“Caravaggio’s flower and fruit pieces, half-figures of frivolous boys and musical scenes are extremely charming and amusing, and their loss would certainly be perceptible. However, it should not be forgotten that after the few years in which he produced these youthful, bohemian canvases, he turned his attention almost entirely to the creation of monuments of devotion, all of which are permeated with the same desire to realize the unrealizable, to bring the miracle within the immediate grasp and understanding of everyone.” - Walter Friedlaender
