In Rome, Caravaggio Still Beckons Hoi Polloi

THE NEW YORK TIMES
By Michael Kimmelman

ITALY -- On the steps of the Basilica di Sant’Agostino, a stone’s throw from Piazza Navona and the famous Caravaggios in the Church of San Francese, four men waited for handouts on a summery afternoon last week. To the left of the entrance Caravaggio’s “Madonna di Loreto ,” the Madonna of the Pilgrims as it’s called, hung in a narrow chapel. The pilgrims, a barefoot old man and an old woman, kneel before a sleepy Mary and the infant Jesus. Caravaggio’s models came from the Roman streets, after all.  That’s the beauty of the thing. Outside, squinting in the sun, I fished for coins to give the guys who were still on the church steps, although they were no longer asking for money. One of them, hunched but gazing intently at the sky, watching a pigeon fly by, had taken off his sneakers. He was barefoot. [link]