Why it matters
An early self-portrait painted with a mirror, the Young Sick Bacchus shows Caravaggio as the wine god with jaundiced skin. It dates from his first years in Rome, when he fell seriously ill and spent six months in hospital.
Did you know?
- It is dated 1593–1594.
- Doctors have read malaria or Addison's disease in the jaundiced skin.
- Cardinal Scipione Borghese seized it in 1607 from the collection of Caravaggio's former employer Giuseppe Cesari.
Based on the Wikipedia article Young Sick Bacchus (CC BY-SA 4.0).
