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The Conversion of Saint Paul
Caravaggio · Baroque & Dutch Golden Age
- Artist
- Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio (1571–1610)
- Date
- 1601
- Dimensions
- 230 x 175 cm
- Medium
- Oil on canvas
- Location
- Cerasi Chapel, Santa Maria del Popolo, Rome, Italy
The Conversion of Saint Paul shows the moment on the road to Damascus when Saul, a persecutor of Christians, is struck by a blinding light from heaven and hears the voice of Christ. He falls from his horse and becomes the apostle Paul.
A closer look
Caravaggio fills most of the canvas with the huge, piebald horse and an old groom holding its bridle, both calm and almost indifferent. Saul lies on his back in the foreground, foreshortened, his arms raised to embrace the light, his eyes closed. There are no angels and no visible Christ: the miracle is entirely inward, conveyed only by the light falling on the young man. The painting still hangs in the chapel for which it was made, opposite Caravaggio's Crucifixion of Saint Peter.
More by Caravaggio
In this gallery
Supper at Emmaus
The Calling of Saint Matthew
Boy Bitten by a Lizard
Bacchus
Narcissus
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