Caravaggio painted The Incredulity of St Thomas c1601-1602. It portrays Thomas’s encounter with the risen Christ after his earlier scepticism at the testimony of the other disciples. With its heavy use of chiaroscuro, the painting emphasises Christ’s physical presence. This is no otherworldly vision, there is no halo, and Jesus’ hand grips Thomas’s wrist in a forceful way, guiding his finger towards the lance wound.
What interests me is Thomas’s reaction to this. He is looking away as if experiencing something beyond what his finger can feel or his eyes can see. The confirmation he was seeking doesn’t seem to be coming from the sensory evidence he thought he needed. Christ himself seems to comment on this when he says to Thomas that there is a another kind of knowing that transcends what can be seen and felt. For me, Caravaggio has somehow captured an encounter with this.
The Incredulity of St Thomas
Thomas Didymus, called twice a twin,
patron saint and brother of the doubting,
everyone who can’t believe in say-so,
here, in this piece by Caravaggio,
not looking at the wound his finger feels,
aghast at what encountering it reveals,
finds not assurance, but even deeper doubt,
spreading from the contact with torn flesh and out,
as if attempting final confirmation
leads Thomas dumbstruck to the revelation,
that all the things confirmed by sight and touch
don’t, in the end, add up to all that much.