Searching for Carravagio

We weren't able to get tickets to the Borghese, nor to the temporary Caravaggio exhibit at the Palazzo Barberini. We tried months ago, but it was too late. So today, with a bit of research, we bought a 24-hour transit pass and spliced together our own Caravaggio tour. The best three paintings were in a church and free. It was a fun way to get to different parts of Rome. And around every turn is another 2000-year old ruin.

And in the hunt, I found a new favorite artist, one I had never heard of before: Maestro Jacomo. His paintings are of figures in candlelight: a young boy singing, a woman wth lantern, a boy holding a bat.

Then we did the goofy touristy thing and stuck our hands in the Mouth of Truth (Bocca della Verità). It didn't bite our hands off, so we must be relatively truthful.

(Carravagio's A Penitent Mary Magdalene, Rest on the Way to Egypt, and John the Baptist.)

(All three of these Carravagio paintings are of St. Matthew.)

(Maestro Jacomo, Boy Singing)

(Maestro Jacomo, Woman with Lantern)

(Maestro Jacomo, Boy Holding a Bat)

(The Mouth of Truth, as seen in the 1953 movie with Gregory Peck and Audrey Hepburn, Holiday in Rome.)

(Around every corner, another ancient ruin. And I'm not referring to myself.)