Using on-screen graphics and texts to analyse the compositional elements of an image is a common technique in video essays. The Best Practices section on this site includes several examples, such as Kogonada’s supercuts about the use of symmetry in the films of Wes Anderson and Stanley Kubrick’s distinctive preference for one-point perspective. But a video projection in Saint John’s Co-Cathedral in Valletta, the capital of Malta, takes this approach to another dimension. Literally.

Face to Face with Caravaggio is an immersive project comprising four multimedia installations. Together, they offer an in-depth exploration of The Beheading of Saint John the Baptist, the masterpiece Caravaggio created while in Malta. Particularly striking is the “immersive room,” which employs extensive motion graphics to analyze the painting’s visual composition. Unlike conventional videos, these graphics are not confined to the two-dimensional plane of the artwork. Instead they extend across the floor and surrounding walls. This approach makes it possible to experience the painting’s use of perspective and lighting in a fully immersive way.

Motion designer Giacomo Manzotti also used other visual strategies that frequently appear in video essays. Captions and graphics are used to point out details in the painting. Figures within the painting are slightly animated, or removed, to better study the background. The golden spiral (a graphic rendering of the Fibonacci sequence) is overlaid on the image. All these elements are animated elegantly and help you see the painting’s qualities in a new way.