Artifice and Reality in Caravaggio’s Lute Player

Abstract

In agreement that Caravaggio (1571–1610) slowly gainedmastery of space, light, and anatomy during the 1590s, scholars have analyzed his methods of pictorial formation, including his spatial anomalies and inaccuracies. Nevertheless, widely divergent accounts have been written about his approach to compositional construction. Mina Gregori saw in Caravaggio’s Lute Player (fig. 1) an advance in spatial coherence beyond his earlier works. She noted his “interest in perspective manifest in” this painting. Calling the work “perspectivally [. . .] refined,” she