Page 142 "Next to it hung Mantegna's "Dead Christ"

Andrea Mantegna's "Dead Christ," c. 1500, tempera on canvas, 27' x 32"
An excellent example of foreshortening, a process of perspective used on the human figure.
It creates confrontation with the viewer and a psychological mood.

Caravaggio's "Conversion of St. Paul"
1600-1601; Oil on canvas
Cerasi Chapel, Santa Maria del Popola, Rome

From page 142 of the book:  "...Why didn't Owen tell Sylvester about what Thomas had intended to do at the outset of the plan? I'd looked to my print of Titian's "Man With a Glove," which hung in the center of the wall facing me. I'd bought it in front of the Museum of Modern Art one day while shopping with Sarah. That portrait had grabbed my attention like a hook; I was in love with the man's eyes. Next to it hung Mantegna's "Dead Christ," with its foreshortened perspective of the Savior's body: the feet were in the foreground, drawing my eye backward toward His head, as if I were watching an MRI being performed. To the right of the Titian hung Caravaggio's "Conversion of St. Paul,” the second one, with Paul lying on his back, limbs raised upward, facing his indifferent horse. I'd begun to refer to these objects within their and my own immediacy as consolation against my sometimes ungovernable states of mind: I'd known from way back, from deep inside my Connecticut backwoods, that I'd stepped on the perimeters of lunacy and needed a standard by which to measure myself."