In the manner of Caravaggio
Italian, 1571–1610
The Calling of the Night Eater, 2026
Oil on canvas
180 × 144 cm
Never painted.
Commissioned for the collection, 2026.
PAB 2026.2.1
Moving, 16-second loop ·
The only light in the kitchen comes from the open fridge, and it lands exactly where Caravaggio's light always lands: the forehead, the forearm, the bare foot. He holds a plastic tub of leftovers like a lamp. The rest of the flat has gone black. Caravaggio painted saints at the moment they were called. This man has been called too. It is two in the morning and the call says eat.
The brief
A man in a t-shirt lit only by an open refrigerator at night, face illuminated from below, reaching for leftovers, kitchen in total darkness behind him. Italian Baroque oil painting, extreme chiaroscuro with a single hard light source cutting figures out of near-total darkness, life-size figures pressed close to the picture plane, dirty feet and real faces, deep blacks, warm flesh tones, blood red and dull gold, dramatic diagonal composition, thick glossy oil surface. Museum photograph of the oil painting, dramatic but even gallery lighting, no frame, no text, no wall, no floor, cropped to the canvas edge.
Written to the house rules. The painter's name does not appear.
Take it home
The painting on this room's wall, at its own proportions, nothing written on it.
