Portrait by Ottavio Leoni
c1621
Born: 29 September 1571 in
 Died: 18 July 1610
 Nationality: Italian
 Rome, Naples, Malta,
and Sicily

Not much is known is about early life
 Mother died 1590
 Milan
 Trainer (Simone Peterzano)
learned his skills from Titian
 Established painter
 Trained under SP for about
four years

Moved to Rome mid 1592
 Worked for lesser-known painters
 Cesari- worked odd jobs

paid such
great
attention to
detail in this
piece that a
horticulture
professor of
modern day
was able to
notice and
identify
several
common
plant diseases
of that time
within the
basket!!!
Boy with a Basket of Fruit, ca. 1592
Boy Peeling Fruit, ca. 1592-93
Boy Bitten by a Lizard, ca. 1592-93
When still in Rome began selling his
artwork and became more well known.
 Cardinal Francesco Maria
Del Monte
 “intimate chamber-pieces

Religious paintings: Church had all of the
money.
 Wanted to attract more patronage
 Paintings were intense and brought viewer
face-to-face with ideas
 Great brutality and emotion shown in new
paintings.

Sacrifice of Isaac
1599- becoming very well known and
Was mostly liked.
 “Contarelli Chapel of Rome”:
Martyrdom of St Matthew and
Calling of St Matthew
 Commissioned by other
churches to paint things such as : The
Inspiration of St Matthew, The
Entombment of Christ, and Madonna
and Child with St Anne.

Contarelli Chapel of Rome
Martyrdom of St Matthew
Calling of St Matthew
Was always pretty violent,
angry, and running away from
punishments but this time
murdered a man
 Ran away to Naples,
where Romans couldn’t reach him.
 Colonna family: many
church commissions (making him the
most famous artist in area)
 Quickly fled to Malta to gain pardon from Alof da
Wignacourt did not stay long; moved to Sicily

Became popular in Sicily but decided to return to Naples,
where he created his final paintings including “The
Beheading of St John the Baptist”
 Mysterious
disappearance.
 Intended on
bringing last 3
paintings as a plea
to Scipione Borghese by boat but never made it.
 Was thought
to have died of
fever.

Works of art known
as “The Impossible
Exhibition” because
paintings and pieces
of art are spread out
throughout the
world!
Bacchus
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hl%3Den%26safe%3Doff%26um%3D1>.
esaak, shelly. "Artists in 60 seconds: Michaelangelo Merisi da
Caravaggio." About.com: art history. Web. 1 Nov 2009.
<http://arthistory.about.com/cs/namescc/p/caravaggio.htm>.
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1 Nov 2009. <http://www.artinmalta.com/?p=62>.
members.iinet.net.au/~ploke/Malta/caravaggio.html