The Collection
The American Wing Ancient Near Eastern Art Arms and Armor The Michael C. Rockefeller Wing Asian Art The Cloisters The Costume Institute Drawings and Prints Egyptian Art European Paintings European Sculpture and Decorative Arts Greek and Roman Art Islamic Art Robert Lehman Collection The Libraries Medieval Art Musical Instruments Photographs Antonio Ratti Textile Center Modern and Contemporary Art

Returned to lender The Met accepts temporary loans of art both for short-term exhibitions and for long-term display in its galleries.

The Martyrdom of Saint Ursula

Caravaggio (Michelangelo Merisi) Italian

1610

Not on view

According to legend, Saint Ursula traveled with eleven thousand virgins to Cologne, where the chief of the Huns besieging the city fell in love with her. When she rejected his advances, he killed her with an arrow. In this haunting depiction, Caravaggio places the two figures improbably close to each other, maximizing the contrast between their expressions: Ursula’s perplexed gaze at the agent of her martyrdom; the tyrant’s conflicted reactions of rage and guilt. Caravaggio includes himself as a spectator, straining for a glimpse, while another figure thrusts his hand forward in an abortive effort to prevent the saint’s execution. The exaggerated contrasts between dark and light seem not merely a dramatic device but a symbolic allusion to sin and redemption, death and life.

The Martyrdom of Saint Ursula, Caravaggio (Michelangelo Merisi) (Italian, Milan or Caravaggio 1571–1610 Porto Ercole), Oil on canvas — This image cannot be enlarged, viewed at full screen, or downloaded.

Title: The Martyrdom of Saint Ursula

Artist: Caravaggio (Michelangelo Merisi) (Italian, Milan or Caravaggio 1571–1610 Porto Ercole)

Date: 1610

Medium: Oil on canvas

Dimensions: 56 1/4 × 70 7/8 in. (143 × 180 cm)

Classification: Paintings

Credit Line: Intesa Sanpaolo Collection, Palazzo Zevallos Stigliano, Naples

The Met Fifth facade

Caravaggio's Final Days

Curator Keith Christiansen outlines the intriguing series of events that comprise the final years of Caravaggio's life.

The Met Fifth facade

The Artist's Presence, from Caravaggio to Hitchcock

Curator Keith Christiansen discusses possible reasons as to why Caravaggio, Rembrandt, and Hitchcock inserted themselves into their work.

The Met Fifth facade

Caravaggio and Depicting Darkness at Noon

Curator Keith Christiansen considers whether the pervasive darkness in two of Caravaggio's late works should be viewed as metaphorical or as an expression of the artist's tortured life.

The Met

European Paintings at The Met

The Met's celebrated European Paintings collection encompasses more than 2,500 works of art from the thirteenth through the early twentieth century.