scenes involving movement and violence. It would only be in his late period, when he seems to have worked more from imagination, that Caravaggio would be able to completely overcome this problem. Nevertheless, Boy Bitten by a Lizard is an important work in the artist's early oeuvre precisely because it shows a way out from the airless stillness of very early works such as Boy Peeling a Fruit and Sick Bacchus, and even the implied violence but actual stasis of pieces such as Cardsharps. See also List of paintings by Caravaggio Sources As was first suggested by Roberto Longhi, Caravaggio has probably borrowed the motif of biting a finger from a Boy Bitten by a Crab, a drawing by prominent Renaissance artist Sofonisba Anguissola. Further reading Jürgen Müller: "Cazzon da mulo" - Sprach- und Bildwitz in Caravaggios Junge von einer Eidechse gebissen, in: Jörg Robert (Ed.): Intermedialität in der Frühen Neuzeit. Formen, Funktionen, Konzepte, Berlin/Boston 2017, pp. [180]-214. References External links 1590s paintings Paintings by Caravaggio Lizards in art Collections of the National Gallery, London