Her Last Day
...moments before her decapitation...
“Her Last Day”
Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio (imagined, 1598)
Oil on canvas, 156 × 96 cm (framed)
In 1598, one year after the triumph of Medusa Murtola, Caravaggio allegedly created an even more provocative and personal masterpiece: "Her Last Day". In this fictional painting, the artist portrays himself as Perseus dominating a terrified Medusa - her face now less grotesque, almost human, caught in a haunting blend of terror and supplication. With one hand raised in surrender or perhaps final redemption, Medusa defies her myth, transforming from monster to victim under Caravaggio's tenebrist gaze.
Never officially documented, the work would have been a private vanitas, painted in secret after patron Del Monte criticized the "excessive cruelty" of the original version. Art historians speculate the painting was destroyed in 1606 during Caravaggio's flight after murdering Ranuccio Tomassoni.
A 17th century apocryphal account describes an "accursed artwork" that drove viewers to madness, buried in Palazzo Madama's cellars where Del Monte burned heretical works. The sole surviving evidence emerged in 1982 - a charcoal sketch in the Barberini archives documenting a sighting of this lost masterpiece: a delicate, agonized Medusa with Caravaggio himself looming in a macabre self-portrait, clutching the blade that would end her last day.
This oil-painted "photographic" work would represent the apex of Caravaggism's theater of cruelty: a murderous self-portrait, a Medusa on the brink of oblivion, with tenebrism serving as final judge. A fiction so convincing that for centuries, underground collectors swore they'd glimpsed it - always by candlelight, always momentarily, before flames consumed it once more...
And now, after 365 days of intensive research working hand-in-hand with cutting-edge computational technologies, we've resurrected this ficctional lost masterpiece from the ashes of history.
low light shot
natural soft light
tungsten light shot against red wall
medium light reveal
more about Caravaggio
Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio (1571–1610) was a groundbreaking Italian painter whose dramatic realism and mastery of chiaroscuro revolutionized Baroque art. Rejecting the idealized beauty of Renaissance traditions, he depicted biblical and mythological scenes with raw emotional intensity and striking naturalism. His use of stark contrasts between light and shadow not only heightened the drama of his compositions but also drew viewers into the visceral humanity of his subjects. Caravaggio’s works, such as The Calling of Saint Matthew and Judith Beheading Holofernes, challenged conventions and inspired a generation of artists across Europe.
Known as much for his turbulent life as for his art, Caravaggio embodied the archetype of the rebellious genius. He lived recklessly, often clashing with the law over gambling, brawls, and even a fatal duel that forced him into exile. Despite his volatile nature, his relentless pursuit of truth in art and his refusal to compromise his vision cemented his legacy as one of history’s most influential painters. His untimely death at the age of 38 only deepened the myth surrounding him, leaving behind a body of work that continues to captivate and inspire centuries later.
A drawing of Caravaggio by Ottavio Leoni (c. 1621)
"Nec spe, nec metu."
( "Without hope, without fear." )
- Caravaggio
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