bright light as a metaphor for mercy, which "helps the audience to explore mercy in their own lives". Current scholarship has also established the connection between the iconography of "The Seven Works of Mercy" and the cultural, scientific and philosophical circles of the painting's commissioners. Legacy The Seven Works of Mercy was adapted for the theatre in 2016 by the Royal Shakespeare Company. Written by Anders Lustgarten, The Seven Acts of Mercy was directed by Erica Whyman, the Deputy Artistic Director at the Royal Shakespeare Company. Terence Ward created a biographical thriller of the painting, along with a story of how the painting continues to affect lives today, with his book The Guardian of Mercy: How an Extraordinary Painting by Caravaggio Changed an Ordinary Life Today, released by Arcade Publishing in 2016. Irish poet, Catherine Ann Cullen, wrote seven poems on the painting, which were published in The Other Now, published in 2016. See also List of paintings by Caravaggio Notes References Ralf van Bühren, Caravaggio’s ‘Seven Works of Mercy’ in Naples. The relevance of art history to cultural journalism, in Church, Communication and Culture 2 (2017), pp. 63-87 Alessandro Giardino, The Seven Works of Mercy. Love between Astrology and Natural Generosity in the Naples of Tommaso Campanella, in Aries 17-2 (2017), pp. 149–70 John Spike, Caravaggio, with the assistance of Michèle Kahn Spike (including CD-ROM with Catalogue Raisonné), New York: Abbeville Press 2001 (2nd, revised edition 2010) - Ralf van Bühren, Die Werke der Barmherzigkeit in der Kunst des 12.–18. Jahrhunderts. Zum Wandel eines Bildmotivs vor dem Hintergrund neuzeitlicher Rhetorikrezeption (Studien zur Kunstgeschichte, vol. 115), Hildesheim / Zürich / New York: Verlag Georg Olms 1998 - External links Knife Edge (Clothing the Naked), read by Catherine Ann Cullen Paintings by Caravaggio 1607 paintings Pio Monte della Misericordia