In Caravaggio's painting "Narcissus", a young man is gazing intently at his own reflection. The painting drew my attention, because at first glance it just seemed as a young man who contorted body. His reflection was in darkness, so at first I couldn't tell that he was looking at his reflection. I think that Caravaggio may have chosen to do his reflection in darkness as a way of foreshadowing what ends up happening to him. In the story of Narcissus, Narcissus is consumed by the intrigue of his reflection. He falls in love with his own reflection and gets closer and closer to it until he eventually drowns in the water that reflected his beauty to him. Perhaps Caravaggio felt that using the dark reflection could represent the dangers of too much ego and self adoration.
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