Around 1595 -1610 · ecstasy, study and last martyrdom

Francis receives ecstasy, Catherine holds her instruments, Jerome writes and Ursula understands that she is going to die: holiness manifests itself in distinct physical gestures.

Caravaggio does not give all saints the same light or the same type of miracle. In Saint Francis of Assisi in ecstasy, an angel gently supports the body of the religious, while the nocturnal landscape and the small distant lights make the experience intimate. Saint Catherine of Alexandria stands by the broken wheel, the sword and the palm; the model, probably Fillide Melandroni, gives martyrdom a transformed worldly presence. Saint Jerome writing concentrates the action on the skull, the book and the long arm of the old man, whose body makes the link between death and text. The Martyrdom of Saint Ursula, painted in Naples in 1610 shortly before the death of Caravaggio, reduces the legend to the moment the arrow has just struck: Ursula looks down at her wound, while the responsible king and the witnesses crowd into the shadows. Four holinesses, four beats. The selection "Saints and Saints of Caravaggio" notably compares Saint Francis of Assisi in ecstasy and Saint Catherine of Alexandria. His reading favors composition.

In Caravaggio, a saint is not recognized by a uniform light, but by the singular way in which his body receives ecstasy, work or injury.