The Incredulity of St. Thomas

The risen Christ guides the hand of doubting Thomas, who leans in and pushes his finger straight into the wound in Christ's side while two more apostles crane forward, brows knotted in concentration. Caravaggio crops the four heads tight together and lights them harshly, making the proof of the Resurrection (John 20) almost unbearably physical - the dirty fingernail, the parted flesh, the frank human need to touch before believing. Now at Sanssouci near Berlin, it became one of his most copied inventions, faith and skepticism pressed into a single grip.