WEBVTT
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CAPTIONED ONLY FROM 50:43 TO END OF VIDEO
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-[narrator] It's a self-portrait
unlike any painted before.
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Usually when artists
looked in the mirror,
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they liked
what they saw,
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and what they saw were men,
young or old,
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whose features were
ennobled by their calling
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to bring virtue, beauty,
and grace into the world.
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Now, look at Caravaggio.
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A decapitated head is Goliath,
bloody, grotesque, a monster.
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In The Beheading of John the Baptist,
evil was done by other people.
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Here it's Caravaggio who's
the embodiment of wickedness.
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In this victory
of virtue over evil,
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David is supposed to be
the center of attention,
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but have you ever seen
a less jubilant victor?
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On his sword is inscribed
humilitas occidit superbiam,
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"humility conquers pride,"
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a battle that's been fought out
inside Caravaggio's head
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between the two sides of
the painter portrayed here.
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There's the devout,
courageous David Caravaggio,
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and then there's the criminal sinner,
Goliath Caravaggio.
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"I know who I've been,"
says a pathetic head,
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unable to look us in the eyes.
"I know what I've done."
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It's a desolate vision,
offered to us in utter blackness.
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No virtue,
no grace,
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just the dark truth in the
inside of Caravaggio's head,
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flooded with tragic
self-knowledge.
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[♪ pensive music ♪]
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For me, the power of his art
is the power of truth,
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not least about ourselves.
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For if we're ever to have
a chance of redemption,
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it must begin with an act
of recognition that in all of us,
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the Goliath competes
with the David.
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In July 1610, Caravaggio
rolled up his paintings
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and set sail for Naples,
finally heading home.
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[♪ hopeful music ♪ ]
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Sailing north, his boat stopped
at the tiny harbor of Palo,
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on the coast
just west of Rome.
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[door clangs shut]
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Here the local captain of the guard
either hadn't heard about his pardon,
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or mistook him
for some other fugitive.
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Either way,
he's thrown in jail.
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By the time he's managed
to pay his way out,
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his boat has sailed off
along with his paintings,
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his offering to Borghese.
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[♪ somber chorus ♪]
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Desperate to catch up with his ship
with its precious cargo,
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Caravaggio sets off north
towards Porto Ercole,
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a hundred kilometers
through the malarial
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infested swamp country,
the Maremma.
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[♪ grim music ♪]
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Here, the final disaster awaited.
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In a pathetic attempt
to hail a ship,
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Caravaggio starts
running along the beach
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under the broiling July sun
before collapsing in the sand.
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By now he's suffering
from a raging fever,
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and is taken to a local
monastic hospital.
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There, according to a
contemporary report,
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without the aid of God or man,
he died, as miserably as he'd lived.
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[♪ grim music ♪]
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[no spoken audio]
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-Nooo!
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-It's sometime later that the
Pope's nephew, Scipione Borghese,
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finally receives the paintings with which
Caravaggio had hoped to win his pardon.
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The Cardinal finds himself
face to face with the picture
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of the painter
as the slain Goliath.
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The Cardinal
isn't used to this.
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Artists have been
given their gift by God
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to bring beauty
into the world,
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to put mortal creatures in touch
with their higher selves.
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That's the way
it was supposed to be,
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but Caravaggio never did anything
the way it was supposed to be.
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"Here I am," says this dead face,
which seems still alive.
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"They said whoever delivers
my head will get a reward.
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"Well, I'm turning myself in.
Will that do?
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"Can I have my reward?
Can I have my pardon?"
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"Sorry," says the Cardinal.
"So sorry-- you're too late."
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[♪ pensive music ♪]