Tea at Trianon: Caravaggio’s 10 Most Provocative Paintings

John Wilson Croker on Marie-Antoinette

"We have followed the history of Marie Antoinette with the greatest diligence and scrupulosity. We have lived in those times. We have talked with some of her friends and some of her enemies; we have read, certainly not all, but hundreds of the libels written against her; and we have, in short, examined her life with– if we may be allowed to say so of ourselves– something of the accuracy of contemporaries, the diligence of inquirers, and the impartiality of historians, all combined; and we feel it our duty to declare, in as a solemn a manner as literature admits of, our well-matured opinion that every reproach against the morals of the queen was a gross calumny– that she was, as we have said, one of the purest of human beings."

~from History of the Guillotine by John Wilson Croker, 1844

Edmund Burke on Marie-Antoinette

"It is now sixteen or seventeen years since I saw the queen of France, then dauphiness, at Versailles; and surely there never lighted on this orb, which she hardly seemed to touch, a more delightful vision. I saw her just above the horizon, decorating and cheering the elevated sphere she had just begun to move in, glittering like a morning star full of life and splendor and joy. Oh, what a revolution....Little did I dream that I should have lived to see such disasters fall upon her, in a nation of gallant men, in a nation of men of honor and of cavaliers! I thought ten thousand swords must have leaped from their scabbards, to avenge even a look which threatened her with insult. But the age of chivalry is gone; that of sophisters, economists, and calculators has succeeded...."

~Edmund Burke, October 1790

Monday, January 12, 2026

Caravaggio’s 10 Most Provocative Paintings

Thomas presses finger into Christ’s wound as two disciples lean close, illuminated by stark chiaroscuro lighting.

From ArtNet:

Caravaggio is probably the ultimate Baroque bad boy. He brawled in the streets, hurled insults in verse, racked up lawsuits like trophies, and may have even committed murder. Yet, despite practically everything about his personal behavior, his paintings are some of the world’s most beautifully rendered, emotionally moving—and unabashedly provocative. Just note his Victorious Cupid (1601–02), which just went on view in the U.K. for the first time, where his polished naturalism brushes up against a frank sexuality; or The Cardsharps (c. 1594), an everyday scene of card players that masks a swindle in action. Here, from the Tenebrist master’s dramatic oeuvre, we spotlight his top 10 paintings, with points awarded for each work’s storytelling, behind-the-scenes intrigue, and sheer audacity.
[...]
After missing out on seeing Jesus after his resurrection, Thomas was unconvinced that Christ really had risen from the dead, saying he’d need to touch Jesus’s crucifixion wounds himself before he’d believe. And lo and behold, Jesus turned up a week later to call Thomas’s bluff. Caravaggio places the painting’s light source directly behind Jesus, symbolically pulling Thomas into the light as he touches his wound. (Read more.)