Vita Consacrata, Famiglia, Misericordia: una risposta nell’iconografia musicale di Caravaggio

Barbara Aniello

The musical iconography in the The Rest on the Flight into Egypt by Caravaggio provides the key to understanding this enigmatic painting. The angel-musician that acts as a bifurcation between Joseph and Mary, married and consecrated, represents the merciful presence of God that is reflected in the Son incarnate. Comparing the three scores subtended to this silent music, we can suppose that the painter produced a living portrait of the characters of the oratory performed in S. Maria in Vallicella, composed by Emilio de’ Cavalieri and founded by St. Filippo Neri. The identity of the angel is probably revealed by a careful reading of ‘Discourse on the Music’ by Vincenzo Giustiniani, the patron and probable commissioner of the work. The violinist, Giovanni Battista Fontana, seems to wear the clothing of the angel and those of the musical director of the oratory, postponing not the dating of the work, but his retouching until 1600.