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Narcissus
Caravaggio · Baroque & Dutch Golden Age
- Artist
- Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio (1571–1610)
- Date
- c. 1597–1599
- Dimensions
- 110 x 92 cm
- Medium
- Oil on canvas
- Location
- Galleria Nazionale d'Arte Antica, Palazzo Barberini, Rome, Italy
Narcissus illustrates the Greek myth of the beautiful youth who fell in love with his own reflection in a pool and, unable to leave it, wasted away and died. The painting is attributed to Caravaggio, though this has been debated.
A closer look
The composition is built like a playing card: the young man leans over the dark water, his arms forming a circle with their reflection. His bent knee, lit by a sharp light, sits at the very centre of the picture. Everything else is plunged into deep shadow, so that the youth and his image seem locked in a closed world. He wears a contemporary brocade doublet, not an antique costume, making the myth feel immediate. The painting reflects on vanity, self-absorption and the illusion of images.
More by Caravaggio
In this gallery
Supper at Emmaus
The Calling of Saint Matthew
Boy Bitten by a Lizard
Bacchus
The Conversion of Saint Paul
Death of the Virgin
Famous works elsewhere
- Medusa 1597
- Judith Beheading Holofernes 1598
- Amor Vincit Omnia 1601
- Self-Portrait as Bacchus 1595
- The Fortune Teller 1594
- The Seven Works of Mercy 1607