Caravaggio

Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio, often called simply Caravaggio, was an Italian painter born on 29 September 1571 and died on 18 July 1610. He spent most of his working life in Rome, though he also worked in Naples, Malta, and Sicily during his final four years. Critics describe his work as blending a realistic view of people—both physically and emotionally—with striking lighting effects, a combination that deeply shaped Baroque painting. Caravaggio used close observation of his subjects and a strong contrast between light and dark, a technique called chiaroscuro that became known as tenebrism. He made this approach a central feature of his style, often placing figures in bright beams of light while leaving other areas deeply shadowed. His paintings frequently capture intense moments, including violent fights, torture, and death. He worked quickly, using live models and painting directly on the canvas instead of making preliminary drawings. His influence on the Baroque style, which grew out of Mannerism, was significant. Artists such as Peter Paul Rubens, Jusepe de Ribera, Gian Lorenzo Bernini, Velázquez, and Rembrandt, along with many lesser-known painters, show his impact. Those most affected by his work were called Caravaggisti, or tenebrists.

Caravaggio trained as a painter in Milan before moving to Rome in his twenties. He became well known as an artist but also gained a reputation as a violent, irritable, and provocative person. After killing a man named Ranuccio Tomassoni in a fight, he was sentenced to death for murder and fled to Naples. There he again became one of the leading Italian painters of his time. In 1607 he traveled to Malta and then to Sicily, seeking a papal pardon. He returned to Naples in 1609, where he got into another violent incident that left his face disfigured and sparked rumors of his death. His erratic and strange behavior raised questions about his mental health. He died in 1610 under unclear circumstances while traveling from Naples to Rome. Some reports say he died of a fever, possibly from wounds; others suggest he was murdered or died from lead poisoning.

Caravaggio’s innovations helped shape Baroque painting, which often used his dramatic light-and-dark technique but with less psychological intensity. As artistic styles changed, his work fell out of favor. Interest revived in the 20th century, and his importance to Western art was reevaluated. One 20th-century art historian said that modern painting begins with Caravaggio.

Caravaggio was born in Milan. His father, Fermo Merixio, worked as a household administrator and architect-decorator for the marquess of Caravaggio, a town east of Milan and south of Bergamo. It was once thought Caravaggio was born in that town. In 1576, his family moved to Caravaggio to escape a plague in Milan, and his father and grandfather both died there on the same day in 1577. The artist likely grew up in Caravaggio, but his family kept ties with the Sforzas and the powerful Colonna family, who were connected by marriage and later played a major role in his life. His mother raised five children in poverty. She died in 1584, the same year Caravaggio began a four-year apprenticeship with the Milanese painter Simone Peterzano, who was described in the contract as a pupil of Titian. After his apprenticeship, Caravaggio likely stayed in the Milan area, possibly visiting Venice to see works by Giorgione and Titian. He also became familiar with Milan’s art treasures, including Leonardo da Vinci’s *Last Supper*, and with Lombard art, which valued simplicity and naturalistic detail. Art historian Graham-Dixon notes the influence of popular images favored by the Counter-Reformation archbishop Charles Borromeo.

In 1592, after his training, Caravaggio left Milan for Rome following “certain quarrels” and the wounding of a police officer. He arrived in the city “naked and extremely needy... without fixed address and without provision... short of money.” He first stayed with the miserly Pandolfo Pucci. A few months later, he worked for the successful painter Giuseppe Cesari, painting flowers, fruit, and other minor details in Cesari’s workshop. The chronology of Caravaggio’s early years is hard to establish because he changed addresses about ten times between 1592 and 1595. In Rome, there was high demand for paintings for new churches and palaces, and the Church sought a stylistic alternative to Mannerism in religious art to counter Protestantism. Caravaggio’s innovation was a radical naturalism that combined close physical observation with dramatic chiaroscuro, or tenebrism.