Herps in Society and Culture: "Boy bitten by a Lizard"

“Boy bitten by a Lizard”, Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio, (1595-1600)

            This painting features a lizard as a prominent subject in this scene where a young boy is being bitten by a lizard while he tries to reach for some fruit on the table. This scene has various interpretations and in the ones I looked into, the lizard plays various negative roles. One interpretation of the painting is that the boy represents temptation in the form of sex and in the form of consumption. The lizard biting the boy represents man’s expulsion from paradise due to Satan’s temptation. In this representation the lizard has become the equivalent of the snake in the story of Adam and Eve and embodies evil. Another interpretation of this scene doesn’t highlight the lizard in a good light either. This interpretation suggests that the scene symbolizes carnal love and that the boy has fallen victim to love. By fallen victim, the boy has contracted gonorrhea from his lover. This disease, in particular, was popular during this time period due to the fact that lots of individuals were contracting this disease. It was so rampant that it was nicknamed the French disease. The lizard in this case represents the sexually transmitted disease in that the boy has been bitten and hence “sexually wounded” by engaging in sexual intercourse. In a way the boy is again representing how giving into temptation to fulfill a fleeting pleasure is not a good way to lead life because there are consequences which is what the lizard represents.  

            I think this painting highlights reptiles in a bad light overall because out of all the organisms the artist could have chosen to represent evil doing, he picks a reptile. I think this clearly shows that lizards were not favored among society’s members. It is probable that lizards and other reptiles were treated with disgust and revulsion. I think they were probably treated this way because artists had a huge impact on the culture of a society. Artists could manipulate the emotions of others by painting to purposely stimulate the intellect and emotions of their viewers. Caravaggio achieves this by using the illusion of light and the painful facial expressions of the boy to highlight that temptation (the lizard) has a negative influence on a person’s life. Hence, viewers will make the association that like temptation; lizards are bad thing to have in one’s life. In this case, since reptiles were not widely loved in society at this time, I would bet that conservation efforts were virtually non-existent for them. If anything there was probably a drive to get rid of them in society. I think viewer’s would associate them with the devil and as such would destroy them to keep the influence of evil out of their lives. I find it fascinating the impact an artist could have on the viewpoint of an individual and I find it unfortunate that lizards and other reptiles had to suffer from this impact.

http://www.3pipe.net/2010/09/caravaggios-boy-bitten-by-lizard-zcz.html

http://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/paintings/michelangelo-merisi-da-caravaggio-boy-bitten-by-a-lizard