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An effeminate youth recoils in pain as he is bitten by a lizard, which clings tenaciously to his finger. In the foreground is a magnificent still life of fruit, with a rose and sprig of jasmine in a glass vase. Look closely and you can see the reflection of a room in the curved surface of the vase. The painting may have an allegorical meaning, and possibly refers to the pain that can derive from love. This picture is the earliest of our three Caravaggios and was probably painted in Rome in the mid-1590s, when the artist was beginning to find fame with his compelling and innovative style. It is very unusual for a late sixteenth-century painting to show such a moment of action, but Caravaggio rejected artistic convention and painted directly onto the canvas from live models.
Title
Boy bitten by a Lizard
Date
1595-1600
Medium
Oil on canvas
Measurements
H 66 x W 49.5 cm
Accession number
NG6504
Acquisition method
Bought with the aid of a contribution from the J. Paul Getty Jr Endowment Fund, 1986
Work type
Painting
The National Gallery, London
Trafalgar Square, London, Greater London WC2N 5DN England
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