Caravaggio as “chronovisor” according to Tiziano Scarpa

Abstract

The essay analyses the unusual interpretation of Caravaggio's painting Cena in Emmaus (1606), suggested by one of the characters created by Tiziano Scarpa in his novel Il brevetto del geco (2016), because it opens up a broader reflection on the contemporary art system. In this perspective, the painter's ability to naturally immortalise the face of Christ at the exact moment of his revelation is put in relation to the “cronovisore”, an improbable object invented by Father Pellegrino Ernetti in the 1960s, which would have made it possible to capture images of the past.