The Burial of Saint Lucy

Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio, 1608

Oil on canvas, 408 × 300 cm

Santuario di Santa Lucia al Sepolcro, Syracuse

Room VII · Sicily and the Last Journey (1608–1610)

Two huge gravediggers work in the foreground while the faithful crowd round the saint's small body on the ground; above them, half the picture is bare wall. Caravaggio painted it just after escaping from Malta, for the church in Syracuse built where tradition places Lucy's burial.