The Fortune Teller (Caravaggio)

A smiling gypsy girl holds a young dandy's hand to read his fortune - and, as she does, slips the ring from his finger, a theft he never feels, lost in her gaze. Caravaggio made the subject a study in mutual seduction and sly larceny, the two heads almost touching, the tension all in the soft exchange of looks. He painted more than one version; this is the Louvre's. With ordinary street types posed as worthy of a large canvas, he helped launch the whole tradition of Baroque genre painting.