The Crucifixion of Saint Andrew

Caravaggio painted The Crucifixion of Saint Andrew around 1607, during his first Neapolitan period. The painting depicts the apostle on his X-shaped cross — the crux decussata that bears his name — as executioners and officials confront a local count who has ordered the martyr's removal after the crowd's continued prayers. Caravaggio's treatment is characteristic in its concentration on the physical reality of the crucifixion: the aged saint's body bound to the cross, the flesh rendered with forensic attention, the surrounding figures responding to the scene with various degrees of wonder, callousness, and agitation. The work was taken to Spain by the Viceroy of Naples, Juan Alonso Pimentel de Herrera, and eventually entered the collection of the Cleveland Museum of Art.

The composition focuses on the physical weight of Andrew's body hanging on the cross, rendered with Caravaggio's characteristically unflinching attention to aged flesh, while the dark background isolates the scene in a void of shadow.