the ability to create exactly this impression is an effective artistic means of disarming and engaging the viewer. Diego velazquez' old woman cooking eggs (above) looks like a snapshot form a Seville street corner, except that the focal food-offering has a sacramental quality, which derives in part from the many New Testament stories featuring ordinary people sharing food. Where Caravaggio racked up the tension with extreme chiaroscuro, velazquez used similar lightning but went in closer, so that the humblest objects and actions have - as in Gospel accounts of the last supper - a drama of their own.