Episode 257 - Caravaggio’s Cerasi Chapel

Rebuilding The Renaissance

Located in the Augustinian church of Santa Maria del Popolo in Rome, Italy, the Cerasi Chapel contains two paintings by Caravaggio – the “Crucifixion of St. Peter” and the “Conversion of St. Paul.” The paintings were commissioned by Monsignor Tiberio Cerasi, who was the treasurer general of Pope Clement VIII, in 1600. Curiously, Cerasi had asked a different painter named Annibale Caracci to paint the altarpiece of the chapel, which is executed in stark contrast to Caravaggio’s style.