米开朗基罗 Part 03

A cardinal, no less, Francesco Maria del Monte. . . . . . .

No church mouse, our cardinal, he lives in an enormous pile of a palazzo, surrounded by poets, musicians and paintings. . . . . . .

Del Monte of the roving eye he is the biggest player on the art market. At the art dealer's over the road, the cardinal sees something that takes his fancy. Cardsharps.

. . . . . . Del Monte takes in the brilliant colour, the jokey action, the wink wink, nudge-nudginess of it all.

Better still, he feels the presence of these people, the rosy-cheeked kid is sucker, and the cool bravo about to take him down, as if they were right in front of him. . . . . . .

The cardinal buys this painting for a song, and then makes Caravaggio an offer he can't refuse. ''Why don't you move into the palazzo, bed, board, smartest company in Rome, poets, philosophers, terrific kitchen, my dear, never a dull moment.

And the music, well, you do like music, don't you? '' Caravaggio liked music all right, and here he is, at the back of this tight little group, holding the cornet.

. . . . . . Do we need Cupid on the left to let us know, it's love songs that they are sing? I don't think so.

The lead singer is crying his eyes out and he's just tuning up. Now, there are lots of paintings of young boys with lutes in Baroque Rome, but never anything quite like this.

Nothing this close up, nothing this fleshy, and so close to us. It's like, oh, yes, four youths in a closet. 'Excuse me, so sorry, don't mean to intrude. '