Narcissuss

A young man leans over a dark pool, so caught up in his own reflection that he cannot look away. This is Narcissus, the proud youth from Greek mythology who fell in love with his own image and slowly wasted away beside the water, never able to tear himself from the face gazing back. Caravaggio arranges the scene beautifully, letting the figure and his mirrored twin curve together into a near perfect circle. Right at the heart of the painting, his bent knee catches the light and shines like a small glowing lamp in all that shadow.

Made around 1598, the work shows exactly why Caravaggio changed the course of painting. He loved tenebrism, the bold contrast of pitch black darkness against bright bursts of light, and here the shadows swallow everything except Narcissus himself. Nothing pulls our attention away from his fixed, dreamy stare. The reflection beneath him is dimmer and softer around the edges, a smart little detail that hints at how false and delicate his obsession really is.

Interestingly, this is one of the rare times Caravaggio turned to classical myth for his subject, and a few scholars have wondered whether he truly painted every inch of it himself. Whoever held the brush, the picture has endured for centuries as a warning about the trap of vanity. In fact, the story gave us the very word we use today: narcissism.