Caravaggio
“Light and Shade”
Statistics
Early Life
Naples
Rome
Death
All aboutCaravaggio
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Early life
Michelangelo
Merisi, better
known as
“Caravaggio” (29
September 1571 –
18 July 1610) was
an Italian artist
active in Rome,
Naples, Malta and
Sicily.
Caravaggio was
born in Milan,
where his father,
Fermo Merisi, was
a household
administrator and
architect-decorator
to the Marchese of
Caravaggio, a town
not far from the
city of Bergamo.
Caravaggio's
mother died in
1584, the same year
he began his four
year apprenticeship
to the Milanese
painter Simone
Peterzano,
described in the
contract of
apprenticeship as a
pupil of Titian.
Caravaggio appears
to have stayed in
the MilanCaravaggio area
after his
apprenticeship
ended, but it is
possible that he
visited Venice and
saw the works of
Giorgione, whom
Federico Zuccari
later accused him of
imitating, and
Titian.
His paintings, which combine a realistic observation of the human state, both physical and emotional,
with a dramatic use of lighting, had a formative influence on the Baroque school of painting.
•
•
Caravaggio left Milan for Rome in mid-1592, in flight after "certain quarrels" and the wounding of a police officer.
Under the patronage of the Cardinal Francesco Maria Del Monte, he became famous and well known among the
Roman nobility.
”BOY BITTEN BY A LIZARD”
“BACCHUS”
In 1599, presumably through the influence of Del Monte, Caravaggio was contracted to decorate the Contarelli Chapel in the
church of San Luigi dei Francesi. The two works making up the commission, “The Martyrdom of Saint Matthew”, “Saint Matthew
and the Angel” and “The Calling of Saint Matthew”, delivered in 1600, were an immediate sensation. Caravaggio's tenebrism
brought high drama to his subjects, while his acutely observed realism brought a new level of emotional intensity.
“Saint Matthew and the Angel”
“The calling of Saint Matthew”
“The Martyrdom of Saint Matthew”
After many troubles with the law, culminated with the murder of Ranuccio Tommasoni and his death sentence,
Caravaggio was forced to escape from Rome with the help of Filippo I Colonna.
During these years he began to paint obsessively beheaded characters, and often to replace the face of the condemned with his own portrait.
Naples (1606- 1607)
• Caravaggio, outlawed,
fled to Naples. There,
outside the jurisdiction
of the Roman
authorities and
protected by the
Colonna family, the
most famous painter in
Rome became the most
famous in Naples. His
connections with the
Colonna led to a stream
of important church
commissions, including
the “Madonna of the
Rosary”, and “The
Seven Works of
Mercy”.
“Madonna of the Rosary”
Beheading of Saint John the Baptist
Despite his success in Naples, after only a few months in the city Caravaggio left for Malta, the headquarters of the Knights of Malta, presumably hoping
that the patronage of Alof de Wignacourt, Grand Master of the Knights, could help him secure a pardon for Tomassoni's death. Major works from his Malta
period include a huge “The beheading of Saint John the Baptist” the only painting to which he put his signature) and a “Portrait of Alof de Wignacourt and
his Page”, as well as portraits of other leading knights. Yet by late August 1608 he was arrested and imprisoned.
• Caravaggio made
his way to Sicily
where he met his
old friend Mario
Minniti. His style
continued to
evolve, showing
now friezes of
figures isolated
against vast empty
backgrounds. "His
great Sicilian
altarpieces isolate
their shadowy,
pitifully poor
figures in vast
areas of darkness;
they suggest the
desperate fears and
frailty of man, and
at the same time
convey, with a new
yet desolate
tenderness, the
beauty of humility
and of the meek,
who shall inherit
the earth."After
only nine months
in Sicily,
Caravaggio
returned to Naples.
Adoration of the shepherds
“The martyrdom of Saint Ursula”
After only nine months in Sicily, Caravaggio returned to Naples where he painted his last picture,”The martyrdom of Saint Ursula”.
His style continued to evolve: Saint Ursula is caught in a moment of highest action and drama, as the arrow fired by the king of the
Huns strikes her in the breast, unlike earlier paintings which had all the immobility of the posed models. The brushwork was much
freer and more impressionistic. Had Caravaggio lived, something new would have come.
Amor vincit Omnia
A poet friend of
the artist later
gave 18 July as
the date of death,
and a recent
researcher claims
to have
discovered a
death notice
showing that the
artist died on that
day of a fever in
Porto Ercole.
Caravaggio exhibition
Number of visitors in Rome
12000
10000
8000
6000
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Number of Visitors in Venice
9000
8000
7000
6000
5000
Number of Visitors in Venice
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How much art contributes to theItalian turism
80%
70%
60%
50%
Other types of Turism
40%
Turism for Art exhibitions
30%
20%
10%
0%
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