The Carpathians - University of British Columbia

J o s e f
T i m a r
As Caravaggio
INTEGRITY
In April 1604, Caravaggio (then 30 years old)
entered the Osteria del Moro and ordered a dish of artichokes.
The waiter, bringing four cooked in butter and four cooked in oil,
when asked which were which replied, "smell them and you will know,"
an answer so distasteful to Caravaggio that he flung his plate, artichokes and all,
into the poor man's face, injuring his cheek. Thus enraged the painter drew his
sword.
Some days later the artist was called before a magistrate,
his defence remarkable insolent, his phrasing clumsy, confused.
In appealing to those in judgement, "how I suffer and count myself
among the earth's most wretched people," he continued in an anguished voice,
"and how I long for compassion—but I'll be damned before I accept any from
you!"
Caravaggio's defiance, by now well documented in Rome, added further to his
reputation for misery.
Amazingly, for one suffering dispossession as a privilege, the artist was rarely
without friends.
NARCISSUS DESCENDING
Knowing rules for making glorious things does not prevent him from disparaging
those who confirm his apprehensions: externalizer, and prone to violence!
Beware his self-aggrandizement (over compensation for an underplayed hand
with his superiors, overplayed with his peers), but do not forget that charity was
given him long before he had a chance to beg for it.
CARAVAGGIO'S CONSCIENCE
Such was its flavour on warmers days
that if the Piazza Campo dei Fiori
could spew forth its flowers, vegetables
and desirable young women