Traces No. 3, march 2008
Letters

The mystery of Christ and of his being man

by Cristina Terzaghi

The importance of the Taking of Christ  in Caravaggio’s life and art is clearly stated by Roberto Longhi: “Caravaggio clarified his tortured and fearless genius in the  Taking of Christ in the Garden. Against the allusion to antiquity embodied in the mantle which almost encloses the heads of Christ and Judas in a diptych, the group, illuminated by the swaying lamp, seems to shatter like a chalice of dark glass in the horror of the night.”
Painted for the collection of the Mattei brothers towards the end of 1602, the picture is unprecedented by its representation of the figure of Christ, whose fingers are entwined in token of surrender, contrasting profoundly with the forceful hand of Judas which clutches the Master in an impetuous embrace. The close ties between Cardinal Girolamo Mattei – for whom the work was probably intended - and the Friars Minor Observants seem to explain the stress on the theme of the obedience of Christ, so important to the spirituality of the Order.
The tragedy is conveyed in masterly fashion by the figure of the young man behind Christ, who flees crying out with his hands raised to the sky. The Gospel of Mark relates that a young man, wearing only a linen cloth, fled from Gethsemane while the guards sought to detain him seizing hold of the garment.
But Caravaggio seems to have wanted to do more than place the viewer before the horror of what is happening. He also tells us something about himself. The figure outstretched, with one arm raised holding the lantern, seeking by every means to shed light on the scene, is actually a self-portrait of the painter, who significantly depicted himself among the guards who coming to capture the Master. Caravaggio with the lantern in his hand immediately evokes the representations of the philosopher Diogenes the Cynic, represented as going about with a lantern in search of himself. So here Caravaggio has depicted himself as intent on revealing the mystery of Christ and of his being man.