Oil on stretched canvas, 120 cm x 90 cm / circa 47 in. x 35 in., 2023
Mastercopy, Commission, Heirloom Quality
Caravaggio painted what scripture dared not describe. The Gospel of John recounts Thomas's doubt and Christ's invitation to touch, but the act itself is left unwritten. Caravaggio, characteristically shameless, filled that silence with an image devoid of divine idealism. Only weathered skin, furrowed brows, the gore of a finger entering the wound, the disciples craning forward in morbid curiosity to see Thomas do what they dared not, the strange intimacy of a man probing the flesh of his resurrected God. It is a scene of faith, where belief is not opposed to doubt but strengthened by it.
Karya approached this commission as a study in Caravaggio's layered techniques. The golden warmth of the light was built through the lightest glazes of yellow ochre over an opaque grisaille, while the shadows were constructed with chromatic depth, layer over transparent layer, achieving a luminous quality that direct application cannot replicate. The result is a painting that holds more than any photograph can capture: light that appears to emanate from within the canvas itself.
Oil on stretched canvas, 120 cm x 90 cm / circa 47 in. x 35 in., 2023
Mastercopy, Commission, Heirloom Quality
Caravaggio painted what scripture dared not describe. The Gospel of John recounts Thomas's doubt and Christ's invitation to touch, but the act itself is left unwritten. Caravaggio, characteristically shameless, filled that silence with an image devoid of divine idealism. Only weathered skin, furrowed brows, the gore of a finger entering the wound, the disciples craning forward in morbid curiosity to see Thomas do what they dared not, the strange intimacy of a man probing the flesh of his resurrected God. It is a scene of faith, where belief is not opposed to doubt but strengthened by it.
Karya approached this commission as a study in Caravaggio's layered techniques. The golden warmth of the light was built through the lightest glazes of yellow ochre over an opaque grisaille, while the shadows were constructed with chromatic depth, layer over transparent layer, achieving a luminous quality that direct application cannot replicate. The result is a painting that holds more than any photograph can capture: light that appears to emanate from within the canvas itself.
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