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Boy Bitten by a Lizard (Italian: Ragazzo morso da un ramarro) is a painting by the Italian Baroque painter Caravaggio. It exists in two versions, both believed to be authentic works of Caravaggio, one in the Fondazione Roberto Longhi in Florence, the other in the National Gallery, London.

Boy Bitten by a Lizard
ArtistCaravaggio
Year1593–1594
MediumOil on canvas
Dimensions65 cm × 52 cm (26 in × 20 in)
LocationFondazione Roberto Longhi, Florence
Boy Bitten by a Lizard
ArtistCaravaggio
Year1594–1596
MediumOil on canvas
Dimensions66 cm × 49.5 cm (26 in × 19.5 in)
LocationNational Gallery, London

Date


Both versions are thought to date from the period 1594–1596. According to art historian Roberto Longhi, the latter end of this period seems more likely, given that the paintings have all the signs of the early works painted in the household of Caravaggio's sophisticated patron Cardinal Francesco Del Monte, and that Caravaggio did not enter the Cardinal's Palazzo Madama until some time in 1595.[1]


Identity of model


As with all of Caravaggio's early output, much remains conjectural, and the identity of the model has been debated. One theory is that the model was Mario Minniti, Caravaggio's companion and the model for several other paintings from the period; the bouffant, curly dark hair, and pursed lips look similar, but in other pictures such as Boy with a Basket of Fruit and The Fortune Teller Mario looks less effeminate.[2]

Michael Fried has proposed instead that the painting is a disguised self-portrait of Caravaggio. Fried argues that the subject's hands – one stretched out, the other raised up – are in a similar position to those of a painter holding a palette while painting.[2]


Symbolism


According to Leonard J. Slatkes, the painting's symbolism likely derives from the Apollo Sauroktonos theme in which a poisonous salamander triumphs over the god, while the arrangement of various fruits suggests The Four Temperaments, with the salamander being the symbol of fire in Caravaggio's time. The salamander also had phallic connotations, and the painting might have been inspired by a Martial epigram: "Ad te reptanti, puer insidiose, lacertae Parce: cupit digitis illa perire tuis. (Spare this lizard crawling towards you, treacherous boy/It wants to die between your fingers)[3][4]


Style


The affected pose may have been the inevitable result of the experiment Caravaggio appears to have been undertaking here: observing and recording acute emotions – surprise and fear – in a situation where real surprise was impossible and where the pose had to be held for a considerable period. Critics of Caravaggio's insistence on painting only from life would later point out this limitation of his method: it lent itself to marvelously realistic (if theatrical) static compositions, but not to scenes involving movement and violence. It would only be in his late period, when he seems to have worked more from imagination, that Caravaggio would be able to completely overcome this problem. Nevertheless, Boy Bitten by a Lizard is an important work in the artist's early oeuvre precisely because it shows a way out from the airless stillness of very early works such as Boy Peeling a Fruit and Sick Bacchus, and even the implied violence but actual stasis of pieces such as Cardsharps.[2]


See also



Sources


As was first suggested by Roberto Longhi, Caravaggio has probably borrowed the motif of biting a finger from a Boy Bitten by a Crab, a drawing by prominent Renaissance artist Sofonisba Anguissola.[5]

  • Sofonisba Anguissola, Boy Bitten by a Crab (c. 1554)
    Sofonisba Anguissola, Boy Bitten by a Crab (c. 1554)

Further reading



References


  1. Roberto Longhi (1998), Caravaggio. Ediz. inglese, ISBN 88-09-21445-5
  2. Fried, Michael (17 August 2010). The Moment of Caravaggio. Princeton University Press. pp. 7–. ISBN 978-0-691-14701-7.
  3. Leonard J.Slatkes "Caravagio's Boy Bitten by a Lizard", in Print Review #5, Pratt Graphics Center 1976
  4. 'Foulmouthed Shepherds: Sexual Overtones as a Sign of Urbanitas in Virgil's Bucolica 2 and 3', by Stefan van den Broeck
  5. Garrard, Mary D. (Autumn 1994). "Here's Looking at Me: Sofonisba Anguissola and the Problem of the Woman Artist" (PDF). Renaissance Quarterly. 47 (3): 556–622. doi:10.2307/2863021. JSTOR 2863021. It is an ignoble position for a male, one that Caravaggio, when he borrowed the motif, was careful to dignify by eroticizing. As Roberto Longhi first observed, Caravaggio is likely to have taken from Anguissola the finger-biting motif in his Boy Bitten by a Lizard; the point is reiterated in recent literature (e.g., Mina Gregori's catalogue entry in The Age of Caravaggio).[permanent dead link]



На других языках

- [en] Boy Bitten by a Lizard

[es] Chico mordido por una lagartija

Chico mordido por una lagartija es uno de los trabajos más representativos de Caravaggio. El cuadro recrea de una forma singular un incidente cotidiano en que una lagartija muerde a un chico de entre 12 y 14 años de edad. El atractivo misterioso con que dota Caravaggio a su obra le hace aún más interesante, aumenta su fama entre sus ya numerosos seguidores y le convierte en un pintor de gran renombre, al alborear el siglo XVII. Existen dos versiones de la obra que se ubican en Londres y Florencia.

[fr] Garçon mordu par un lézard

Le Garçon mordu par un lézard est un tableau du peintre italien Caravage. Deux versions probablement autographes et très semblables en sont connues : l'une est conservée à Londres et l'autre à Florence. Il s'agit d'une œuvre de jeunesse pour l'artiste lombard : les deux versions sont sans doute peintes autour de 1593-1595, soit peu après son arrivée dans la ville de Rome.

[it] Ragazzo morso da un ramarro

Ragazzo morso da un ramarro è un dipinto realizzato dal pittore italiano Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio e di cui esistono due versioni simili.

[ru] Мальчик, укушенный ящерицей

«Мальчик, укушенный ящерицей» (итал. Ragazzo morso da un ramarro) — картина Караваджо, итальянского живописца эпохи барокко. Существует в двух вариантах, оба считаются подлинными произведениями Караваджо, один хранится в Фонде имени Роберто Лонги во Флоренции, другой в Национальной галерее в Лондоне. Различия между двумя версиями минимальны.


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