Who was Caravaggio's black-winged god of love? What this masterpiece reveals about the rogue genius

"The boy howls as his head is held down, a huge thumb pressing into his cheek as his father's mighty hand holds him by the neck. This is The Sacrifice of Isaac and I am looking at it in the Uffizi Gallery, Florence, feeling distressed by how Caravaggio has so chillingly rendered the face of this suffering child from the biblical tale. It looks as if Abraham, who has been told by God to kill his son, could break his neck with just one twist."

"Standing in front of the painting, I know this is a real face, an accurate record of a young model, because the same boy recognisable by his tousled hair and almost black eyes appears in two other paintings by Caravaggio. In each, that richly expressive face steals the show. In John the Baptist, he looks mischievously out of the shadows while cuddling a ram."

"He took a familiar biblical story and made it so fresh and raw that its horrors seemed to happen in front of you Victorious Cupid, which goes on show this week at the Wallace Collection in London, is the most embarrassing masterpiece ever painted. You feel totally thrown looking at it. Cupid, the god of love whose arrows fill people with often painful desire, is depicted as a very real, brightly lit nude, straddling toppled-over objects that include stringed instruments, a music manuscript, plate armour and an architect's T-square."

Caravaggio's The Sacrifice of Isaac depicts a terrified child held by Abraham, whose knife and grip suggest imminent violence. The same youth recurs as a model in John the Baptist and Victorious Cupid, identifiable by tousled hair and dark eyes, lending continuity and expressive power across works. Victorious Cupid presents a naked, brightly lit figure straddling toppled instruments, a music manuscript, plate armour and an architect's T-square, creating a shocking juxtaposition of sensuality and symbolic objects. The paintings emphasize raw, immediate emotion and realism that unsettles viewers and challenges traditional pieties.

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