Narcissus

 

This beautiful painting is called Narcissus and it was painted by Caravaggio in 1599.  This painting represents a Greek myth about a man named Narcissus. It seems that there are different versions of this story, but the most popular one is about Narcissus the son of the river god Cephissus. Narcissus was beautiful and many fell in love with him, but he turned everyone away and scorned them. It is not until he is hunting in the forest and sees his reflection in a river that he is finally able to fall in love. But he doesn't fall in love with someone else, but rather with himself. The artist does a beautiful job of contrasting the character and his double. This allows the viewer to make distinctions between the two. To me, it seems that the reflection is slightly older than that of Narcissus. This may allow Narcissus to not fully recognize the double of himself and to let him fall in love with the reflection. But why is Narcissus not able to fall in love with others in the first place? Maybe it is because he has unrealistic expectations of others because he thinks so highly of himself. The only person that will be able to meet his expectations is himself, so when he finally meets his double he is able to fall in love. To me, the reflection in this painting represents a double of ourselves. Sometimes we are like Narcissus and unable to find love, but all we need to realize is that it is ourselves who are the problem and not others. This reminds me of "The Picture of Dorian Gray." Dorian was never able to find true love but maybe if he realized that it was him or rather his double that was the problem he would've been able to.