A Incredulidade de São Tomé

The story is the one that gave us the phrase doubting Thomas. The apostle missed Christ's first appearance after the resurrection and said he would not believe until he could put his finger in the wound. Painters had shown this scene for over a thousand years, usually with Thomas at a respectful distance. Caravaggio, working in Rome around 1601 for the collector Vincenzo Giustiniani, does the opposite. Christ takes Thomas by the wrist and guides his finger actually into the gash in his side, and the skin puckers around it. Thomas leans in with his forehead creased, his shirt torn at the shoulder, and two other apostles crowd close to watch. There is no gold, no halo you can miss, just four men's heads pressed together in a dark room. The panel later went to Prussia and hangs today in the picture gallery at Sanssouci, near Berlin.