Caravaggio - Boy Bitten by a Lizard 1594-1596
Boy Bitten by a Lizard 1594-1596
65x52cm oil/canvas
Fondazione Roberto Longhi, Florence, Italy
The image is only being used for informational and educational purposes
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From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia:
Boy Bitten by a Lizard (Italian: Ragazzo morso da un ramarro) is a painting by the Italian Baroque painter Caravaggio. It exists in two versions, both believed to be authentic works of Caravaggio, one in the Fondazione Roberto Longhi in Florence, the other in the National Gallery, London.
As with all of Caravaggio's early output, much remains conjectural, and the identity of the model has been debated. One theory is that the model was Mario Minniti, Caravaggio's companion and the model for several other paintings from the period; the bouffant, curly dark hair and pursed lips look similar, but in other pictures such as Boy with a Basket of Fruit and The Fortune Teller Mario looks less effeminate.Michael Fried has proposed instead that the painting is a disguised self-portrait of Caravaggio. Fried argues that the subject's hands – one stretched out, the other raised up – are in a similar position to those of a painter holding a palette while painting