In this third lecture we move on in the career of Michelangelo Merisi, more commonly known as “Caravaggio” which is the name of a small town near Milan where the artist was born.

Caravaggio was a character of controversial morals seen through the lens of his time as well as ours, and this lecture focuses mostly on the The Seven Acts of Mercy (also known as The Seven Works of Mercy) created for the Pio Monte della Misericordia in Naples in 1607; the city where the artist had fled after killing a man in Rome.

Using the works of artists including John Singer Sargent (1856–1925), Lorenzo Ghiberti (1378–1455), Jusepe de Ribera (1591–1652), and Piero della Francesca (d. 1492) and more, Tom Richards expertly guides us through examples of how symbols in paintings can be used to enhance the meaning and narrative behind an artwork. After gaining a deep insight into the conditions under which the artwork was commissioned from Caravaggio, we then take a detailed look at the symbolic and compositional elements of The Seven Acts of Mercy, including a few that untrained eyes might not be able to recognize!