XXV
Just after midsummer 1607, the galleys of Malta sailed into the Bay of Naples, their first visit for over a year. Red-hulled and gilded, with huge triangular lateen sails of striped canvas, flying silk banners, these gorgeous warships were commanded by the knights’ senior fighting officer at sea, the Captain-General of the Galleys. This was Fra’ Fabrizio Sforza Colonna, the Marchesa Costanza’s son. His fleet was bound for Genoa before returning to Malta, and Caravaggio sailed with him.
The galleys were the fastest ships in the Mediterranean, but, built for speed with long, narrow hulls, they pitched and rolled horribly. They were also overcrowded, each carrying nearly five hundred soldiers, sailors, and oarsmen, and contagious fevers often broke out among the filthy, verminous galley slaves. Caravaggio must have sailed with the dozen red-surcoated knights on the poop deck, sheltered to some extent from sun and rain by a red canvas awning. Even for knights, however, life on board a galley was uncomfortable. No food could be cooked in such cramped quarters, the fleet putting into a harbor every few days to take on food and water. Their only relaxations were cards and dice. When the ship rowed into the wind, the knights plugged their noses against the stench from the oarsmen chained at their benches. Above the crash of oars, a drum beat out the time and the Aguzzino, or overseer, could be heard cracking his whip. Each galley carried a chaplain, oars being shipped for morning prayers, while the Angelus was said at noon and in the evening. Weather permitting, Mass was celebrated on the poop.
The fleet put in briefly at Livorno and other ports, just long enough for Caravaggio to enjoy a hot meal. The voyage home would have been by way of Corsica, Sardinia, and Sicily. Its main purpose was to look out for the Barbary corsairs, operating from Algiers, Tunis, or Tripoli, who preyed on Christian merchantmen or raided for slaves along the Italian coastline. If the knights sighted a corsair, they could usually run her down, and it is not impossible that Caravaggio saw a naval action of this sort. His voyage would have been still more uncomfortable if Fra’ Fabrizio’s ships had to ride out one of those frightening Mediterranean storms that even in summer can blow up without warning.
At last the fleet sighted the rocky coast of Malta, and then Caravaggio caught his first glimpse of Valletta on the ridge of Monte Sceberras—a long beak of rock running out into the middle of a great bay, which it divided into two natural harbors. It is probable that he landed here on 12 July 1607.
The two things most people knew about Malta were that a great apostle was shipwrecked on it, “where the viper leapt on Paul’s hand,” and that it was ruled by the knights. Being in the center of the Mediterranean, it had always been of strategic importance, and at the same time vulnerable to seaborne raids. When the knights arrived in 1530, they found most of the inhabitants talking “a sort of Moorish” but ruled by an Italian-speaking aristocracy with titles from the kings of Sicily. By Caravaggio’s time, the population had risen to about fifty thousand, the nobles living in the former capital, Citta Notabile—today called Mdina.
The Order of St. John of Jerusalem had been founded in the eleventh century, to shelter pilgrims to the holy land, taking up arms to defend them. When the Latin East fell to Islam, the “Knights Hospitaller” moved to Rhodes and then to Malta, which they held from the king of Spain (as king of Sicily) in return for the gift of a falcon every All Saints’ Day. They were justly admired for their heroism in 1565 when, hopelessly outnumbered, they had beaten off a Turkish invasion, which many still remembered when Caravaggio arrived on the island. Ever since the Great Siege, the knights had been building their new capital, “Valletta Humilissima.”
There were about eighteen hundred knights, of whom less than half lived on Malta. They were monks as well as knights, vowing to be poor in spirit, chaste, and obedient, confessing and taking Communion frequently, especially before going into battle, and reciting daily the Little Office of Our Lady. Death in combat against the infidel, whether boarding a Barbary corsair or raiding a Turkish seaport, was regarded as martyrdom.
The sea “caravans” of the knights brought them rich rewards. Entering their houses in Valletta, Caravaggio would have found Oriental rugs, chests of rare eastern woods, Chinese porcelain, and massive services of silver plate. However, many brethren left the island after they had sailed on enough caravans to qualify them for promotion, each returning to an often palatial commandery on the European mainland, to spend the rest of his life running its estates and sending its revenues out to Malta.
Besides the knights’ crusading vocation, there was that of the Hospitaller, of caring for “Our Lords the Sick.” The Sacred Infirmary held over 350 beds, employed several teams of doctors, and was better equipped than any contemporary hospital in Europe. But although the brethren visited it on certain specified days, it was almost impossible for them to live both callings. Even so, a few knights nursed at the infirmary on a regular basis, at least one specializing in the care of sick galley slaves. Brethren of this sort led a monastic existence, living permanently in a retreat house at Valletta, the Camerata.
During the 1590s, the Abbé de Brantôme observed of the then grand master, “he is revered almost as a king, and everyone defers to him as if he really was one, addressing him with the utmost humility and always with the head bared.” In the year Caravaggio came to Malta, the Holy Roman Emperor created Fra’ Alof and his successors Princes of Malta and Gozo. However, another of his titles was “Guardian of the Poor of Jesus Christ,” and at his installation a silken cord and scrip (or pilgrim’s satchel) was fastened around his waist in token of his duty to help them. First and foremost, the grand master was a spiritual superior.
Whether they concentrated on their crusader or on their Hospitaller vocations, the brethren were in the last analysis monks as well as knights, and when Caravaggio joined them he must have known very well that he was entering a religious order.