Boy Bitten by a Lizard

A boy has reached into a fruit bowl and been bitten by a lizard. His whole face is a spasm of surprise: shoulder up, mouth open. On the table: a still life of fruit and a glass vase of roses. Look at the vase. On its curved surface, Caravaggio painted a reflection of a window — cross-shaped panes, blue light coming through it. It is one of the earliest painted mirror reflections in Western art, thirty years before Vermeer would take up the same trick with a pearl earring. Now at The National Gallery, London @nationalgallery