ART FOR WEEKEND ON INSPIRE BELIEVE GROW
Exploring “Conversion on the Way to Damascus” by Caravaggio
A spotlight on the troubled artist and his distinctive art
Painted in 1601, oil on canvas, this work was one of two paintings commissioned by Monsignor Tiberio Cerasi, treasurer to Pope Clement VIII for his chapel in the church of Santa Maria del Popolo, in Rome. The other was the Crucifixion of St. Peter. Both still hang in the chapel today.
Both paintings were second versions, the originals having been rejected. The first version of the painting, depicted below, now hangs in the Odescalchi Balbi Collection, in Rome. You will see that the subject is the same, but the treatment is very different, more in the style of Mannerism, popular at the time.
Saul was born around 5AD in the city of Tarsus, near Cilicia (in modern-day Turkey). His parents were Jewish with Roman citizenship, a privilege which would also extend to their son. Sometime between AD 15–20 Saul began his studies of the Hebrew Scriptures in the city of Jerusalem under Rabbi Gamaliel. It was under the rabbi that Saul would begin an…
