Žguresto the artistresponsible for the accomplished ŽgureofMatthewprovides the strongestsupport for this commonly held apprecia- tionof the painter’s success. Yet,if weacceptthe underpaintingasthe failed attemptto produce a historia andthe Žnal paintingas itssuccessful realization, we ignore the visualevidence of the completedwork. T oassumethat Caravaggio’ s sole briefwas toanswer A lberti’s mandatefor the uniŽed, integral human Ž gureignores evidence thatthe artistwas alsoresponding to othercultural and devotional requirements. Examination of the Žnal paintingreveals atensionbetween the projectionof wholeness ontothe Žgure ofMatthewand a pictorialstrategy whereby body and pictorial composition were violated. Thispaper takes seriouslythe factthat the violationof saints’bodies did not occursolely inpainting.Martyrswere largely venerated becauseof the violationto whichtheir bodies were subjected. Thereafter ,they disintegratedand were archae- ologicallyrecovered as sacredrelics. Relics werethe forensictraces of martyrdom, passiveobjects embodying narratives without representi ng active,integrated anat- omies.I amarguingthat the fragmentationofthe bodyi nCaravaggio’s paint- ingdrew upon this enduring devotional Ž gure.Indeed, it is my contentionthat the constitutivebody of the compositionwas imaginedby Caravaggio as arelic. Toimaginethe bodydi Verently fromthat of the nobleŽ gurein Alberti’s historia wasnotto destroy painting, let alone tradition.Caravaggio sustained and depended

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This content downloaded from 85.72.204.160 on Fri, 01 May 2020 12:49:55 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms onA lberti’s homologybetween body and composition in hispicture,but to di Verent ends.The violation of apictorialstructure suggested other narratives not only of martyrdom—the violationof abody—but also of itsdouble, iconoclasm— the vio- lationof the materialimage. By describingthe Žnal paintingand the historical pressuresput upon its making, I amarguingthat Caravaggio’ s pictorialdecisions werea responseto the demandsof bothartistictheory and competing cultural prac- tices.Caravaggio’ s paintingnegotiated the contradictorypressures exerted, onthe onehand, by the humanist historia and,on the other,bya reinvigoratedChristian martyrology.Ifthe formerdemanded a heroicbody ,the lattercelebrated the abject body.Ifthe formerdemanded the unityof composition,the latterdedicated itself topictorial structure based on the principleof violation.The saintand the sacred imagewere both incorruptible and subject to torture,mayhem, anddispersal. Mat- thew’s bodyand Caravaggio’ s paintingwere freighted with these contradictions.

Painting inRuins

Ourassumptions conspire to convi nce usthatthe bodyof St.Matthew inCaravaggio’s paintingis entirely resolved.The painterhas led usto perceive wholeness largely bydrawing tenuous inferences basedon perceptualexperience. (One leg occludedby another sti llexists; aleg extending intothe darknessremains aleg, andso on.) Close attention to the Žgureunravels thatillusion of wholeness. Matthewbarely exists inastateof completion.The saintis aforeshortenedhead, aset ofappendages and the suggestionof agroin.His upper trunk is occludedby abruptforeshorteni ng asarehis legs belowthe knee. The torsoand legs aretoo shortand the knee istoohigh. The Žgurestruggles between wholeness andfrag- mentation. Caravagio’s contemporarieswould have seen the lack ofresolutionin the Žgure ofMatthew .Domenichino,for example, correctsCaravaggio’ s martyrin hisown FlagellationofSt. Andrew (Žg .8),unambivalently emulatingMichelangelo andhis systematicuse of modelingto evoke anactive,expressive body.Farfroman impas- sive ascetic,the saintactively respondsto torture, tw istingoutward to disclose the fully articulatedmuscles of aheroicnude. Unlike Pollaiuolo’s Sebastianand Do- menichino’s Andrew,Matthewis coveredin cloth.Inverting the prioritiesof the historia,Caravaggio’s demonstrationof the anatomyis reserved forthe nude,igno- ble body,ratherthan the saint.Much of oursense ofMatthew’s wholeness relies infacton the painter’s depictionof fabric.Characteristical ly,Caravaggio’s skillful renderingof the texturaldi Verentiationof substances,demonstrated i nhisstilllifes andgenre pictures,sustained the phantasmof abodyin narrativelargely through metonymy.Ratherthan exposingthe saint’s bodyand suggesting volume through modeling,the painterelided object and body through metonymic slippage: a body isinvoked bya protectivegar ment’s substantivetacti le presence.The curvilinear

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This content downloaded from 85.72.204.160 on Fri, 01 May 2020 12:49:55 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms figure 8.Domenichino, TheFlagellationofSt. Andrew (detail), 1609.Oratorio diSant’Andrea, San Gregorio Magno, Rome. Photo: Art Resource, New York. creaseand fold of texturedwhite cloth surrounding the armsdeŽ ne the limitsof cylindricalmasses andbestow materiality by proxy .The upwardarcing, braided, andtasseled cordbundles a moundof cloth,thereby interruptingthe continuity ofthe creasesthat run the length ofthe impliedtorso. Y et the inferredunderlying substanceis tenuous.The priest’s chasuble—acrumpled red si lkdisplacementof the martyr’s bloodsurrounded by a set ofsharpopaque planes— disconnects arms andlower trunk. Matthew is readas aset ofcobbled-togethersti lllifes.The white patchthat veils the projectedlower body is nomore than an expandedstudy of anervously twistedhandkerchief. A weirdsemblance ofcorporealunity is barely achieved bythis fragile envelope. Thereis anemptyingout of mass. Consider,bycontrast, Pollaiuolo’ s Sebastian(Ž g .3).The artist’ s convincingdis- play ofa predictableset ofanatomicalrelations i nspaceleaves little tobeimagined. Because ofthe artist’s skillful drawingof anatomicalstructure, his recallof ancient sculpture,and his consistent management oftone, Sebastian ’sbodyis uniŽed and intacteven whilebeing penetrated. If the gracefulcontour drawing puts undue weighton lineardesign at the expense ofplasticity,the artistcompensates by sur-

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This content downloaded from 85.72.204.160 on Fri, 01 May 2020 12:49:55 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms roundingthe Žgurewith a circuitof surrogateviewers. The twoarchers i ndepth lookupon the backof the bodythat we cannotsee. WasCaravaggiosimply incapable of achieving anatomicalmastery? Is Mat- thewproof of his deŽciency? Caravaggio’s limitedtraining may accountin partfor hishesitant treatment of the saint’s body.Pollaiuolowas clearly moreproŽ cient in hisvirtuosoexhibition of the anatomy,groundedin the practiceof drawing.Cara- vaggio’s attemptto press beyond the limitsof anatomicalproŽ ciency registersas awkwardness.However ,thisthesis thatCaravaggio had i nsu Ycientanatomical knowledgeto make Matthewas convincing asPollaiuolo’s Sebastian(or Domeni- chino’s Andrew)is undercutby his Žgureof the executioner.Here Caravaggiocon- Ždently representsa full-lengthnude.The executioner’s torsopivots on anan- choredleg, registeringthe forcenecessary simultaneouslyto wield the bladeand to extend hisotherar mtowardhis victim.In thisŽ gure,the painteris demonstrating newly foundcapacities. Fir m,sinuous contour lines onthe left sideof the bodyare Žxed bya darkground. Despite his representationof shri lllightand his deployment ofabrupt shifts in tonality,the artistconveys hiscommitmentto afully constituted bodyin relief.In thisŽ gure,the agitatedloincloth serves asan accentto, rather than asubstitutefor ,anatomicalproŽ ciency . Caravaggio’s limitedskills cannotfully accounteither for the strangeness ofthe martyr’s eclipsedbody or moregenerally forthe picture’s refusalto render complete the ancillary bodiesthat would anchor the centralcouplet. Even inthe Žnal version, the saintis caughtin the inchoateweave ofwitnesses.The centralnarrative incident isframedby a spiralinggroup of  eeing, panic-strickenneophytes orcoconspir- ators.The painterhas orchestratedconfusion. Contrast these piecemeal Žgures tothose gravitating around the centralŽ gurein Domenichino’s FlagellationofSt. Andrew (Žg .8).As inPollaiuolo’s Martyrdomof St.Sebastian ,wherethe artistexhibited hisfull command of the di Verences betweenthe tense body’s applicationof force toa crossbowand a longbow,Domenichino’s thrashingbrute in the foreground complementsthe convincinganatomical display of the torturedbody .Bothartists basedtheir compositions on the predictablerelations of active Žguresin space. By contrast,the representationof the forcefulcentrifugal dispersal of the reac- tive Žguresin the Martyrdomof St. Matthew iscontradictedby the intensive Žxation ontenuous, seemingly arbitraryjuxtapositions. On the left sideof the picture,an extended handappears to graze another hand in depth( plate1). Figures (or rather , partiallyrevealed synecdochesof surfacesor members) seem tobe placed accord- ingto the chance coordinatesof asingle representedviewing position. Relations betweenobjects in spaceare held ransomto an arbitraryopticality .Ratherthan a collective modelof responsivenesssuggested by the coordinationof Žgures,rela- tionalityhere issubjectto violent incoherence. 5 Oursuspicionregarding Matthew’ s incompletenesstakes itscue from the failureof the surroundingŽ guresto adhere toa predictablesystem. Inthe upperleft, for example, amanfalls, hands upheld. Below him, in the left

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This content downloaded from 85.72.204.160 on Fri, 01 May 2020 12:49:55 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms figure 9.Caravaggio, TheMartyrdomof St. Matthew (detailof plate1). q Scala/ArtResource, New York. corner,anotherseminude man pivots on hiship and tentatively plantshis hands onthe ground(Ž g .9).The handsare too near to each otherto o Verstabi lity tothe headbalanced between the shoulders.This Ž gureis Matthew’s reversed andi n- verted double.The presenceof hisbody is largely inferredfrom the evidence ofa torsoprovisional ly graftedto a pairofthinly paintedlegs projectingbacki nto depth.The Žgureis orientedin conicti ng directions.In otherlate-sixteenth-cen- turypaintings repoussoir Žguressuch as thisman at left served asdemonstration piecesof the artist’s invention:to display ,ifnotto surpass, anatomical mastery . Predictably,inCaravaggio’s Žrstmajor public commission, the paintersimi larly attemptedto garnerauthority through his rehearsalof Michelangelo’ s owndemon- strationpieces, the ignudi onthe SistineChapel ceiling .Yet,the overtawkwardness ofthe Žgureat the left dismantlesthe masterfulcitation, underscoring instead the seemingly chance encounterof lightand  esh. 6 Inthe corner,the armsand head echoan ovoidshape with a conspicuousgap, like the yoke ofan ox. Atthissite in the composition,as inthe fracasin the upperleft, Caravaggio rehearsedthe skills he haddeveloped in genre painting:a seemingly arbitraryper- spectiveonto the Žgureemphasizes the perceptionof the incidentaland the provi- sionaland can thereby producea veristice Vect.( The successof thishighly contrived

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This content downloaded from 85.72.204.160 on Fri, 01 May 2020 12:49:55 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms strategyled criticslike Caravaggio’s seventeenth-century biographerGiovanni Pie- troBellori to mistake thistechnical e Vectfor a mere passiveresponse to a tableau vivant ofmodels.) 7 Inaddition,a seemingly unplannedor unmotivated accident of lightillumi natingsurfaces underscores ‘ ‘the real.’’ 8 Objectsare not systematically anchoredto acoherentsource of light(as inPollaiuoloor Domenichino).Nor is the primarye Vectone of relief.Caravaggio’ s emphasison the viewer’s partial knowledgeof the Žgureundercutsany securegrasp of the humanbody as acompre- hensive whole.The radical disruption of the transitionbetween illuminated surface andopaque shadow presses the limitsof ourperception and thereby interfereswith ourcapacity to infer the presenceof abody.The strategyis repeatedi nthe hovering angel whoconsists of appendedaggregates of  esh. Even inthe mostresolute Ž gure, the executioner,the contourson the rightside are degraded by opaque shadows thatthreaten tocontaminate the integrityof the body’s surfaces.Rather than ful- Žlling the promiseof unity,lightsubjects the compositionto violent disintegration. Artisticcitation is subjectto the violence ofephemeral perceptionin aharshlight. Onthe right,in the cornerof the canvas mostproximate to the viewerin the chapel,a cleftbetween a man’s shoulderblades o Versa gapingmaw (Ž g .10).This bodycasts an opaqueshadow upon itself, thereby underminingthe capacitiesof graduatedmodeling to suggesta volume.The fragmentof the back,i ncisedby shadow,isgraftedonto two heads and a dislocatedarm. A greasy redear erupts nearthe deepcrevasses ofa strained,wrinkled neck. Bodiesare disassembled and disengagedfrom the historicalevent. Expressiveness isblockedand the masternar- rativethreatens tocollapse. Inthiscorporeal melee, modeledsurfaces do not ineluctably evolve intothe integratedmembers of uniŽed bodies, which ser ve asthe constituentelements ofa composition.Normatively ,inItaliantonal painting (such as Pierodella Francesca’s Dream ofConstantine inArezzo;Ž g.11),an object’s attachedor self-shadowsuggests apredictableset ofrelations.A nobject’s projectionobstructs the illuminationof itsown surface. In apictorialcomposition, numerous bodies predictably respond to the simpliŽed direction of light.Incremental gradationof toneregisters the viewer’s relative proximityto the surfacesof an object.In addition,the discretenessof a memberor bodyis inferredfrom its capacity to occlude other objects and therefore interferew ithour perception of an adjacentsurface, member ,orbody .Acast shadowis conventionally reserved forthe representationof an object’s obstruction ofthe illuminationof the immediateground or acontiguousobject. From the oper- ationof a castshadow we infer the separatenessof bodies,material discontinuity , andontological di Verence.9 Caravaggiotransgressed these conventions.In hisrevised composition, rather than having castshadow represent the contiguityof discrete objects, shadows are castby objects onto themselves. The extreme opacityof anattachedshadow makes itread as acastshadow .Thatis tosay ,aself-shadowmimics or collapsesinto cast shadow.Caravaggio’s radicaluse of chiaroscuroproduces the strangeness ofthe

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This content downloaded from 85.72.204.160 on Fri, 01 May 2020 12:49:55 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms figure 10.Caravaggio, The Martyrdomof St. Matthew (detailof plate1). q Scala/ArtResource,New York. gapinghole where esh belongs.If the lightraking a bodyabruptly leaves apart ofitsconti nuoussurface in completedarkness, the e Vectis oneof corrosion, self- annihilation.Light and shadow create relief, but i fabodyis severely dividedby luminosityand opacity ,itisdisrupted.Surfaces become discontinuous. Planes do notadhere. Members fai ltocohereinto a body.Ascorporal integrity is compro- mised,bodies fail to constitute a knowablespace and they refuseto coalesceinto a pictorialstructure in conformityw ithAlberti’ s composition.This occurs not only becausethe bodyappears incomplete but also because the castself-shadow alien- ates the objectfrom itself. (As I have stated,conventionally ,inwesternrepresenta- tion,shadows are cast on adjacentor discontinuous bodies.) Here recourseto the term naturalism isoflimitedusefulness. Far from bolstering the real,the seemingly accidentali lluminationof objectsin Caravaggio’s paintingultimately produces doubtregarding the integrityand presence of bodies. Radical tonal disjunction elicitsa rupturebetween surface and void, undercutting the seamless continuityof planarsurface to member ,memberto body,andbody to composition.

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This content downloaded from 85.72.204.160 on Fri, 01 May 2020 12:49:55 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms figure 11.Piero della Francesca,‘ ‘The Dreamof Constantine,’’ 1455.From Legend ofthe TrueCross . SanFrancesco, Arezzo. q Alinari/ArtResource, New York.

Thus,if Caravaggiohad meant toshoreup the historia,itwasnot in the terms coinedby A lberti.In hispainting, the strainonthe unityof composition (and its constituentsurfaces, planes, members, and bodies) betrays a pictorialstrateg y, ratherthan inadequateski lls.The peripheralŽ guresin the overpainting ofthe Mar- tyrdomof St. Matthew bearthe greatestburden of signifyingthe collapseof form. They registerthe endpointof the capacityof discrepant tones to suggestvolume. The bodieson the marginspoint to afailureof legibilitythat anticipates (or fore- shadows)the pell-mell spectacleof Matthew’s imminentdisintegration as violated martyr.The resultultimately draws attention to ourinability to knowfully where boundariester minateor ,even, whetherthe bodyunder the threatof dismember- ment exists beyondwhat we know.Caravaggio’s paintinginterrogates the viewer: When isacontoura cut?(Caravaggio would make literalthis pictorial strategy in

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This content downloaded from 85.72.204.160 on Fri, 01 May 2020 12:49:55 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms his David with the Head ofGoliath of1610.) Compare the e Vectof St. Matthew’ s satellite fragmentsto Pollaiuolo’ s twohenchmen conŽdently deliveringthe mea- suredarrows to the unseen yet coherenttarget or Domenichino’s orchestrationof Žguresaround the displayedvictim. In the Martyrdomof St. Matthew compositionis aramshackle phantasmof surface,plane, member ,andbody momentari ly propped upinorderto be violated.Far from clarifying the narrativeand stressing the intact conditionof the centralbody ,asinPollaiuoloand Domenichino, Caravaggio’ s use ofthe homologybetween composition and body dismantled A lberti’s historia. He left paintingin ruins. The previoussentence willnotstri ke somereaders as surprising.Afterall, Nico- las Poussin’swell-knownremark that Caravaggio destroyed painting was used as the pointof departurefor Louis Marin’ s meditationon the Italianpainter . 10 Based onastatement attributedto Poussin,Mari n’stitle, ToDestroyPainting ,agsa desire foran artthat threatens todeconstruct itself. 11 Poussin’s remarkabout an artist who irtswiththe destructionof artcannot illuminate how Caravaggio’ s painting coordinatedmartyrdom and iconoclasm unless wereturn the pictureto its histori- calmoment, however .Treatedin isolation,Caravaggio’ s handlingof chiaroscuro may seem idiosyncraticto us—an objectyielding the occasionfor extended formal description—but his picture in 1600existed withina visualand political culture preoccupiedwith the destructionof saintsas well asart.

Martyrdom

Therewas noclear Ž tbetweenCaravaggio’ s pictorialdecisions and Tri- dentine decreesconcernin gthe roleof i mages.His painting for the Contarelli Chapelnevertheless wasmade in responseto emergent devotionalrequirements. Protestantattacks on the venerationof saints,their images, and their relics led Cath- olicsto dedicatethemselves tothe exemplary passivebody subject to violation by the instrumentsof tyrannicalpower .Indeed,i mmediately priorto the conception ofCaravaggio’s project,Rome saw the productionof an ambitiousseries of martyr pictures.In the 1580s,passive bodies of saintswere elaborated in aseemingly end- less seriesof permutations:torture, mayhem, execution,dismember ment,and dese- cration.12 In1582,Pope Gregory XIII commissioneda seriesof thirtyfrescoes for SantoStefano Rotondo al Celio.The painterPomarancio depicted the early Ro- manmartyrs, such as thosewho had been killed bythe emperorNero. A seriesof engravingsafter the frescoesimmediately appeared, joining the numerouspublica- tionsof prints in the comingdecades depicting the martyrdomof the early Roman saintsand the desecrationof theirbodies. 13 Devotionto historical martyrs was also directly in ected by a spateof contem- poraryki llings.The militancy ofthe Counter-ReformationChurch produced a generationof devotees whowillingly soughtto imitate the early martyrs.In 1583,

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This content downloaded from 85.72.204.160 on Fri, 01 May 2020 12:49:55 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms figure 12.After Niccolo `Circignani( Pomarancio), Martyrdomof Blessed Edmund Campion and Others in1581 ,1583.Engraved by Giovanni Battista Cavalieri, Ecclesiae Anglicanae Trophaea (Rome,1584), plate 33. Courtesyof The Getty Research Library,LosA ngeles.

only afewyears afterthe martyrdomof the Irishpriest Edmund Campion in En- gland,frescoes were painted in the EnglishCollege inRomeand quick ly repro- ducedin aportfolioof engravingswith the intentionof ‘‘excitingthe faithful’’ into imitationof theirmartyred compatriots (Ž g .12). 14 Inthe twodecades before the executionof the ContarelliChapel by Caravaggio, ambitious painting programs andprints linked the RomanEmpire’ s persecutionof the Christianswith contem- poraryviolence inicted by Protestants. In these English Recusantfrescoes, the anachronisticar morof the executionerswas intended to identify the Anglicans withi mperialpower against a colonizedIrish Catholic, reenacting the mutilation anddispersal of the bodiesof the early Romanmartyrs. Suchhistorical allusions were central to the projectin the ContarelliChapel

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This content downloaded from 85.72.204.160 on Fri, 01 May 2020 12:49:55 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms inthe French nationalchurch in Rome.Caravaggio had inherited a programthat emergedin directresponse to the Žrstwave ofbrutalreligious war in France.The ContarelliChapel had been dedicatedto St. Matthew some thirty years earlierby the French CardinalMatthieu Contrei ( MatteoContarelli ).The chapelwas to be decoratedwith six episodesin the life ofMatthew,includinghis conversionand the events culminatingin hismartyrdom as a missionaryi nEthiopia.Contrei had originallycommissioned the Matthewcycle forhis chapelin 1562,only three years afterthe deathof Henry II,whichmarked the legalizationof the ReformedChurch andthe proliferationof Calvinistprint propaganda in France. 15 Settinga precedent fora recurrentphenomenon in French history,apoliticallyimpotent royal minor- ity fomentedcivil war .Theviolent conicts that ensued throughout the centuryno doubtcontributed to the delays inthe realizationof the chapel’s decorativepro- gram.The imagery of the chapel,however ,didnot lose itsrelevance. The theme ofconversionand martyrdom of asaintwas consistent with the RomanChurch’ s cobblingtogether of decreesjustifying religious images in responseto the wave of iconoclasmin France.Moreover ,the deathof St.Matthew at the handsof ahereti- calmonarch would have underscoredthe dangersfor European Catholics of ruleby aking alienatedfrom the RomanChurch— even moreso, by an actualHuguenot.

Expiation

The delay betweenthe initialcommission for the ContarelliChapel in 1565and the Žnal executionby Caravaggio in 1600suggests that the painterhad inheritednot only aprogrambut also a politics.The resumptionof workon the chapelin the French nationalchurch by Caravaggio around 160 0wasprompted byhis supporters, pro-French cardinals who wanted to complete the workin time forthe Jubilee,thereby celebrating the recentabjuration of Calvinism by Henry of Navarreafter decades of bloodycivi lwar. 16 The picturesi nthe ContarelliChapel thereforeentered into an economyof internationalpolitical exchange. Byall ap- pearances,Henry ofNavarre was willing to swapreligious conviction for political power.Contemporarieswere as cynicalas wasKarl Marx, whoin Capital quoted the aphorismattributed to Henry IV(‘‘Parisvaut bien une messe’ ’ ).The chapel waspart of a campaignto assuageany doubtsabout the legitimacyof the king’s conversion. 17 Therenewed attention to the chapelby the Vaticangave testimony tothe pope’s absolutionof the monarch.Further more,the imageryof martyrdom atthe handsof ahereticalking hadan expiatoryfunction: Henry the heretichad been reincarnatedinto a Gallican Herculesready to slay the discordanthydra of heresy.18 Given Henry IV’sattemptsto forge a politicalalliance withthe papacyand the RomanChurch’ s claimsto a uniŽed Catholic Europe, one might expect toŽ ndthe projectin France’s nationalchurch i nRometobe inconformitywith the theoretical

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This content downloaded from 85.72.204.160 on Fri, 01 May 2020 12:49:55 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms armof the Counter-ReformationChurch. In the wake oficonoclasm,the artistic theoryof the RomanCatholic Church attempted to regulate numinous images. The representationof historicalactions that could be emulatedwas understood to beless dangerousthan an iconicimage that might be confused with its prototype. 19 CardinalGabriele Paleotti, who wrote a systematictreatise on art incollaboration withSt. Charles Borromeo, argued that religious painting must imprint upon the heart‘ ‘heroicand magnanimous deeds.’ ’ Inorderto reform the historia, Paleotti criticizedobscurity ,incomprehensibility,andthe riskof amassing‘ ‘amultitudeof Žguresand actions, which confuse your sight and intellect.’ ’20 Elaborating inhis treatisethe schematicguidelines handed down by the CouncilofTrent(1563), Pa- leottiwas sustaini ng the art-criticaltradition of Alberti:history pai ntingshould serve tohonorand encourage vi rtue. 21 ForPaleotti,martyrdom was anidealtopos for the historia: Tohear the narrationof the martyrdomof asaint,the fervorand the perseverance ofa virgin,the passionof Christ Himself, this issomething that really touches us inside;but to have infrontof oureyes, set inlive colors,here the saint tortured,there the virginmartyred andin anotherplace Christnai led[to the cross], all this undoubtedlyso much increases ourdevotion that those whodo notacknowledge itare made of woodor marble. 22 Indeed,the late-sixteenth-century RomanCatholic Church’ s demandsfor the visu- alizationof martyrnarratives from its own early historywas consistent with one aspectof Caravaggio’s brief. The representationof the early martyrin the ContarelliChapel was also a responseto other pressures to whichthe heroicŽ gureof the historia fell victim.Dur- ingthe last decadesof the sixteenth century,imagesof the St.Bartholemew’ s Day massacreof Huguenotswere repressed by the proliferationof imagesdevoted to the victimizationof Catholicmartyrs. Caravaggio’ s formalindebtedness to the recent imageryof Huguenot violence thereforehad a politicalvalence. Inthe engravings forRichard V erstegan’s Theater ofCruelty (1587),as well asinpaintingsat Santo StefanoRotondo and the English College knownfrom prints, we witnessan ambiv- alence towardthe unityof pictorial composition comparable to Carvaggio’ s Martyr- dom ofSt. Matthew (Ž g. 13).23 Eachseries of picturesuses an anachronisticcellular composition,with the numbing,monotonous recapitulation of atrocities,burnings, tortures,and dismemberments represented in atemporalepisodes dispersed in a landscape.T emporaland spatial unity are sacriŽ ced, leaving apictorialarchaism thatmay referto the martyrpictures of the early Church. 24 The captionedvisual index alsoworks to keep idolatryat bay ,stressingthat the pictureis an artlessmne- monicdevice. In Caravaggio’s Martyrdom,the dispersalof Ž guresand vertiginous pictorial structurefar exceed the obsessivereplicative e Vectsof othermartyr paintings and theirprinted counterparts. But the literalrepresentation of violence enactedon Matthew’s bodyis moreradically displaced onto the violationof the composition. The saintmomentari ly coalescesat the centerof the picture.Y et the peripheral

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This content downloaded from 85.72.204.160 on Fri, 01 May 2020 12:49:55 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms figure 13.Richard V erstegan( RichardRowlands), ‘ ‘Horribiliascelera ab Huguenotisin Gallijs perpetrata,’’ in Theatrum Crudelitatum HaereticorumNostriT emporis (Antwerp,1587), plate 49. Courtesy ofThe William AndrewsClark Memorial Library ,University ofCalifornia,Los Angeles. connectivetissue of surfaces,members, and bodies does not bind the pictorialstruc- ture.The vacillation between contour and cut, across and within fragmentary bod- ies,threatens toundo the compositionon whichthe integrityof the saint’s body ultimately hinges.The paintingacknowledges the conditionsof compositionas a surrogatebody ,sustainingthe homologybetween body and canvas. Y et,as the pic- torialstructure stages its own disintegration, Matthew’ s integrityis threatenedand martyrdomis imbricatedin an iconoclasticgesture. In orderto defend the status ofthe religiousi mage,there isparadoxicallya closeidentiŽ cation between the mar- tyrdomand the violationof pictorialunity .Why wouldthe picture,as Iamargui ng, seem tostage its own destruction and  irtwithiconoclasm?

Iconoclasm

Caravaggio’s conation of martyrdomand the representationof the de- structionof artwasnotanomalous. Although at odds with the Church’s theoretical commitmentto Alberti’s historia asacheck foridolatry ,thisundoingof the ontologi- caldistinction between  esh andstone, or bloodand paint, was a centralstrategy

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This content downloaded from 85.72.204.160 on Fri, 01 May 2020 12:49:55 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms figure 14.Richard V erstegan( RichardRowlands), ‘ ‘Schismaticorumin Anglia crudelitas,’’ in TheatrumCrudelitatumHaereticorumNostriT emporis, plate29. Courtesy of The William AndrewsClark Memorial Library .

ofother Counter-Reformation visual practices. The appropriationof iconoclastic imagerywas animportantfeature of numerouscontemporary paintings and prints railingagainst the violence ofthe hereticalProtestants. The passivedismembered martyr’s bodywas purposefu lly confusedwith the destructionofthe venerated sticksand stones of art.In oneprint, a cruciŽx isattackedin tandemwith a eshy double,a priestcruciŽ ed and shot at the altar.Inanother,the burningof a statue ofKing David at the feet ofahanging martyrfunctions as a ‘‘doubletorture’ ’ (Ž g. 14).25 Despitedecrees to the contrary,the very confusionbetween deity and materialobject that the Calvinistsdeplored was exploited in suchprints. Art was depictedas having the agency forfeeling andexpression. Counter-Reformationwriters clai medthat the CatholicChurch was a victim ofthe iconoclastsand their apocalyptic world, that the anarchicheretics outside the wallsof Romewere subjecting Catholics to the same fateas wassu Vered by the early Christianmartyrs. A ntoniusPaulus provided a listof atrocites: Seditionsand discord [ have been]stirred up, the sacred andprofane all mixedup and con- fused;everything [has been]Ž lled with turbulentand discordant cries ...[;]the imagesof the saints andmonuments [are]everywhere prostrate,religious practices polluted;all divine andhuman laws [are]violated. 26 Indevotionaltexts andprints, the Catholicnarratives of iconoclasmportrayed the destructionof the imageas well asthe confusingof Christ,Mary ,orsaintas asec-

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This content downloaded from 85.72.204.160 on Fri, 01 May 2020 12:49:55 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms ondpassion and uncanny martyrdom. 27 While the Calvinistsattacked the images becauseof idolatry’s confusionof prototypeand representation, Catholic propa- ganda(outside art theory and T ridentinedecrees) enlisted thismimetic confusion inorderto representiconoclasm as acontemporarysymbolic reenactment ofmar- tyrdom.A paintedprint depicting a secondmocking and cruciŽ xion exploited the confusionbetween the hue ofesh andpolychrome sculpture, immolated statues andmartyrs (Ž g .15).In yet otherpri nts,a shipwreckedMadonna and child drown inthe embraceof apriestlyamputee, victims of Huguenotpirates, or the Virgin hangs fromthe neck ofacruciŽed Franciscan. 28 Farfrom disavowing the confusion betweendeity and prototype, Counter-Reformation imagery collapsed these cate- goriesin orderto dramatize the powerof sacri lege. Caravaggio’s stagingof the massacreof the bodyof the saintat the altardid not merely illustratethis notion of the martyredobject. His picture’ s radicalcontrast oflightand dark threatened to disintegrate the unityof composition,thereby the- matizingthe destructionof the paintingitself. The conation of martyrdomand iconoclasmwas enacted by attacking the bodyas constitutedin pictorialfor m. Hence, Caravaggio’s violent disarticulationofthe legacy ofAlberti.Far from recu- peratingthe integratedheroic body modeled after ancient sculpture as the struc- turalorganizing pri ncipleof the historia,Caravaggio’s representationof the cata- strophicthreat to history painting depended on performing the disintegrationof the antiquereferent. A ny readerof the classicistGiovanni Pietro Bellori might sim- ply attributeCaravaggio’ s apparentdeŽ ciency inanatomicalrepresentation to his ignoranceof the statuesof classicalantiquity .Butthe value Belloriassigned to antiq- uity was diVerent fromthe understandingof antiquityin 1600.ForCaravaggio and hisimmediate audience, as distinctfrom Bellori in the 1670s,the bodyas pictured byCaravaggio was not incompatible with the antiquebody .Inorderto make this argument,I mustspecify what antiquity meant inCounter-ReformationRome. Far fromhaving ancientsculptures stand in foranatomical completion (and Winckel- manniandesire), the ancientobject of archaeologyaround160 0wasclosely identi- Žedw ithits destruction.

Archaeology

Only three years beforeCaravaggio painted St. Matthew ,aprocession throughRome celebrated the transferof the recently excavated physicalremains of three early Christianmartyrs to a churchdedicated to their devotion. 29 SigniŽ - cantly,the spectacularparade of 1597 wasmodeledafter a Romantriumphal entry , proceedingthrough sites saturated w ithimperial memory .Appropriatingthe politi- calsymbolism of triumphfor the conditionof martyrdom, the historianCardinal Baronioproposed an oxymoron:the saintwas a victoriousvictim. When the rem- nants ofthe bodiespassed through the Archof Titus,the imperialmonument was

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This content downloaded from 85.72.204.160 on Fri, 01 May 2020 12:49:55 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms figure 15.Richard V erstegan( RichardRowlands), ‘ ‘NouiEvangelij fructus,’’ in Theatrum Crudelitatum HaereticorumNostriT emporis , plate 23. Courtesyof The William AndrewsClark Memorial Library .

rededicatedto avirginmartyr saint whose blood was representedas atrophy.Baro- nio’s conceptionof martyrrelics as imperialspoils was centralto the archaeological constructionof historyaround 1600. IndeedCardinal Baronio had collaborated with the antiquarianA ntonioBo- sio,who famously rummaged the catacombsfor archaeological traces of the early RomanChurch. Bosio’ s posthumouslypublished Roma Soutteranea (1634) had helped the eruditeRepublic of Lettersreconstitute the materialremains of antiq- uity.30 My emphasishere isthatBosio’ s archaeologicalproject of 1599–1600was contemporaneouswith Caravaggio’ s renovationof the ContarelliChapel at San Luigi.Central to Bosio’s textual projectwas the historyof the brokenbones of mar- tyrs,the burningand the inundationof the martyrs’ esh. In Bosio’s Roma Soutteranea ,the readerwitnesses violent dismembermentstruc- turedby a catalogingimpulse. Not only didthe early RomanChristians experience the painof burning esh, buttheir bodies were desecrated: exposed to the birdsof the air,the animalsof the earth,and the Žsh ofthe sea. 31 The saintswere subject toelemental dispersal.Bosio’ s archaeologicaltext madethe violationof syntax a devotionalinstrument. Each chapter is an index toinfamy: the disposalof bod- ies inwells, Žre,the sea,lakes, andsewers. The pagans,fearing the powerof these relics,longed to banish them. Unlike the archaeologistor physicalanthropologist

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This content downloaded from 85.72.204.160 on Fri, 01 May 2020 12:49:55 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms whoproduces a fully reconstitutedartifact, Bosio devoted himself todescribing the disintegrationof sacredremains: some bodies simply maimed, others lacerated into athousandpieces, and still otherstorn apart by horses, members and intestines strewn.32 Asaresultof the systematicmayhem andmultiple martyrdoms recounted by Bosio,the relicsof the saintswere mixed andmingled. Ultimately ,the boneswere recuperatedthrough the diligence ofthe early devotees anddivine inter vention, separatingprofane from sacred, individual saint from saint, often with the assis- tanceof amiraculousvision. 33 The discoveryof anuncorruptedbody of the early Christianmartyr St. Ceci liain 1599wasthoughtto be suchan occultevent precipi- tatedby the researchof the historianA ntonioGallonio. 34 Immediately afterthe exhumationof herbody ,Bosio’s historyof the virginsaint was published. 35 The antiquarian’s searchamong the remnantsof adispersedhagiography served asthe contextfor the phantasmaticappearance of an inviolablebody . Bosio’s text waspartofabroaderarchaeological practice that was contempora- neousw ithCaravaggio’ s painting.Bosioand Caravaggio may seem strangebedfel- lowsin lightof the factthat Caravaggio was subsequently represented as afoilto thosepainters who modeled their art afterclassical antiquity .Yet in1600antiquity wasdeŽ ned in very speciŽc termsby Counter-Reformation antiquarians. Bosio’ s archaeologicalproject was indebted to those contemporaneous tracts relating the recentatrocities committed against sacred images. Bosio’ s narrativeof the ancient Romantreatment of the Christianrelics was intendedto preŽgure the recentspate ofmartyrdoms and the desecrationof Catholic bodies. The early Christians,in the faceof the disintegrationof coreligionists,devoted themselves with‘ ‘exquisite diligence’’ tothe reconstitutionand veneration of their material remains. 36 In Bo- sio’s scheme, the fullrange of devotion depended upon a meditationon the destruc- tionof the bodyand its ultimatereconstitution. He describeda devotionalarchaeol- ogywhereforensic evidence borethe traceof the narrativeof martyrdom,but also, importantly,hisrelicwas anartifactthat bore the tracesof an iconoclasticnarrative. Bosio’s descriptionof the relicsrecapitulated Protestant assaults on devotionalob- jectsand the remainsof saints,dissolvi ng the di Verences betweenmartyrdom, may- hem, andiconoclasm (Ž g .16).

Ekphrasis

Bosio’s morbidcatalog and contemporary accounts of sacrilegepartici- patedin adevotionalbehavior with sharedtextual antecedents.The writings of the early ChurchjustiŽ ed the representationof bothmartyrdom and the desecration ofsacredremains. The rhetoricalperfor mances ofdescription, ekphrases, by the writersof late antiquityprovided models for the vividevocation and enumeration ofatrocities. 37 The historianCardinal Baronio and the archaeologistBosio turned

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This content downloaded from 85.72.204.160 on Fri, 01 May 2020 12:49:55 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms figure 16.Richard V erstegan( RichardRowlands), ‘ ‘Horribiliascelera ab Huguenotisin Gallijs perpetrata,’’ in TheatrumCrudelitatum HaereticorumNostriT emporis ,plate47. Courtesy of The William AndrewsClark Memorial Library .

speciŽcally tothe writingsof the fourth-centuryLatin poet Prudentius who de- scribedthe visualrepresentation of martyrdoms i nthe placesof Christianworship, the Romancatacombs, thereby refutingthe claimthat the early Churchdid not venerate images. 38 Forthe Counter-Reformationtheologian Baronio, Prudentius’ s descriptionsof the ancientprecedents for religious art o Vereda rebuttalto Jean Calvin’sandMartin Luther’ s theses thatthe Churchhad decayed in itssecond millennium. 39 The archaeologicaldiscoveryand salvage ofthe catacombscon- Žrmedthe testimoniesof early Christianwitnesses. 40 Bosiocited Prudentius as he exploredthe catacombsand searched for archaeological evidence toconŽrm the Christianpoet’ s writings. 41 SigniŽcantly ,Prudentius’s descriptionof ancient paint- ings oVereda devotionallanguage in responseto art. The artcriticismof the early Christianswho responded to martyrdom painti ngs let Bosioimagi ne the cata- combsas bothmass grave andunderground picture gallery .Ibelieve thatthe sub- terraneanart criticismo Versa wayfor us toimagine the linguisticprotocols of Ca- ravaggio’s immediateaudience. In Crownsof Martyrdom ,Prudentiusinserted ekphrases ofpaintingshe foundin the catacombs.In the midstof anonymousmarkers, ‘ ‘mutemarbles, which shut up the tombsin silence andonly indicatethe number,’’ the poetcommemorated the

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This content downloaded from 85.72.204.160 on Fri, 01 May 2020 12:49:55 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms torturesendured by the Christians:‘ ‘Here soundedthe gratingof the chainsthey dragged,there the crackof leathern lashes, orthe crashingof the rods,whi le the clawpierced the hollowframework of their ribs, laying opendeep cavities and tear- ingof theirvitals.’ ’ 42 Mutilationleads to cruciŽ xion, immolation, and drowning .A saintis draggedacross a landscapeby a teamof wildhorses: ‘ ‘The bodyis shattered, the thornyshrubs which bristle on the groundcut and tear it to little bits.Some of ithangs fromthe topof rocks,some sticks to bushes, with some the branchesare reddened,with some the earthis wet.’’43 Theevent ispaintedon the wallabove the martyr’s tomb(an otherwisesilent slab).Multicolored marks elide the tracesof the bodyand the brush:‘ ‘Isawthe tipsofrocksdripping . ..andscarlet stains imprinted onthe briers,where a handthat was skilled inportrayinggreen busheshad also Žguredthe redblood in vermilion.One couldsee the partstorn asunder and lying scatteredin disorderup and down at random.’ ’ The descriptionof the pictured martyrdomshifts to the depictionof the saint’s devoteddisciples who, followi ng the zigzagcourse of the horses,collected the mortalremains: ‘ ‘One claspsthe snowy head. ..while anotherpicks up the shoulders,the severed hands,ar ms,elbows, knees, barefragmentsof legs.’’ Thedevoted Christians are sothorough, wiping dry the sandand dust of even the smallest traceof bloodthat the bodyis ultimately fully reconstituted:‘ ‘Nowthe thickwood held nolongerany partofthe sacredbody , norcheated it of a fullburial. The partswere reviewed and found to make the numberbelonging to the unmutilatedbody .’’4 4 Itisnosurprise that the historianBaronio praised Prudentius and that the ar- chaeologistBosio imitated him. The early Christiansource justiŽ ed not only the cultof saintsbut also the venerationof pictures and relics. Prudentius also o Vered alinguisticprotocol for the venerationof images.By turning tothe fourth-century text andthe early Christianpainting, Baronius and Bosio bypassed the artcriticism ofAlbertiand the paintingsto which it attended.Michael Baxandall explains how Alberti’s theoreticalattention to compositiondisplaced a traditionof ekphrasisand itsattention to particularki ndsof paintingsthat displayed copiousness. Or ,rather, unstructuredprofusion was castigated by Alberti for being dissolutus or‘ ‘discon- nected’’ relative tothe disciplined‘ ‘variety’’ he prescribed.A lberti’s historia de- pendedupon this shiftin linguisticpractice from the humanistrevival ofthe sprawl- inglate Greek sophisticekphrasis to the hierarchicalstructur alimperativeand decorouseconomy of the periodicsentence. 45 Butin 1600,the recuperationof ekphrasisper mittedthe imaginingof martyr- domand encouraged a devotionalpractice organized around the relicrather than the bodythat coalesced in narrative painting .Forthe readerof Prudentius, the saint’s bodywas subsumedby a paintedlandscape, like somany dashesof vermilion pigmentin ascene thatwould other wisebe ameasuredgreen. The text’ s viewer contemplatesand recites the profusionand diversity of elemental traces,entrails, andshafts of grass.Dispersed body parts are collected and counted, tallying upto aquantitativei fnota structuralwhole. By analogy,itis di Ycultto cite Prudentius.

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This content downloaded from 85.72.204.160 on Fri, 01 May 2020 12:49:55 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms Notbecause the text has an integritythat is compromisedby the extractionof a phrase.Rather ,the text isincompatiblewith Alberti’ s notionof composition.In Prudentius,imagery rallies around the principleof substitutionand ‘ ‘abundantdi- versity’’ ratherthan ‘‘strictnarrative relevance ofeach representedobject or Ž gure.’’46 The revival ofPrudentiushad consequences for Caravaggio’ s immediatepub- lic.A painterwho disturbed the conventionsof tonalpainting o Vereda picturethat turned‘ ‘disconnectedness’’ intoa virtue.Baxandall’ s accountof the dominance ofA lberti’s theoryis amelancholicallegory ofthe historicalstandardization and regularizationof NorthernItalian painting cultures, where the ‘‘single-mindedref- erence ofallrepresentedthings to the narrativeend’ ’ prevailed. 47 AndreaManteg- na’s structuralimperative triumphs at the expense ofPisanello’s fancifulaccretions. Artistictheory is victoriousover ekphrasis. Uti lity takes precedenceover things. Caravaggio’s paintinginverted those cultural priorities.

Antipanegyric

Ihave arguedthat Caravaggio’ s paintingwas a responseto a set ofhis- toricalpressures in whichmartyrdom, iconoclasm, and archaeology overlapped in the Žgureof the relicduring the Counter-Reformation.The relic negotiated the conicted requirements of the Tridentine Churchbecause not only didit trace a redemptivemartyrolog y; italso was a concreteresidue of the threatof dissolution posedby the saint’s confusionw itha violent andpolluted world. T aken toits radical conclusion,the martyr’s tracedissolves to the pointof indecipherability andnon- recognition. Acontemporarydescription of the operationsof the relic,albeit by a hostile witness,helps usattendto the waysthe instability ofthe forensictrace in ected Caravaggio’s representationof martyrdom .Jean Calvin’s satiricalsixteenth- century Treatise onRelics exploitedthe anxieties inherent inthe fragmentationof the bodyas relic.During his mockimaginary pi lgrimagethrough Europe, the reformer mappeda macabregeography ,orashe calledit, ‘ ‘aforestof bones’’ : It’s truethat the lumpsof Saint Andrew ,foundhere andthere, o Ver some recompense, because inRome,at St. Peter’ s, he has ahead.In the church ofSaint-Chrysogone,a shoul- der,atSaint-Eustache, arib,at Saint Esprit, an arm;and at Saint-Blaise, God only knows what otherpart; and at Ai x-en-Provence, afoot.. ..SaintBartholomew left hisskininPisa, aswell asahand.At Tre`ves, there isIdon’t know what member.At Fregus,a Žnger. 48 Unlike the devoutrecitation of the piecemeal sainti nthe poemby Prudentius, Cal- vin’s comprehensiveness asacatalogerof relics unravels the authorityof the saints’ materialremains. Li ke Erasmusbefore him, Calvin ’srationalnumeration reduced them topartsthat did not add up: either too many ornotenough. According to Calvin’scalculationsthere wereenough splinters of the crossto build a largeship

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This content downloaded from 85.72.204.160 on Fri, 01 May 2020 12:49:55 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms or a suYcientquantity of skull fragmentsto make St.John the Baptist’s headthe sizeof an ox.SigniŽ cantly ,St.Matthew is inCalvin’s redcolumn. Aside from some oddbones in Tre`ves, Matthewonly has anarmin Rome. 49 Calvin’s text pointsto the absenceof Matthew’s historicalbody .Only somebones and an armwereeasily confusedwith the medley offorensictraces. Calvin alsoappropriated the sacred ekphrasis,subjecting the bodyto the violent paratactice Vectsof language. Caravaggio’s paintingof Matthew’ s martyrdom,therefore, had to negotiatethe hagiographicnarrative and the lack ofacoherenthistorical body resulting from the hackingat the body’s membersand its dispersal. Rather than reintegrating the bodyas awholein the Martyrdomof St. Matthew ,Caravaggiostrangely hesitatedto oVera completebody .Matthewthreatens tocollapse under the weightof the drap- ery.The clumpof fabricpivots and an armisheld aloftbefore the phantasmof a whole,albeit abject, body .The relicembedded in thatŽ eld ofshards recapitulates the constitutiveact of subordination and violation. Disintegration of the saintis an eVectof the pictorialstructure. The destructionofthe boundariesbetween pure and impure, sacred and profane,was the chiefdanger of the venerationof relics.Misreadings occurred in the forestof bones. Lack of intelligibility putthe worshiperat risk. F orCalvin, celebrantswere seduced into believing thatsome profane shred of clothwas the winding-sheetthat had enveloped Jesus. 50 Orworse,many bonesof horsesand dogs weretaken forthose of Peterand Paul. 51 Accordingto Calvin, pilgrimage was rid- dledwith seductions and deceptions. He endedhis treatise on relicsby comparing the failureto recognizethem tothe dangersof iconographicmisreadings. When the feast ofSt. Etienne came, hats andbadges appeared bearing not only the image ofthe Saintbut also images of the executioners whostoned him. . ..The poorwomen, seeing the executioners, mistookthem forcompanions of the saint. 52 Accordingto Calvin, poor women misread the assassinsas disciplesof the martyr. Calvin helps usidentifythe productiveinstabi lity ofCaravaggio’ s martyrdom.The sacredand profane were confused through contiguity .ForCalvin,relics under- scoredthe dangerof pollution: All issoburned and confused, that adoringthe boneof a martyr,putsone in dangerof adoringthe boneof some brigandor thief,or betterthat ofan ass, oradog,or ahorse.One is notable to adore only aringof Our Lady ,orsome such, withoutbeing in dangerof adoringthe bangles ofsome whore. 53 Calvin’s logicwas in noway original. In facthe rehearsedone of the long-standing anxieties withinthe CatholicChurch itself. Hagiographies cited the testimoniesof ghostsof decapitated robbers who testiŽ ed that the venerationof theirbones was ‘‘an errorof the multitude.’’54 Calvin stolefrom Erasmus the mythicŽ gureof the fraudulentrelic-seller whopawned o V the severed armofahangedman as arelic. 55 Venerationinvites misrecognition. One productiveresponse to the anxieties inherent inthe disintegratedrelic was

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This content downloaded from 85.72.204.160 on Fri, 01 May 2020 12:49:55 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms toshore up the boundariesbetween categories. This was St. Charles Borromeo’ s formula.He gave instructionson howa relicshould be containedand labeled, clas- siŽed, named, and hermetically sealed. 56 The reliquaryprotected the noblebones frombeing confused with those of the dog,the thief,and the prostitute,thereby preservinghierarchical signiŽ cance. But such a reliquaryalso arrested the narrative embodiedin the relicin orderto suppressdeath and to abolishtime itself. 57 Borro- meonot only eliminatedthe relic’s narrativefunction, his well-appointedreliquary checked the dispersalof the remainsnecessary forthe ekphrasisof Prudentius. Caravaggio’s Martyrdomof St. Matthew providedan alternate reliquaryand an alternative tocomposition, inviti ng the recuperationof ekphrasis.In the Martyrdom, the phantasmof wholeness inthe Žgureof Matthewwas made as an o Vering. Yet the painting—the centralŽ gure,the ancillaryŽ guresand the pictorialstructure— recapitulateda historyof mutilation,dismemberment, and social impurity through the commingling ofclasses aswell asthe threatto compositionalunity .The predict- ablerelationships between surface, plane, member ,body,andcomposition found in Italiantonal painting were severed. InPollaiuolo’s Martyrdom andDomenichino’ s Flagellation subordinateincremental Ž guresbolstered the integrityof the central Žgureand the narrativeof violence. InCaravaggio’s Martyrdom,the disjunctionbe- tween objectand cast self-shadow represented the alienationof an objectfrom it- self. Caravaggio’s paintingstaged its own dissolution and thereby recapitulatedthe assaulton saints, art, and relics by the heretics.The fragmentwas not only atrace ofthe narrativeof mutilationbut also a Žgurefor the disintegrationof narrative relevance. Fragment.Ultimately ,membersand maws congealed into a pictorialsurface. Shadowassumed a materialweight. The identityof relic and living bodycollapsed inwaysthat underline the tense relationbetween Ž gureand ground in Caravaggio’s painting.Outof the dangersof dissolution,out of popularmistaken devotion,picto- rialstructure was organized through the disconnectednessof asurfaceriddled with sacredand profane bodies.

Pitiful Relics

InGregoryMartin ’slate-sixteenth-century guideto Sacred Rome, the En- glishpi lgrimrecited an ekphrasisdelivered by St. Gregory of Nazianzen dedicated tosome ‘ ‘relics’’ taken asthe objectof hisveneration. 58 Nodoubt Martin was re- spondingto Calvin’s famousattack on relics.Indeed, Greek authorsof the fourth century,suchas St.Gregory of Nazianzen,provided historical and theological prec- edents forthe devotionto relics. 59 Butrather than apologizingfor the necessarily fragmentedand irrational condition of the relic,Martin drew upon the authority ofGregory’ s characteristicinversions of the encomiasticekphrasis. T urningaway frompraiseworthy objects, such as the lavish spoliaof animperialtriumph, or even

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This content downloaded from 85.72.204.160 on Fri, 01 May 2020 12:49:55 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms Christianity’s repertoryof miraculousimages, instruments of the passion,or saintly bones,Gregory directed his gaze toward those profane ‘ ‘men deadand yet living, inmany partesof theirbody maimed and mangled, and in suchmanner miserably deformed.’’ ForGregory,the abjectbodies of beggars on the streetswere saintly andworthy of arhetoricalperformance of ekphrasis. These livingpitiful relics cannot certainly deŽne, which partesof the bodythey may more bewaile:those that arecutte ofand starke dead,or those that yet remaine inthe body:those which the disease hath utterly consumed,or those that areyet leaftof the disease:for those bemiserably consumed andwasted, these aremore miserably preserved:those arerotted beforethe burial,these nobody wi lvouchsafe toburie. 60 The bodyor pitifulrelic was imagined as ‘‘alamentable lumpeor fardel’ ’ contem- platingits own members as ifthey weremoribund objects disconnected from itself. Only collectively dothese fragmentsadhere: They lietogether as aSocietieof diseased: al beingcompanions in miserie,but with great varietieevery onediversely provokingcompassion by diverse maladies:broken and worne away forfamine, having notso much asthe bodily instruments tobegge withal, lacking voices tomourne,tonges to speake, handes toput forth and make supplication,feete togoe, breathto sing, eies alsoto see. 61 The individualbody exists only asafabricof absences,members that do notact, thatmingle andare confused as anirreduciblematter: ‘ ‘framedand compacted of the same clay whereofwe wereŽ rstcreated, knitte alike withsinowes and bones, arayedw ithskinne and esh asall the restof mortalmen.’ ’62 One mightsay ,like a disconnectedpicture of confused but varied abundance. SinceA lberti,the enumerativeand di Verential propertiesof ‘‘variedabun- dance’’ hadbeen precipitatedout of, and controlled by ,the unityof composition andnarrative relevance. Pictorialstructure, drawing its analog yfromgrammar , disciplinedplenitude and di Verence.63 Pollaiuolo’s compositionis modeledafter the operationsof awell-tooledsentence. Inthe late sixteenth century,the citationof the ekphrases ofthe early ChristianChurch o Vered a diVerent patternof reception thatwas responsive to an aestheticof excess anddisconnectedness. 64 Matthewwas apitifulrelic. In Caravaggio’s painting,his completionis contin- gent onhisblade-bearing abject double. Overcome by the nudeexecutioner ,the integrityof thisawkward clump of fabricis only adelay (howeverconvincing) in itsimminent disintegration. The Žgureis momentarilyhinged on interspersed sur- facesof esh andopaque gaps as inthe webof presencesthat surrounds him in a communityof fardel.Y et,as inthe ekphrasisof the societyof pitiful relics, Mat- thew’s sinewsand bones are knit together,howeverprovisionally ,byCaravaggio’ s paintedsurface rather than bythe tonalstructure and anatomical resolution of Pollaiuolo’s composition.F orCaravaggio,attention is patternedinstead by the vio- lent alternationof acute veristic passages and opaque surfaces. By doingviolence tocomposition, exposing the disconnectednessof surfaceto

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This content downloaded from 85.72.204.160 on Fri, 01 May 2020 12:49:55 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms plane,plane tomember ,memberto body,andbody to body,Caravaggiocircum- vented Alberti’s composition.The canvas shunsanatomical unity disciplined in the service ofnarrativerelevance. Admittedly,Caravaggiowas respondingto a demand fornarrative art and was attempting to sustain the historia.However,hissecond versionof St.Matthew’ s martyrdombetrays a radicalreworking of the homology betweenthe unityof the bodyand the unityof pictorialcomposition. While Al- berti’s historia soughtto preserve the saint’s bodyas the organizingprinciple for the unityof compositioneven underthe threatof disintegration, in Caravaggio’s paintingthe ruinof a martyr’s bodyand the violationof pictorialorganization by formal homologyconstituted a devotionalpractice. In fact,the saint’s actualforen- sicremains were an immanentrepresentation that embodied desecration, destruc- tion,and archaeological recovery .Caravaggio’s paintingwas a responseto a set ofCounter-Refor mationhistorical pressures in whichmartyrdom, abjured heresy , iconoclasm,and archaeology overlapped in the objectof the relic.F romthis set ofpractices emerged a modeof artcriticism that was responsive to Caravaggio’ s painting. Caravaggio’s picturereclaimed pictorial e Vectsand linguistic practices atro- phiedby the disciplineof historia.Heinvitedthe performanceof the verbalproto- colsof the ekphrasis.Y et the disarticulationofwholeness wasnot a nostalgiafor Pisanello’s pictorialgenerosity and its invitation for enumerative descriptive perfor- mances.As Caravaggio painted the Martyrdomof St. Matthew ,he didnot entertai n the libertiesof materialdi Verentiationfree ofnarrativeas he hadin hisstill lifes. Instead,he displacedthe phantasmof an intactbody onto the ruinof composition. Inthe intersticesof parts,metonymy continuesto produceparasitical narratives ratherthan ontological closure. History is foundin gapsbetween intelligibil ity and opacity.Ashadowis acut.A memberis ascrap.A discretepatch of lighton a surface reveals afragmentstanding in forthe whole,bearing the tracesof desecration.A heroicactive body is substitutedby a relicthat both commemorates the exemplary individualand embodies the actof martyrdom.But in the opaqueconnective tissue ofthe canvas betweenthese pitifulrelics resides a spacefor history ,wherethe threat ofpollution dramatizes the materialconditions of the Counter-Reformation.

No t e s

Research forthis projectwas supportedby the 1998–99 Mellon PostdoctoralF ellow- ship atthe American Academy inRome.Aspects ofthe present essay were delivered atthe Getty Research Institute, Los Angeles, andat the History ofArtDepartment, University ofCalifornia, Berkeley .Iwouldlike tothank participantsin graduate seminars atthe University ofSouthernCalifornia who contributed to the project. Thanks alsogo toPaul Alpers, Genevieve Warwick, andDarcy GrimaldoGrigsby fortheir criticisms.

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This content downloaded from 85.72.204.160 on Fri, 01 May 2020 12:49:55 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms 1.F orLeon BattistaAlberti’ s treatise On Painting (1435),see Michael Baxandall, Giotto and theOrators: Humanist Observers ofPainting in Italy and theDiscoveryofPictorial Compo- sition, 1350–1450 (Oxford,1971). 2.Alberti cited and translated byBaxandall, in Giotto,130.Unless otherwise noted,all translations aremy own. 3. Ibid. 4.Howard Hibbard stressed the pictorialsolution o Veredby Titian in Caravaggio’s resolutionof the problemof the relatively small scale ofthe Žgures‘ ‘engagedin com- plex activity throughouta deepspace’ ’ ;HowardHibbard, Caravaggio (New York, 1983),104, 106. F orabalancedaccount ofthe Caravaggioscholarship, see Catherine Puglisi, Caravaggio (London,1998). 5. For a diVerent readingof relationalityin Caravaggio’s painting,see LeoBersani and Ulysse Dutoit, Caravaggio’s Secrets (Cambridge,Mass., 1998). 6.Caravaggio rehearsed this citationalstrategy inhis Amorvincit omnia .Iwouldlike to thank LorenPartridgefor his comments regardingCaravaggio’ s pervasive disarticu- lationof Renaissance citation. 7.Giovanni Pietro Bellori, Levite de’pittori, scultori earchitetti moderni (Rome,1672). F or atranslated extract ofthe lifeof Caravaggiosee Hibbard, Caravaggio, 360–74. 8.See Roland Barthes, S/Z,trans. Richard Miller (New York,1974). 9.See Michael Baxandall, Shadows and Enlightenment (New Haven, 1995),1– 15. 10.Louis Marin, ToDestroy Painting ,trans. Mette Hjort(Chicago, 1995). 11.Andre ´Fe´libien, Entretiens sur lesvies etsur les ouvrages deplus excellens peintres anciens et modernes (Paris,1725), 4:194. 12.Alexandra Herz, ‘‘Imitators ofChrist:The Martyr-Cycles ofLate Sixteenth Century RomeSeen inContext,’’ ArtBulletin (1981):53– 70. 13.See the series ofengravings byGiovanni Battista Cavalieri, after Niccolo ` Circignani (Pomarancio),in Ecclesiaemititanis triumphi (Rome,1585). Another series ofengrav- ings served fora bookof Histories dedicatedto the early Romanvirgin martyrs. Anto- nioGallonio’ s Historia dellesante vergini romane (Rome,1591) was commissionedby Baronio,as was Gallonio’s Historia dellavita ede’gloriosi santi Flavia, Domitilla vergine, Nereoet Achilleo (Rome,1597), which commemoratedthe ceremonial transfer andre- interment ofthe saints’remains. Seenotes 28and34. 14.Giovanni Battista Cavalieri, after Niccolo `Circignani( Pomarancio), EcclesiaeAngli- canaeT rophaea (Rome,1584), plate 33. See Hibbard, Caravaggio,103–4, Žg.58. 15.Philip Benedict, ‘ ‘Of Marmites andMartyrs: Images andPolemics inthe Wars of Religion,’’ in TheFrenchRenaissance in Prints fromthe Bibliothe `que Nationale deFrance (Berkeley,1994),109 –37. 16.Caravaggio received protectionfrom Vincenzo Giustinianiand his brotherCardinal BenedettoGiustiniani, who had a direct handin the negotiationsfor Henry IV’s papalabsolution. Caravaggio’ s patronCardinal del Monte, who was the representa- tive ofthe Dukeof Tuscany,alsohad a direct politicalinterest inthe marriageof Henry IVwith the Duke’s niece, Mariede Medici. The project’s completionwas summonedthrough the direct intervention ofCardinal Baronio and the Fabricca, the papalcounci lthat was directing the completionof the new St.Peter’ s. 17.See, for example, Louis Richeome, Trois Discours pour la Religion catholique: desmiracles, dessaincts, &desImages (Bourdeaux,1599). 18.Corrado Vivanti, ‘ ‘Henry IV,The Gallic Hercules,’’ Journal ofthe Warburg and Cour- tauld Institutes 30(1967):192– 93. 19.Even beforethe crisis ofthe sixteenth century,the abusesof idolatrywere checked

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This content downloaded from 85.72.204.160 on Fri, 01 May 2020 12:49:55 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms bythe theoretical andpractical promotionof intelligiblenarrative art; Michael Bax- andall, TheLimewood Sculptors ofRenaissance Germany (New Haven, 1980). 20.Giuseppe Scavizzi, TheControve rsy on Images fromCalvin to Baronius (New York, 1992), 411. 21.Gabriele Paleotti, Discorso intorno alleimagini sacree profane (Bologna,1582), 178. 22.Cited in Scavizzi, Controversy , 228. 23.Richard Verstegan, The´aˆtredes cruaute ´s des he´re´tiques denostre temps, traduit dulatin en franc¸ois (Anvers, 1588),35. Originally publishedas Theatrum crudelitatumhaereticorum nostri temporis (Antwerp, 1587).See A. G. Petti,‘ ‘Richard Verstegan andCatholic Martyrologies ofthe Later Elizabethan Period,’’ Recusant History 5(April1959): 64–89. 24.Herz,‘ ‘ Imitators ofChrist,’’ 58. 25.‘ ‘Jadis lorsqueNe ´ron,ce monstre infaˆme et traõˆtre /Vouluto ˆter la vie a` Se´ne`que son maõˆtre,/ Il luilaissa son sang tirertout doucement: / MaisHenri, par son schisme en plusŽ e´re nature/ S’e´tant touttransforme ´,d’une double torture / Fit ce sien confesseur mourircruellement’ ’ ;Verstegan, The´aˆtre, 35. 26.Antonius Paulus, DeAdventu Sancti Spiritus DequeChristianae Reipublicae Stabilitate Ora- tio,cited inFrederick J.McGinness, Right Thinking and SacredOrator yin Counter- Reformation Rome (Princeton, 1995),131. 27.See, e.g .,Petrus Canisius, DeMaria Virgine (1577),cited by Emile Maˆle, L’art religieux dela ŽnduXVIesie`cle, XVIIesie `cle etduXVIIIesie `cle [L’art religieux apre`s leConcile de Trent](Paris,1951), 20. 28.F orthe iconhanging around the Franciscan’s headsee BartolomeoRicci’ s engraving ‘‘Bungiin urbiIaponie,’ ’ inhis Trivmphvs Iesv Christi crvciŽxi (Antwerp, 1608),34. 29.Richard Krautheimer,‘‘AChristianT riumphin 1597,’’ in Essays intheHistory ofArt Presentedto Richard Krautheimer (London,1967), 174– 78. 30.When AntonioBosio died in 1629,nearly all the engravings andtext hadbeen pre- pared.Ludwig Pastor , History ofthePopes (St.Louis, 1936– 1953), 33:437. Antonio Bosio, Roma Soutteranea (Rome,Latin edition,1634; Italian edition,1650); further citationsof this work willbetothe Italian edition.F orNicolas Poussin’s drawings afterBosio’ s engravings see PierreRosenberg and Louis-Antoine Prat, Nicolas Pous- sin. Catalogue raisonne´ des dessins (Paris,1994), nos. 242, 243, 24 4. 31.‘ ‘Non contenti gliempij, e crudeliIdolatri, che icorpide’ Santi Martiri so Vero nel fuoco,& espostiad esser divoratida gliUcelli dell’aria, e daglianimali della T erra; volseroancora dargli in predaa’ pesci delMare, facendoli gittare nell’ istesso Mare, ne’Fiumi, Laghi, Pozzi, e Chiauichecon grosse pietreal collo,accio ` non potessero da’Christiani esser sepelliti’’ ;Bosio, Roma, 11. 32.‘ ‘Inmille pezzi fu` lacerato,e divisoi lcorpodi S.Ippolito Martire, legato a Cavalli indomiti’e le membrasue, & intestini suronogirtate per diversi campi, da’ qualii Christianicon sommadiligenza le raccolfero:onde Prudentio dice di lui’’; ibid.,16. 33.‘ ‘Neminoreapparue la Divina Providenza in distinguerle sacra ossade’ Martiri dalleprofane: (con le qualierano d’ industriaconfuse, e mescolate) poichescrive So- zomeno,che percommandamento divino furono scelte le o Vadellisopradetti Santi MartiriEusebio, Nestabo, e Zenone dallealtre profane,dicendo . ..Da’Cadaveri profaniancora furono distinti per volonta `diDioli corpidi SantiGiuliano, e Celso Martiri;apparendo miracolosamente sopraquelli le Anime de’medesimi Santi in formadi Vergini,de quali si dicene gliatti loro’ ’; ibid.,23. 34.Antonio Gallonio, Historia dellesante vergini romane con varie annotationi econ alcune vite

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This content downloaded from 85.72.204.160 on Fri, 01 May 2020 12:49:55 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms brevi de’santi parenti loro. Ede’gloriosi martiri papiae Mauro soldati romani . . . (Rome, 1591),212. Gallonio’ s historical closet dramapresented many ofthe detailsof the saint’s relics inadvance oftheir discovery anddescription. 35.Antonio Bosio, Historia passionis B.Caeciliaevirgins (Rome,1600). Bosio also recorded the event inhis archaeologicalwork. ‘ ‘Ese doppola prima sepoltura, per ingiuria de’tempi, i luoghide’ sepolcri lorovenivano ad esser negletti,& eranoincogniti, moltidi essi Santicontinuarono la cura delle Reliquieloro, ancora doppo centinara d’anni; come habbiamodi SantaCeci lia,che riuelo` aPasqualePrimo il suocorpo l’anno del Signore 821’ ’; Bosio, Roma, 27. 36. Bosio, Roma,chap.9: ‘‘Della cura,e diligenzade’ Christini in cercare, esepelire i corpide’ Martiri,’ ’ 28. 37.Late-sixteenth-century Romesaw arevival ofthe writings ofSS.John Chyrsostom andGregory ofNazianzen, whose responses tomartyrdom revealed their indebted- ness tothe ekphrasic modeof Byzantine rhetoric.In additionto his dedicationto imagesof martyrdom, Gregory XIII was devotedto his namesake Gregory ofNazi- anzen, aswell astoBasil, Gregory ofNyssa, andSt. John Chrysostom,because of their writings onthe venerationof relics. Seenote 58. 38.Herz, ‘‘Imitators ofChrist,’’ 70. 39. Annales Ecclesiastici (I, Luca,1738, 458, par .120),cited in ibid.,70 n.169. 40.F orBaronioon the discovery ofthe catacombof ‘‘Priscilla’’ ,see Herz, ‘‘Imitators of Christ,’’ 68.Baronio restored his titularchurch with early Christianart including a column with anancient reliefof asaint pursuedby a sword-bearingsoldier; ibid., 69. 41. Bosio, Roma,16(see note31). 42.Prudentius, ‘ ‘Peristephanon,’’ in Prudentius,trans. H.J.Thomson (London,1953), 305, 309. 43.Ibid., 313. 44. Ibid., 315. 45.Baxandall, Giotto, 121–39. 46.Ibid., 135. 47. Ibid. 48.Jean Calvin, Traite´ desreliques (1543),Jean Calvin, ThreeFrench T reatises ,ed.Francis M.Higman( London,1970), 84 –85. 49.Ibid., 83. 50. Ibid., 67– 68. 51. Ibid., 82. 52. Ibid., 96. 53. Ibid. 54.F orthe miracle attributedto St. Martin of T ours,see Eric WaldramKemp, Canoniza- tion and Authority in theWester nChurch (Westport,Conn., 1979), 22. 55.Erik vonKraemer , Letypedu faux mendiant dans les litte´ratures romanes depuis demoyen aˆge jusqu’au XVIIesie `cle (Helsinki, 1944),243. On Erasmus, see Ste´phaneBoiron, Lacontroverse ne´edela querelledes reliques a` l’´epoque duConcile deTrente (1500–1640) (Paris,1989). 56.E. C.Voelker,‘‘Charles Borromeo’s Instructiones Fabricaeet SupellectilisEcclesiasticae , 1577:A Translationwith Commentaryand Analysis,’ ’ (Ph.D.diss., Syracuse Univer- sity,1977). 57.Describing the early ChristianChurch’ s venerationof relics asaradicaldeparture fromboth the Jewish andRoman pagan funerary practices, Peter Brownwrites: ‘‘Howbetter to suppress the fact ofdeath,than toremove part of the deadfrom its originalcontext inall toocluttered grave?How better to symbolize the abolitionof timein such dead,than toadd to that an indeterminacy ofspace’’ ;Peter Brown, The Cult oftheSaints: Its Rise and Function inLatin Christianity (Chicago,1981), 78. 58.Richeome cited St.Basi l:‘ ‘Celuyqui touche le corps duMartyr rec¸oitsanctiŽcation parla vertu cachee en iceluy,’’ LouisRicheome, Discours dessainctes reliques (Paris,

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This content downloaded from 85.72.204.160 on Fri, 01 May 2020 12:49:55 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms 1606),43. He alsoquoted St. John Chrysostom’s invitationto touch the relics (51) andSt. Gregory ofNazianzen’ s descriptionof miracles inducedby relics. Weare remindedthat this treatise was dedicatedto Henry IV.On relics, see Brown, Cult of the Saints. 59.On the cult ofrelics inlate antiquity,especially amongGreek writers, see Hippolyte Delehaye, Lesorigines duculte desmartyrs ,2ded.(Brussels, 1933),61, 63, and 75. In the RomanChurch ofthe thirdto the Žfth centuries, the disinterment (fromthe catacombs), the transfer ofthe mortalremains toa church, andthe venerationof relics was moreexceptional than inthe Greek Church (63). 60.Gregory Martin, Roma Sancta (Rome,1581), 191– 92. 61.Ibid. 62. Ibid. 63.Baxandall, Giotto, 135. 64.In lightof this argument,the unexpected use ofekphrasis byBellori in his Le vite de’ pittori willbeexploredin my bookin progress: Caravaggio’s Pitiful Relics: Painting His- toryAfterIconoclasm .

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