Caravaggio Michelangelo Merisi da - The guardian of mercy: how an extraordinary painting by Caravaggio changed an ordinary life today

Also by Terence Ward

Searching for Hassan: A Journey to the Heart of Iran

Copyright 2016 by Terence Ward

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available on file.

Cover design by Giancarlo Cammerini

Pio Monte Della Misericordia

Print ISBN: 978-1-62872-592-6

Ebook ISBN: 978-1-62872-630-5

Printed in China

To beloved Idanna who pointed the way, and

Richard Seaver who spoke of sliding doors.

We are beyond the way of the far ships

Here in this coral port,

Farther than the ways of fliers,

Because our destinies have suddenly transported us

Beyond the brim of the enamel world.

Thomas Merton, The Landfall

The Seven Acts of Mercy , Caravaggio, 1607

Contents

Authors Note

Lying on our backs, we look up at the night sky.

This is where stories began.

John Berger , And Our Faces, My Heart, Brief as Photos

I did not seek out this story. This story found me.

I was wandering with Idanna in the back streets of Naplesthe Italian city of her grandmotherwhen we came upon a mysterious painting by Caravaggio. Inside the small, empty, silent church, The Seven Acts of Mercy was lit only by a soft glow from the glass skylights of the cupola.

Suddenly, a Neapolitan man chosen to guard this forgotten treasure stepped forward. This humble municipal employee confessed how he had been moved by art for the first time. Unexpectedly, he opened a window for us onto the power of art to enlighten and elevate.

This narrative unfolds through sliding doors, from the guardians gritty contemporary world to a reconstructed past that imagines Caravaggios exile from Rome to Naples. There, he creates a painting that offers a fresh take on the perennial acts of mercy feeding the hungry, giving water to the thirsty, sheltering the homeless, visiting the prisoner, clothing the naked, healing the sick, and burying the dead .

In his radical vision, the fugitive artist breaks with tradition, using Neapolitans fresh off the streets as his models, placing them in scenes that defy the religious art of his age.

I am not an art historian. I have tried to draw his character and working methods based on the spare known facts. Caravaggio left behind neither personal effects nor letters.

In a city that survives on a knife edge between cruelty and grace, the acts of mercy still resonate today with universal meaning, as relevant now as when the artist brushed his oils onto the canvas four centuries ago.

* * *

All sacred traditions speak to compassion and human solidarity, which remain the cornerstone of every faith. Their voices echo across great distances and time, chanting the same refrain.

Is it not to share your food with the hungry and to provide the poor wanderer with shelterwhen you see the naked, to clothe them, and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood?

Isaiah LVIII, 7

The Prophet said: The captive is your brother... Since he is at your mercy, ensure that he is fed and clothed as well as you are.

Mohammad (570632), Hadith

Every religion has the wholesome core of love, compassion, and good will. The outer shell differs, but give importance to the inner essence and there will be no quarrel. Dont condemn anything, give importance to the essence of every religion, and there will be real peace and harmony.

Ashoka (third century BC)

Tzu-kung asked: Is there a single word which can be a guide to conduct throughout ones life? The master said, It is perhaps the word shu. Do not impose on others what you do not desire for yourself.

Confucius (551479 BC), The Annalects XV, 24

I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink.

I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you clothed me.

I was sick and you visited me, I was in prison and you came to me.

Matthew 25:3537

In the New Testament, the acts of mercy are six. Why did Caravaggio paint seven?

Seven has always been a sacred number. Consider the seven days of creation, the seven sisters in the Pleiades, the seven planets visible to the naked eye, and the moons cycle that is four times seven. The seven colors of the rainbow, the seven neck vertebrae in humans and giraffes, the seven chakras, and the seven years it takes for all the cells in our body to regenerate. The seven strings of Apollos lyre, the seven Phoenician kabiris, the seven horses of Mithra, and the seven days of Passover. The seven valleys of the Bahai, the seven branches of the menorah, the seven pillars of wisdom, and the seven circlings of the Kaaba. The seven Sages of the Bamboo Grove, the seven principles of Bushido, the seven hills of Rome, and the seven terraces of Purgatory. The seven heavenly virtues and the seven deadly sins, the seven wonders of the world and the seven ages of Man, and even The Seven Acts of Mercy by Caravaggio. And through this strange and breathtaking painting, we are touched by his radical message.

And now a radical pope has stirred a revolution by speaking out for human solidarity and action to battle against what he calls the globalization of indifference. Pope Francis was hailed TIME s Person of the Year in 2013 for pulling the papacy out of the palace and into the street, for balancing judgment with mercy.

Turning his back on pomp and privilege, he traded down the Papal Mercedes for a scuffed-up Ford, the gold cross for one of simple iron. From the onset, he shocked the public by washing and kissing the foot of a young Muslim girl detained at Casal del Marmo, and then traveling to the southernmost island of Lampedusa to pray for the nameless Arab and African refugees lost at sea and officiate the mass with a wooden chalice made from debris of boats that never reached shore.

Shortly after, he ushered in a surprising new practice. On certain evenings, the Vaticans doors now open up for the homeless. Once welcomed inside, these marginalized souls of Rome are given the opportunity to bathe, have their hair trimmed and even gaze at the Sistine Chapel before leaving.

The Church is a field hospital on the battleground, he says. Our first duty is to tend to the wounded. Returning to the spirit of the original gospel, he offers compassion as his touchstone. Who am I to judge? he asks.

A dramatic convergence has taken place between Pope Franciss teachings and Caravaggios message. A hidden hand is at work. The guardian takes it as a divine signa ray of light amid the shadows.