Caravaggio's Malta masterwork depicts the death as a scene in motion



Few of Caravaggio's paintings remain in the location for which he painted them. A marvellous exception is The Beheading of St. John the Baptist. It's still in the oratory of the Co-Cathedral of St. John in Valletta, Malta. It was intended to be a point of meditation for the Knights of Malta, who received their instruction beneath it as young men and for whom sacrifice at the point of a sword was not unlikely. During the many hours I spent before the painting, I realized Caravaggio had captured the moment of the saint's death--but also the moments before and after. He changed his technique, made his strokes faster and less polished, so that we'd recognize the tableau as part of a story in motion. To coincide with the paperback publication of my Caravaggio novel A NAME IN BLOOD, I'm posting each of the paintings that appear in the book each day this month along with a snippet from the novel. In A Name in Blood, a leading Knight of Malta takes Caravaggio to the Oratory and tells him what he must paint there:

‘It’s dark in here,' Caravaggio said.
‘You’ve painted in churches before. They’re all dark.’
‘These windows are so high and narrow. The place is like a dungeon.’
‘How does the Bible describe St John’s death? “The king sent a soldier of the guard and gave orders to bring John’s head to him. He went and beheaded him in the prison and brought his head on a platter.’ Martelli put his hand to Caravaggio’s shoulder. ‘The Baptist was decapitated in a dungeon. So paint a dungeon for our dungeon here.’