Pio Monte della Misericordia, Naples

Pio Monte della Misericordia is a church in Naples, renowned for Caravaggio’s painting The Seven Works of Mercy. The canvas is kept at the high altar, where its forceful light turns acts of compassion into a scene meant to engage your own sense of mercy. The institution behind this church began in August 1601, when seven young nobles formed a charitable brotherhood and met every Friday at the Hospital for Incurables to care for sick people.

In 1602, they created the institution and commissioned a small church near the Cathedral staircase. The present complex took shape through a major rebuilding from 1658 to 1678, directed by architect Francesco Antonio Picchiatti, who joined the church with a palace and enlarged the premises. The building belongs to the baroque architectural tradition.

Look toward the high altar for Caravaggio’s crowded, dramatic composition; other paintings here include works by Luca Giordano, Carlo Sellitto, Fabrizio Santafede, and Battistello Caracciolo. This is a place where charitable work and painting were deliberately brought together, so mercy is not only represented here—it is the institution’s founding purpose.