Shop art print and framed art The Seven Works of Mercy by Caravaggio

The Seven Works of Mercy (in Italian, Sette opere di Misericordia) is a painting by Caravaggio dating from 1607 and housed in the Pio Monte della Misericordia in Naples. The work was painted in September or October 1606, when Caravaggio fled Rome for Naples, then under Spanish rule and therefore beyond the reach of Roman justice. This was a very productive period for Caravaggio, even though he found himself in a very different intellectual environment from Rome. Caravaggio continued to paint works that earned him large sums of money, including the altarpiece The Seven Works of Mercy for the church of the congregation of Pio Monte della Misericordia in Naples. In payment for his work, the artist received a considerable sum, the highest in his entire career: 400 ducats. During this period, he also painted The Flagellation of Christ for the wealthy Tommaso de Franchis, which was a great success. Bellori, one of Caravaggio's earliest biographers, included this painting in his list of fifty-nine works. He offers a brief description, focusing on two elements: the imprisoned old man suckling milk from a woman's breast, and the corpse being carried into the ground. In passing, he notes the work on light, with the rays from the torch "illuminating the colour and enlivening the composition". This painting represents the seven so-called "corporal works of mercy", which, in Catholic Christian dogma, consist of : The painting was commissioned by the Pio Monte della Misericordia in [...]

 

This artwork is a painting from the classical period.

 

Find the full description of The Seven Works of Mercy by Caravaggio on Wikipedia.