In the fall of 1609, shortly after returning to Naples in hopes of receiving a papal pardon, Caravaggio was ambushed by four men who severely disfigured his face. It was a few months later that Caravaggio painted the “Denial of St. Peter,” which was one of his last two paintings and that perhaps...

Painted for the Capuchin fathers at the church of Santa Maria degli Angeli in Messina, Sicily, in 1609, Caravaggio’s “Adoration of the Shepherds” is a moving spiritual scene within an impoverished and dilapidated setting.