Malaria in History: Caravaggio (18.07.1610)
25 April 2024 is World Malaria Day, the disease that most likely killed Caravaggio. Or did it?
Before Netflix was a thing, I discovered Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio via Simon Schama’s wonderful series, A Power of Art.
One painting has always stood out to me. David with the head of Goliath (1610) which is now featured in the Ripley series (by Netflix). I started the series last night and smiled when Dickie Greenleaf dropped the artist like a test. I wonder how I would have answered.
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The recent loan of The Martyrdom of Saint Matthew to the National Gallery, Caravaggio’s last piece has raised questions about how exactly he died. Via The Guardian. Who killed Caravaggio and why? His final paintings may hold the key. Excerpt:
The National Gallery’s haunting new exhibition The Last Caravaggio has at its heart a sepulchrally toned painting called The Martyrdom of Saint Ursula. Caravaggio includes himself in it as a witness to a brutal murder – a pale, bleak farewell of a self-portrait set against Stygian darkness. An extravagantly armoured man, the chief of the Huns, has been rejected by the beautiful young Ursula. His response is to shoot her with an arrow at point blank range. She contemplates the shaft between her breasts as if she can’t believe what she is seeing: her own death.
Soon after painting this, Caravaggio too would be dead. Sailing north from the Naples area to Rome in the heat of summer in a triangular-sailed felucca, he was arrested at a coastal stop and by the time he was released his luggage, including new paintings, had left without him. He seems to have run or hitched a ride along the coast to catch up with it and probably caught malaria. He was 38 when he died at Porto Ercole in southern Tuscany on 18 July 1610.
Who killed Caravaggio? While the prime suspect is the malaria-carrying Anopheles mosquito, mystery surrounds his end. In the months before his fatal journey he was in a desperate, wounded state – and on the run. He had recently moved nervously across Sicily, fearing he was being followed, painting a handful of religious masterpieces in Syracuse, Messina and Palermo but resting nowhere. He then sailed for Naples where his agitation was quickly proven justified.
A group of men attacked Caravaggio outside an inn in Naples and left him so badly hacked about the face he was “unrecognisable”, says a 17th-century biography. It was not a random attack. The assailants were looking for him and may have followed him, as he feared, through Sicily.
He was suffering a fever which still means the most likely cause of death was malaria, but this alternate theory is fascinating and well worth the long read if you have time. I prefer the Simon Schama (via the Power of Art) interpretation of Caravaggio though:
In Caravaggio's time it was believed that artists were given their talent by God to bring beauty to the world and to put mortal creatures in touch with their higher selves or souls. Caravaggio never did anything the way it was supposed to be done.
In this painting of the victory of virtue over evil it's supposed to be David who is the centre of attention, but have you ever seen a less jubilant victory? On his sword is inscribed "Humilitus Occideit Superbium", that is, humility conquers pride. This is the battle that has been fought out inside Caravaggio's head between the two sides of the painter that are portrayed here.
For me the power of Caravaggio's art is the power of truth, not least about ourselves. If we are ever to hope for redemption, we have to begin with the recognition that in all of us the Goliath competes with the David."
It is World Malaria Day on ANZAC Day this year. Also, the 12P/Pons-Brooks, aka the 'Devil Comet’ is visible this week. It visits every 71-years which is a bit spooky.
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UPDATES
30.05.2024: Reviewed/Updated: Headline & sub-headline amended. Minor amendments. References updated. Although we tried the ‘Devil Comet’ was never visible due to cloud cover over Australia.
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REFERENCES
Bowler, J (17.04.2024) Comet 12P/Pons-Brooks, aka the 'Devil Comet' is visible this week. Here's how to spot it. [https://www.abc.net.au/news/science/2024-04-17/comet-12p-pons-brooks-science-devil-comet-visible-this-week/103644754] ABC. Paged accessed 22.04.2024
Caravaggio, M (1610) David with the Head of Goliath. Galleria Borghese
Jones, J (12.04.2024) Who killed Caravaggio and why? His final paintings may hold the key. [https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2024/apr/12/who-killed-caravaggio-and-why-his-final-paintings-may-hold-the-key?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other] The Guardian. Page accessed 22.04.2024
Schama, S (2006) The Power of Art, Caravaggio (David with the Head of Goliath). BBC. London, UK.
Thorpe, V (21.04.2024) Rule-breaker for the ages: why Caravaggio is our screen age’s art superstar [https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2024/apr/20/rule-breaker-for-the-ages-why-caravaggio-is-our-screen-ages-art-superstar] The Guardian. Page accessed 22.04.2024
Wikipedia (2024) David with the Head of Goliath (Caravaggio, Rome) [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_with_the_Head_of_Goliath_(Caravaggio,_Rome)] Page accessed 22.04.2024
WHO (2024) Home/Campaigns/World Malaria Day [https://www.who.int/campaigns/world-malaria-day] Page accessed 22.04.2024