Caravaggio Prince, Medici Slot Machine Variant c. 1950

Joseph Cornell’s ‘Caravaggio Prince, Medici Slot Machine Variant’ is a box of curiosities, a universe captured in wood, glass, and paper. The color is so striking, this saturated blue that feels both infinite and contained, like a memory fading into deep water. Look at the texture, the way the light catches on the glass, the ghostly images layered within. It’s like peering into someone else’s dream. The little architectural plan at the bottom of the box, it’s so precise but utterly mysterious, hinting at hidden meanings and secret codes. The faded portraits that line the frame feel like a chorus of whispers, watching and waiting. Cornell’s work reminds me of Kurt Schwitters, both artists collecting fragments of the world and arranging them into something new. But where Schwitters was all about the raw energy of found materials, Cornell is a poet of longing and nostalgia. His art is not about answers; it’s about the beautiful, endless question.