The Musicians (c.1597) Caravaggio. On the surface, we seem to be interrupting three musicians in a cramped room, warming up before a performance. Beside them, a young Cupid divides a bunch of grapes, perhaps to share as a pre-concert snack.

Painted for Cardinal Del Monte, a devoted patron and lover of the arts, the scene appears to celebrate music, youth, and pleasure. Yet Del Monte was also a Cardinal, and his commissions often carried moral lessons beneath their beauty.

Recent research has revealed something remarkable. The musical content of this painting, long obscured by damage to the canvas, has finally been identified. The musicians are preparing to play a setting of the second part of Iacopo Sannazaro’s sonnet “Icarus fell here, these waves do know it.”

This choice of music warns of the dangers of excess, reminding us that even as art and passion lift us toward the divine, unbridled desire can lead to a fall.