Artist Research Project: Caravaggio
Elaine Ong
Due: July 22, 2013
Exploring Art: Art 1010-152 (1:00 P.M.)
Mrs. McKay
Prior to researching the artist, Caravaggio, I didn’t know anything about him other than
that he was an Italian painter. After researching him, I learned that despite his overwhelming
success, his personality and actions interfered with his life, which ultimately led to the death of
his reputation in his later years. I was at a loss for what artist to choose, so I went down the list of
artists and did some brief research on them. The one that caught my eye was Caravaggio because
his paintings consisted of well known figures in interesting scenarios and/or poses. As a
preconceived idea, I assumed he contributed to the Renaissance paintings, and was inspired by
the Renaissance because he’s Italian and he painted in the 16th and 17th centuries. I also had a
preconceived idea that he was a religious artist; more specifically, Roman Catholic. When I
started my research, I expected to find that he was a well-renowned artist, due to the talent he
displayed in his work, and that he followed in the footsteps of the artists before him. Also, that
he was a prominent figure in the Renaissance art.
Michelangelo Merisi or Amerighi da Caravaggio was born on September 29th, 1571 in
Milan, where his father was an architect-decorator for the Marchese of Caravaggio. His mother
had come from a propertied family of the same district as well. The family later moved to
Caravaggio in 1576 to escape the plague in Milan. His father passed away in 1577. The same
year that Caravaggio’s mother died, 1584, is the year he began his four-year apprenticeship for
Simone Peterzano a painter from Milan. After quarrels and the wounding of a police officer in
Milan, he left for Rome in 1592, where he performed hack-work for Giuseppe Cesari (Pope
Clement VIII’s favorite artist) months later. After his informal education, Caravaggio left Cesari
to make his own way. His friendships had a large influence on his artwork and career. His
relationship with Prospero Orsi, already established in the profession, had introduced him to
influential collectors, while his relationship with Onorio Longhi introduced him to the world of
Roman street-brawls. His artwork was influenced immensely by his friendship with the sixteenyear-old artist, Mario Minniti in Sicily. His first artwork, The Fortune Teller with more than one
figure was a painting of Mario being cheated by a gypsy girl. This kind of style and theme was a
new one for Rome, and proved to be very influential for the next centuries to come. But that was
the issue; the theme was too early for its time, and Caravaggio sold it for close to nothing. He
continued to use Minniti as a model for his paintings, along with other adolescent models. His
work The Cardsharps was a painting that showed yet again, another naive, privileged youth
falling prey to cheating in cards. His work was psychologically complex, and this painting is
most likely his first true masterpiece. It attracted Cardinal Francesco Maria Del Monte, a leading
connoisseur in Rome, and set off an artistic popar spark within Del Monte’s wealthy art-loving
circle. His artwork changes slightly from Realism and naturalism on religious themes and
spirituality, to Baroque with the acute observation of physical and psychological reality that
brought popularity from his frequent dark problems in religious commissions. He had been in
many brawls, but despite his criticism in violence, his reputation increased and Caravaggio was
envied. He had a handful of encounters with the law while in Rome, and was imprisoned for
multiple assaults, including the killing of an opponent after an argument over the score in a game
of tennis. Caravaggio left the city and moved between hiding places until he arrived in Naples in
1607, where he painted while waiting for a pardon from the pope. His painting style changed,
where the dark and urgent nature of his paintings seemed to have reflected his own desperate
state of mind. The few historical and political influences on his life and work include the plague
in Milan that forced his family to relocate to Rome, and the trouble he had got into with the
Roman law, that forced him to constantly be on the run until he found refuge in Naples.
Caravaggio’s artwork consisted of many different subjects and figures. He mostly painted
human figures and bowls of fruit, occasionally a combination of both. He painted many stilllifes. His paintings often included figures that weren’t his actual models (i.e. cupid, Saint
Matthews, Saint Paul, David & Goliath, etc.) The subject matter of the artist changed over time
with how he started his career painting youthful models and bowls of fruit to darker, more
psychologically deep paintings often centered around religion later on in his life. He painted
many fantasy and scenery artworks. The media he used was oil, and it never changed. His style
was known as realism and naturalism even to this day. His works are also very prominent in the
Baroque category. Although Caravaggio seems to have stayed in the Milan-Caravaggio area, it is
possible he visited Venice and saw the artworks of Giorgione. Federico Zuccari later accused
him of imitating Giorgione and Titian in his works. His style seemed to be influenced by the
famous works and treasures of Milan, including Leonardo da Vinci’s Last Supper along with the
Lombard art style that valued simplicity and attention to naturalistic detail. His style didn’t
change much, as he continued to use naturalism and realism to depict the details as he saw them,
no matter how flawed they are. His artwork did get darker during his later years though. He was
part of the Baroque movement. His artwork communicated the psychologically complex, yet
realistic views of life and religion, all the while showing the naive society in his work.
The public response for Caravaggio varied in mostly two groups. Many enjoyed his
artwork, and he became a sort of “favorite” for wealthy art-enthusiast circles. He had great
success even with just his first public commissions, and never lacked commissions or patrons. In
spite of that, he handled his success poorly as he was jailed on multiple occasions, vandalized his
own apartment, and in the end, had a death warrant issued for him by the Pope for killing another
person. I personally think that his work is outstanding. His style is really nice, and his skills over
extraordinary. Paired with his own ability to build scenarios that provoke deep thinking is what I
like best about his work. It really makes you think and it lures you in to examine every fine detail
as if the painting tells a story.
Out of everything I learned through researching Caravaggio, I personally think that the
most important things I learned about him was his life outside of his artwork, and how it affected
his art. I found it interesting that his success in the earlier years in his life slowly dwindle down
to a life of despair in his later days when he’d get into brawls, and one time even kill someone,
which caused the Pope to issue a death warrant for him. Especially at the end of his life when he
tried to leave on a ship, but it took off with his belongings, which resulted in his death on the
beach several days later. The three most important points about Caravaggio that I deem
significant are that he was a rule breaker in not only the artistic aspect, but social aspect as well;
he depicted religious scenes with unprecedented approachability; and he rose up from spending
his first years in absolute poverty. I think Caravaggio’s work is very influential and significant,
especially since he more or less started a new, unprecedented style, dealing with critique head on
with a style that had never been seen before. He later served as inspiration for artists such as
Rubens, Velasquez, and Rembrandt.
WORKS CITED
Artble. "Caravaggio." Artble: The Home of Passionate Art Lovers. N.p., n.d. Web. 22 July 2013.
Caravaggio Foundation. "The Complete Works: Caravaggio." The Complete Works: Caravaggio.
Caravaggio Foundation, 14 Mar. 2013. Web. 22 July 2013.
Pioch, Nicolas. "Caravaggio, Michelangelo Merisi Da." WebMuseum, Paris. WebMuseum, 19
Sept. 2002. Web. 22 July 2013.
The National Gallery. "Michelangelo Merisi Da Caravaggio." The National Gallery, London:
Western European Painting 1250–1900. N.p., n.d. Web. 22 July 2013.
Wikipedia. "Caravaggio." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 21 July 2013. Web. 22 July 2013.
ARTWORK
Fortune Teller: (1594)
The Cardsharps: (1594)
Basket of Fruit: (1596)
Medusa: (1597)
David and Goliath: (1599)
Amor Victorious: (1602)
Denial of Saint Peter: (1610)
Martyrdom of Saint Ursula: (1610--last known piece)