Caravaggio in Ortygia, Sicily - play of light

Caravaggio in Ortygia, Sicily

Caravaggio was thinking of Lucy. He walked where people flock in the narrow Ortygia streets; such as via Cavour which is busy, cool, brimming until it surrenders its shade to the ensuing Piazza Duomo with the sandstone paving and  the Baroque facades of the Cathedral and the aristocratic buildings. 

Caravaggio's name is whispered by tour guides to tourists, teachers to students, the waves of the Mediterranean Sea to the migrating swallows, telling how he was commissioned to paint the martyrdom of Saint Lucy in Ortygia. Caravaggio visited the limestone cliffs outside Ortygia, near the Ancient Greek theatre, where he entered a cave whose entrance is hidden by a luscious garden. While in the cavernous space rising metres above the ground he heard the voices of the men imprisoned there by the tyrant Dionysus I. And so, he named it "the Ear of Dionysus." Caravaggio also visited the Catacombs of Saint John, deep beneath the earth. 

Caravaggio's painting 'Burial of Saint Lucy' is on display in the church of Santa Lucia alla Badia at the far end of Piazza Duomo. Viewers will succumb to silence at such a sight: Lucy is supine, her mother, who is kneeling and clasping her face, is overlooked by muscular men ready for the burial. Breath, and perhaps even the beat of the heart, will be suspended. I bet any student will let no whisper escape as their gaze, like mine, fixes the priest holding a red sash. 

Caravaggio is a master of the chiaroscuro. He plays with light, and lets it invigorate the darkest recesses. Even the humblest person in the painting is illuminated. In place of a halo, light bathes their face, clothes and body. With the gaze turned to inner suffering, the light affords grace. A hint of divinity. 

Once outside, the students hunt for a souvenir, but find a shadow and then some light, unaware of Caravaggio. And, Lucy collecting herself, brushing away the dirt, and returning Caravaggio's gaze. 

Silvana Tuccio ©
September 2016 (updated October 2018)


Note:
When I lived in Ortygia, I became intrigued by the story of Caravaggio in Sicily. To my delight I could walk to Piazza Duomo at anytime from my Ortygia apartment and stand in the presence of a Caravaggio painting: one of few in Sicily. The painting Burial of Saint Lucy, as the name suggests, is dedicated to Saint Lucy, Patron Saint of the city of Syracuse. The painting by Caravaggio is inside the church Santa Lucia alla Badia and the venerated statue of Saint Lucy is inside the Cathedral built on the remains of the Ancient Greek Temple of Athena. Both Caravaggio and Lucy walked the streets of Ortygia, but in different epochs. I was inspired to write about their encounter.