Michelangelo Merisi (Michele Angelo Merigi or Amerighi) da Caravaggio, known as simply Caravaggio (, , ; 29 September 1571 – 18 July 1610), was an Italian painter active in
Rome
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, founder = King Romulus (legendary)
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, map_caption ...
for most of his artistic life. During the final four years of his life he moved between
Naples
Naples (; it, Napoli ; nap, Napule ), from grc, Νεάπολις, Neápolis, lit=new city. is the regional capital of Campania and the third-largest city of Italy, after Rome and Milan, with a population of 909,048 within the city's adminis ...
,
Malta
Malta ( , , ), officially the Republic of Malta ( mt, Repubblika ta' Malta ), is an island country in the Mediterranean Sea. It consists of an archipelago, between Italy and Libya, and is often considered a part of Southern Europe. It lies ...
, and
Sicily
(man) it, Siciliana (woman)
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until his death. His paintings have been characterized by art critics as combining a realistic observation of the human state, both physical and emotional, with a dramatic use of lighting, which had a formative influence on
Baroque painting.
Caravaggio employed close physical observation with a dramatic use of
chiaroscuro
Chiaroscuro ( , ; ), in art, is the use of strong contrasts between light and dark, usually bold contrasts affecting a whole composition. It is also a technical term used by artists and art historians for the use of contrasts of light to achi ...
that came to be known as
tenebrism
Tenebrism, from Italian ' ("dark, gloomy, mysterious"), also occasionally called dramatic illumination, is a style of painting using especially pronounced chiaroscuro, where there are violent contrasts of light and dark, and where darkness becomes ...
. He made the technique a dominant stylistic element, transfixing subjects in bright shafts of light and darkening shadows. Caravaggio vividly expressed crucial moments and scenes, often featuring violent struggles, torture, and death. He worked rapidly with live models, preferring to forgo drawings and work directly onto the canvas. His inspiring effect on the new
Baroque style that emerged from
Mannerism was profound. His influence can be seen directly or indirectly in the work of
Peter Paul Rubens
Sir Peter Paul Rubens (; ; 28 June 1577 – 30 May 1640) was a Flemish artist and diplomat from the Duchy of Brabant in the Southern Netherlands (modern-day Belgium). He is considered the most influential artist of the Flemish Baroque tradi ...
,
Jusepe de Ribera
Jusepe de Ribera (1591 – 1652) was a painter and printmaker, who along with Francisco de Zurbarán, Bartolomé Esteban Murillo, and the singular Diego Velázquez, are regarded as the major artists of Spanish Baroque painting. Referring ...
,
Gian Lorenzo Bernini, and
Rembrandt. Artists heavily under his influence were called the "
Caravaggisti
The Caravaggisti (or the "Caravagesques") were stylistic followers of the late 16th-century Italian Baroque painter Caravaggio. His influence on the new Baroque style that eventually emerged from Mannerism was profound. Caravaggio never establi ...
" (or "Caravagesques"), as well as tenebrists or ''tenebrosi'' ("shadowists").
Caravaggio trained as a painter in
Milan
Milan ( , , Lombard: ; it, Milano ) is a city in northern Italy, capital of Lombardy, and the second-most populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of about 1.4 million, while its metropolitan city h ...
before moving to Rome when he was in his twenties. He developed a considerable name as an artist and as a violent, touchy and provocative man. A brawl led to a death sentence for murder and forced him to flee to Naples. There he again established himself as one of the most prominent Italian painters of his generation. He travelled to Malta and on to Sicily in 1607 and pursued a papal pardon for his sentence. In 1609 he returned to Naples, where he was involved in a violent clash; his face was disfigured, and rumours of his death circulated. Questions about his mental state arose from his erratic and bizarre behavior. He died in 1610 under uncertain circumstances while on his way from Naples to Rome. Reports stated that he died of a fever, but suggestions have been made that he was murdered or that he died of lead poisoning.
Caravaggio's innovations inspired
Baroque painting, but the latter incorporated the drama of his chiaroscuro without the psychological realism. The style evolved and fashions changed, and Caravaggio fell out of favour. In the 20th century, interest in his work revived, and his importance to the development of Western art was reevaluated. The 20th-century art historian stated: "What begins in the work of Caravaggio is, quite simply, modern painting."
Biography
Early life (1571–1592)
![Canestra di frutta (Caravaggio)](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/1e/Canestra_di_frutta_%28Caravaggio%29.jpg)
Caravaggio (Michelangelo Merisi or Amerighi) was born in
Milan
Milan ( , , Lombard: ; it, Milano ) is a city in northern Italy, capital of Lombardy, and the second-most populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of about 1.4 million, while its metropolitan city h ...
, where his father, Fermo (Fermo Merixio), was a household administrator and architect-decorator to the Marchese of
Caravaggio, a town 35 km to the east of
Milan
Milan ( , , Lombard: ; it, Milano ) is a city in northern Italy, capital of Lombardy, and the second-most populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of about 1.4 million, while its metropolitan city h ...
and south of
Bergamo. In 1576 the family moved to Caravaggio (Caravaggius) to escape a plague that ravaged Milan, and Caravaggio's father and grandfather both died there on the same day in 1577.
It is assumed that the artist grew up in Caravaggio, but his family kept up connections with the
Sforzas and the powerful
Colonna family, who were allied by marriage with the Sforzas and destined to play a major role later in Caravaggio's life.
Caravaggio's mother had to raise all of her five children in poverty. She later 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
Tiziano Vecelli or Vecellio (; 27 August 1576), known in English as Titian ( ), was an Italian (Venetian) painter of the Renaissance, considered the most important member of the 16th-century Venetian school. He was born in Pieve di Cadore, nea ...
. Caravaggio appears to have stayed in the Milan-Caravaggio area after his apprenticeship ended, but it is possible that he visited
Venice
Venice ( ; it, Venezia ; vec, Venesia or ) is a city in northeastern Italy and the capital of the Veneto region. It is built on a group of 118 small islands that are separated by canals and linked by over 400 bridges. The isla ...
and saw the works of
Giorgione
Giorgione (, , ; born Giorgio Barbarelli da Castelfranco; 1477–78 or 1473–74 – 17 September 1510) was an Italian painter of the Venetian school during the High Renaissance, who died in his thirties. He is known for the elusive poetic quali ...
, whom
Federico Zuccari
Federico Zuccaro, also known as Federico Zuccari (c. 1540/1541August 6, 1609), was an Italian Mannerist painter and architect, active both in Italy and abroad.
Biography
Zuccaro was born at Sant'Angelo in Vado, near Urbino (Marche).
His docum ...
later accused him of imitating, and Titian. He would also have become familiar with the art treasures of Milan, including
Leonardo da Vinci
Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci (15 April 14522 May 1519) was an Italian polymath of the High Renaissance who was active as a painter, Drawing, draughtsman, engineer, scientist, theorist, sculptor, and architect. While his fame initially res ...
's ''
Last Supper
Image:The Last Supper - Leonardo Da Vinci - High Resolution 32x16.jpg, 400px, alt=''The Last Supper'' by Leonardo da Vinci - Clickable Image, Depictions of the Last Supper in Christian art have been undertaken by artistic masters for centuries, ...
'', and with the regional Lombard art, a style that valued simplicity and attention to
naturalistic detail and was closer to the naturalism of Germany than to the stylised formality and grandeur of Roman
Mannerism.
Beginnings in Rome (1592/95–1600)
Following his initial training under
Simone Peterzano, in 1592, Caravaggio left Milan for Rome in flight after "certain quarrels" and the wounding of a police officer. The young artist arrived in Rome "naked and extremely needy... without fixed address and without provision... short of money." During this period, he stayed with the miserly Pandolfo Pucci, known as "monsignor Insalata". A few months later he was performing hack-work for the highly successful
Giuseppe Cesari
Giuseppe Cesari (14 February 1568 – 3 July 1640) was an Italian Mannerist painter, also named Il Giuseppino and called ''Cavaliere d'Arpino'', because he was created ''Cavaliere di Cristo'' by his patron Pope Clement VIII. He was much patronize ...
,
Pope Clement VIII
Pope Clement VIII ( la, Clemens VIII; it, Clemente VIII; 24 February 1536 – 3 March 1605), born Ippolito Aldobrandini, was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 2 February 1592 to his death in March 1605.
Born ...
's favourite artist, "painting flowers and fruit" in his factory-like workshop.
In Rome, there was a demand for paintings to fill the many huge new churches and
palazzi being built at the time. It was also a period when the Church was searching for a stylistic alternative to
Mannerism in religious art that was tasked to
counter the threat of Protestantism. Caravaggio's innovation was a radical
naturalism that combined close physical observation with a dramatic, even theatrical, use of
chiaroscuro
Chiaroscuro ( , ; ), in art, is the use of strong contrasts between light and dark, usually bold contrasts affecting a whole composition. It is also a technical term used by artists and art historians for the use of contrasts of light to achi ...
that came to be known as
tenebrism
Tenebrism, from Italian ' ("dark, gloomy, mysterious"), also occasionally called dramatic illumination, is a style of painting using especially pronounced chiaroscuro, where there are violent contrasts of light and dark, and where darkness becomes ...
(the shift from light to dark with little intermediate value).
![Caravaggio - I Musici](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b6/Caravaggio_-_I_Musici.jpg)
Known works from this period include a small ''
Boy Peeling a Fruit
''Boy Peeling Fruit'' is a painting by the Italian Baroque master Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio (1571–1610) painted circa 1592–1593.
This is the earliest known work by Caravaggio, painted soon after his arrival in Rome from his native Mi ...
'' (his earliest known painting), a ''
Boy with a Basket of Fruit
''Boy with a Basket of Fruit'' is an oil on canvas painting generally ascribed to Italian Baroque master Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio, created ''c.'' 1593. It is held in the Galleria Borghese, in Rome.
Background
The painting dates from t ...
'', and the ''
Young Sick Bacchus
The ''Young Sick Bacchus'' ( it, Bacchino Malato), also known as the ''Sick Bacchus'' or the ''Self-Portrait as Bacchus'', is an early self-portrait by the Baroque artist Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio, dated between 1593 and 1594. It now han ...
'', supposedly a self-portrait done during convalescence from a serious illness that ended his employment with Cesari. All three demonstrate the physical particularity for which Caravaggio was to become renowned: the fruit-basket-boy's produce has been analysed by a professor of horticulture, who was able to identify individual cultivars right down to "...a large fig leaf with a prominent fungal scorch lesion resembling
anthracnose
A plant canker is a small area of dead tissue, which grows slowly, often over years. Some cankers are of only minor consequence, but others are ultimately lethal and therefore can have major economic implications for agriculture and horticultur ...
(''Glomerella cingulata'')."
Caravaggio left Cesari, determined to make his own way after a heated argument. At this point he forged some extremely important friendships, with the painter
Prospero Orsi
Prospero Orsi, also referred to as Prosperino delle Grottesche (1560s–1630s) was an Italian painter of the late-Mannerist and early-Baroque period, active mainly in Rome.
Biography
He apparently trained under Giuseppe Cesari d’Arpino. Baglio ...
, the architect
Onorio Longhi
Onorio Longhi (1568–1619) was an Italian architect, the father of Martino Longhi the Younger and the son of Martino Longhi the Elder.
Born in Viggiù, Lombardy, Longhi began as assistant for his father, and inherited the latter's commission ...
, and the sixteen-year-old
Sicilian artist
Mario Minniti
Mario Minniti (8 December 1577 – 22 November 1640) was an Italian artist active in Sicily after 1606.
Born in Syracuse, Sicily, he arrived in Rome in 1593, where he became the friend, collaborator, and model of the key Baroque painter Mic ...
. Orsi, established in the profession, introduced him to influential collectors; Longhi, more balefully, introduced him to the world of Roman street brawls. Minniti served Caravaggio as a model and, years later, would be instrumental in helping him to obtain important commissions in Sicily. Ostensibly, the first archival reference to Caravaggio in a contemporary document from Rome is the listing of his name, with that of Prospero Orsi as his partner, as an 'assistant' in a procession in October 1594 in honour of St. Luke. The earliest informative account of his life in the city is a court transcript dated 11 July 1597, when Caravaggio and Prospero Orsi were witnesses to a crime near San Luigi de' Francesi.
![Michelangelo Caravaggio 020](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/6a/Michelangelo_Caravaggio_020.jpg)
''
The Fortune Teller'', his first composition with more than one figure, shows a boy, likely Minniti, having his palm read by a Romani girl, who is stealthily removing his ring as she strokes his hand. The theme was quite new for Rome and proved immensely influential over the next century and beyond. However, at the time, Caravaggio sold it for practically nothing. ''
The Cardsharps
''The Cardsharps'' (painted around 1594) is a painting by the Italian Baroque artist Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio.
The original is generally agreed to be the work acquired by the Kimbell Art Museum in 1987, although Caravaggio may have pa ...
''—showing another naïve youth of privilege falling the victim of card cheats—is even more psychologically complex and perhaps Caravaggio's first true masterpiece. Like ''The Fortune Teller'', it was immensely popular, and over 50 copies survived. More importantly, it attracted the patronage of
Cardinal Francesco Maria del Monte
Francesco Maria del Monte, full name Francesco Maria Bourbon del Monte Santa Maria, (5 July 1549 – 27 August 1627) was an Italian Cardinal, diplomat, and connoisseur of the arts. His fame today rests on his early patronage of the important Bar ...
, one of the leading connoisseurs in Rome. For Del Monte and his wealthy art-loving circle, Caravaggio executed a number of intimate chamber-pieces—''
The Musicians'', ''
The Lute Player
The Lute Player, The Tsaritsa Harpist or The Tsaritsa who Played the Gusli (russian: Царица-гусляр), is a Russian fairy tale. It was published by Alexander Afanasyev in his collection ''Russian Fairy Tales'', as number 338. Andrew La ...
'', a tipsy ''
Bacchus
In ancient Greek religion and Greek mythology, myth, Dionysus (; grc, wikt:Διόνυσος, Διόνυσος ) is the god of the grape-harvest, winemaking, orchards and fruit, vegetation, fertility, insanity, ritual madness, religious ecstas ...
'', an allegorical but realistic ''
Boy Bitten by a Lizard
''Boy Bitten by a Lizard'' (Italian: ''Ragazzo morso da un ramarro'') is a painting by the Italian Baroque painter Caravaggio. It exists in two versions, both believed to be authentic works of Caravaggio, one in the Fondazione Roberto Longhi ...
''—featuring Minniti and other adolescent models.
Caravaggio's first paintings on religious themes returned to realism and the emergence of remarkable spirituality. The first of these was the ''
Penitent Magdalene'', showing
Mary Magdalene at the moment when she has turned from her life as a courtesan and sits weeping on the floor, her jewels scattered around her. "It seemed not a religious painting at all ... a girl sitting on a low wooden stool drying her hair ... Where was the repentance ... suffering ... promise of salvation?" It was understated, in the Lombard manner, not histrionic in the Roman manner of the time. It was followed by others in the same style: ''
Saint Catherine''; ''
Martha and Mary Magdalene''; ''
Judith Beheading Holofernes
The account of the beheading of Holofernes by Judith is given in the deuterocanonical ''Book of Judith'', and is the subject of many paintings and sculptures from the Renaissance and Baroque periods. In the story, Judith, a beautiful widow, is ab ...
''; a ''
Sacrifice of Isaac
The Binding of Isaac ( he, , ), or simply "The Binding" (, ), is a story from Genesis 22 of the Hebrew Bible. In the biblical narrative, God tells Abraham to sacrifice his son, Isaac, on Moriah. As Abraham begins to comply, having bound Is ...
''; a ''
Saint Francis of Assisi in Ecstasy''; and a ''
Rest on the Flight into Egypt
The Rest on the Flight into Egypt is a subject in Christian art showing Mary, Joseph, and the infant Jesus resting during their flight into Egypt. The Holy Family is normally shown in a landscape.
The subject did not develop until the seco ...
''. These works, while viewed by a comparatively limited circle, increased Caravaggio's fame with both connoisseurs and his fellow artists. But a true reputation would depend on public commissions, for which it was necessary to look to the Church.
![Narcissus-Caravaggio (1594-96) edited](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/29/Narcissus-Caravaggio_%281594-96%29_edited.jpg)
Already evident was the intense realism or naturalism for which Caravaggio is now famous. He preferred to paint his subjects as the eye sees them, with all their natural flaws and defects, instead of as idealised creations. This allowed a full display of his virtuosic talents. This shift from accepted standard practice and the classical idealism of
Michelangelo was very controversial at the time. Caravaggio also dispensed with the lengthy preparations traditional in central Italy at the time. Instead, he preferred the Venetian practice of working in oils directly from the subject—half-length figures and still life. ''
Supper at Emmaus
According to the Gospel of Luke, the road to Emmaus appearance is one of the early post-resurrection appearances of Jesus after his crucifixion and the discovery of the empty tomb. Both the meeting on the road to Emmaus and the subsequent suppe ...
'', from c. 1600–1601, is a characteristic work of this period demonstrating his virtuoso talent.
"Most famous painter in Rome" (1600–1606)
In 1599, presumably through the influence of Del Monte, Caravaggio was contracted to decorate the
Contarelli Chapel
The Contarelli Chapel or Cappella Contarelli is located within the church of San Luigi dei Francesi in Rome. It is famous for housing three paintings on the theme of Saint Matthew the Evangelist by the Baroque master Caravaggio. The paintings wer ...
in the church of
San Luigi dei Francesi
The Church of St. Louis of the French ( it, San Luigi dei Francesi, french: Saint Louis des Français, la, S. Ludovici Francorum de Urbe) is a Roman Catholic church in Rome, not far from Piazza Navona. The church is dedicated to the Virgin Mary ...
. The two works making up the commission, ''
The Martyrdom of Saint Matthew'' and ''
The Calling of Saint Matthew'', delivered in 1600, were an immediate sensation. Thereafter he never lacked commissions or patrons.
![The Calling of Saint Matthew-Caravaggo (1599-1600)](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/48/The_Calling_of_Saint_Matthew-Caravaggo_%281599-1600%29.jpg)
Caravaggio's
tenebrism
Tenebrism, from Italian ' ("dark, gloomy, mysterious"), also occasionally called dramatic illumination, is a style of painting using especially pronounced chiaroscuro, where there are violent contrasts of light and dark, and where darkness becomes ...
(a heightened
chiaroscuro
Chiaroscuro ( , ; ), in art, is the use of strong contrasts between light and dark, usually bold contrasts affecting a whole composition. It is also a technical term used by artists and art historians for the use of contrasts of light to achi ...
) brought high drama to his subjects, while his acutely observed realism brought a new level of emotional intensity. Opinion among his artist peers was polarised. Some denounced him for various perceived failings, notably his insistence on painting from life, without drawings, but for the most part, he was hailed as a great artistic visionary: "The painters then in Rome were greatly taken by this novelty, and the young ones particularly gathered around him, praised him as the unique imitator of nature, and looked on his work as miracles."
Caravaggio went on to secure a string of prestigious commissions for religious works featuring violent struggles, grotesque decapitations, torture and death. Most notable and technically masterful among them was ''
The Taking of Christ
''The Taking of Christ'' ( it, Presa di Cristo nell'orto or Cattura di Cristo) is a painting, of the arrest of Jesus, by the Italian Baroque master Caravaggio, Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio. Originally commissioned by the Roman nobleman Ciria ...
'' (circa 1602) for the
Mattei family
200px, Cortile Mattei di Giove
The House of Mattei was one of the most powerful noble families of Rome during the Middle Ages and early modern era, holding high positions in the papal curia and government office. The family amassed significant a ...
, only rediscovered in the early 1990s, in Ireland, after two centuries unrecognised.
For the most part, each new painting increased his fame, but a few were rejected by the various bodies for whom they were intended, at least in their original forms, and had to be re-painted or found new buyers. The essence of the problem was that while Caravaggio's dramatic intensity was appreciated, his realism was seen by some as unacceptably vulgar.
![Caravaggio Judith Beheading Holofernes](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b2/Caravaggio_Judith_Beheading_Holofernes.jpg)
His first version of ''
Saint Matthew and the Angel
''Saint Matthew and the Angel'' (1602) is a painting from the Italian master Caravaggio (1571–1610), completed for the Contarelli Chapel in the church of San Luigi dei Francesi in Rome. It was destroyed in Berlin in 1945 and is now known on ...
'', featuring the saint as a bald peasant with dirty legs attended by a lightly clad over-familiar boy-angel, was rejected and a second version had to be painted as ''
The Inspiration of Saint Matthew
''The Inspiration of Saint Matthew'' (1602) is a painting by the Italy, Italian Baroque master Caravaggio, Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio. Commissioned by the French Cardinal Matteo Contarelli, the canvas hangs in Contarelli chapel altar in t ...
''. Similarly, ''
The Conversion of Saint Paul'' was rejected, and while another version of the same subject, the ''
Conversion on the Way to Damascus
The ''Conversion on the Way to Damascus'' (''Conversione di San Paolo'') is a work by Caravaggio, painted in 1601 for the Cerasi Chapel of the church of Santa Maria del Popolo, in Rome. Across the chapel is a second Caravaggio depicting the '' ...
'', was accepted, it featured the saint's horse's haunches far more prominently than the saint himself, prompting this exchange between the artist and an exasperated official of
Santa Maria del Popolo it, Basilica Parrocchiale Santa Maria del Popolo
, image = 20140803 Basilica of Santa Maria del Popolo Rome 0191.jpg
, caption = The church from Piazza del Popolo
, coordinates =
, image_size ...
: "Why have you put a horse in the middle, and
Saint Paul
Paul; grc, Παῦλος, translit=Paulos; cop, ⲡⲁⲩⲗⲟⲥ; hbo, פאולוס השליח (previously called Saul of Tarsus;; ar, بولس الطرسوسي; grc, Σαῦλος Ταρσεύς, Saũlos Tarseús; tr, Tarsuslu Pavlus; ...
on the ground?" "Because!" "Is the horse God?" "No, but he stands in God's light!"
![Death of the Virgin-Caravaggio (1606)](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/78/Death_of_the_Virgin-Caravaggio_%281606%29.jpg)
Other works included ''
Entombment'', the ''
Madonna di Loreto'' (''Madonna of the Pilgrims''), the ''
Grooms' Madonna'', and the ''
Death of the Virgin
The Death of the Virgin Mary is a common subject in Western Christian art, the equivalent of the Dormition of the Theotokos in Eastern Orthodox art. This depiction became less common as the doctrine of the Assumption gained support in the Roma ...
''. The history of these last two paintings illustrates the reception given to some of Caravaggio's art and the times in which he lived. The ''Grooms' Madonna'', also known as ''Madonna dei palafrenieri'', painted for a small altar in Saint Peter's Basilica in Rome, remained there for just two days and was then taken off. A cardinal's secretary wrote: "In this painting, there are but vulgarity, sacrilege, impiousness and disgust...One would say it is a work made by a painter that can paint well, but of a dark spirit, and who has been for a lot of time far from God, from His adoration, and from any good thought..."
![Amor Vincet Omnia](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/df/Amor_Vincet_Omnia.jpg)
The ''
Death of the Virgin
The Death of the Virgin Mary is a common subject in Western Christian art, the equivalent of the Dormition of the Theotokos in Eastern Orthodox art. This depiction became less common as the doctrine of the Assumption gained support in the Roma ...
'', commissioned in 1601 by a wealthy jurist for his private chapel in the new Carmelite church of Santa Maria della Scala, was rejected by the Carmelites in 1606. Caravaggio's contemporary
Giulio Mancini
Giulio Mancini (21 February 1559 – 22 August 1630) was a seicento physician, art collector, art dealer and writer on a range of subjects. His writings on contemporary artists like Caravaggio and Annibale Carracci remain one of our earliest sourc ...
records that it was rejected because Caravaggio had used a well-known prostitute as his model for the Virgin.
Giovanni Baglione
Giovanni Baglione (1566 – 30 December 1643) was an Italian Late Mannerist and Early Baroque painter and art historian. He is best remembered for his acrimonious and damaging involvement with the slightly younger artist Caravaggio and ...
, another contemporary, tells that it was due to Mary's bare legs—a matter of decorum in either case. Caravaggio scholar John Gash suggests that the problem for the Carmelites may have been theological rather than aesthetic, in that Caravaggio's version fails to assert the doctrine of the
Assumption of Mary
The Assumption of Mary is one of the four Marian dogmas of the Catholic Church. Pope Pius XII defined it in 1950 in his apostolic constitution '' Munificentissimus Deus'' as follows:
We proclaim and define it to be a dogma revealed by ...
, the idea that the Mother of God did not die in any ordinary sense but was assumed into Heaven. The replacement altarpiece commissioned (from one of Caravaggio's most able followers,
Carlo Saraceni
Carlo Saraceni (1579 – 16 June 1620) was an Italian early- Baroque painter, whose reputation as a "first-class painter of the second rank" was improved with the publication of a modern monograph in 1968.
Life
Though he was born and died in ...
), showed the Virgin not dead, as Caravaggio had painted her, but seated and dying; and even this was rejected, and replaced with a work showing the Virgin not dying, but ascending into Heaven with choirs of angels. In any case, the rejection did not mean that Caravaggio or his paintings were out of favour. The ''Death of the Virgin'' was no sooner taken out of the church than it was purchased by the Duke of Mantua, on the advice of
Rubens, and later acquired by
Charles I of England
Charles I (19 November 1600 – 30 January 1649) was King of England, Scotland, and Ireland from 27 March 1625 until his execution in 1649. He was born into the House of Stuart as the second son of King James VI of Scotland, but after hi ...
before entering the French royal collection in 1671.
One secular piece from these years is ''
Amor Vincit Omnia'', in English also called ''Amor Victorious'', painted in 1602 for
Vincenzo Giustiniani
Marchese Vincenzo Giustiniani (13 September 1564 – 27 December 1637) was an aristocratic Italian banker, art collector and intellectual of the late 16th and early 17th centuries, known today largely for the Giustiniani art collection, assembled ...
, a member of Del Monte's circle. The model was named in a memoir of the early 17th century as "Cecco", the diminutive for Francesco. He is possibly Francesco Boneri, identified with an artist active in the period 1610–1625 and known as
Cecco del Caravaggio ('Caravaggio's Cecco'), carrying a bow and arrows and trampling symbols of the warlike and peaceful arts and sciences underfoot. He is unclothed, and it is difficult to accept this grinning urchin as the Roman god
Cupid—as difficult as it was to accept Caravaggio's other semi-clad adolescents as the various angels he painted in his canvases, wearing much the same stage-prop wings. The point, however, is the intense yet ambiguous reality of the work: it is simultaneously Cupid and Cecco, as Caravaggio's Virgins were simultaneously the Mother of Christ and the Roman courtesans who modeled for them.
Legal problems and flight from Rome (1606)
![Saint Jerome Writing-Caravaggio (1605-6)](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/4d/Saint_Jerome_Writing-Caravaggio_%281605-6%29.jpg)
Caravaggio led a tumultuous life. He was notorious for brawling, even in a time and place when such behavior was commonplace, and the transcripts of his police records and trial proceedings fill many pages.
Bellori claims that around 1590–1592, Caravaggio, already well known for brawling with gangs of young men, committed a murder which forced him to flee from Milan, first to Venice and then to Rome.
On 28 November 1600, while living at the
Palazzo Madama with his patron Cardinal Del Monte, Caravaggio beat nobleman
Girolamo Stampa da Montepulciano, a guest of the cardinal, with a club, resulting in an official complaint to the police. Episodes of brawling, violence, and tumult grew more and more frequent. Caravaggio was often arrested and jailed at
Tor di Nona.
After his release from jail in 1601, Caravaggio returned to paint first ''
The Taking of Christ
''The Taking of Christ'' ( it, Presa di Cristo nell'orto or Cattura di Cristo) is a painting, of the arrest of Jesus, by the Italian Baroque master Caravaggio, Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio. Originally commissioned by the Roman nobleman Ciria ...
'' and then ''
Amor Vincit Omnia''. In 1603, he was arrested again, this time for the
defamation of another painter,
Giovanni Baglione
Giovanni Baglione (1566 – 30 December 1643) was an Italian Late Mannerist and Early Baroque painter and art historian. He is best remembered for his acrimonious and damaging involvement with the slightly younger artist Caravaggio and ...
, who sued Caravaggio and his followers
Orazio Gentileschi
Orazio Lomi Gentileschi (1563–1639) was an Italian painter. Born in Tuscany, he began his career in Rome, painting in a Mannerist style, much of his work consisting of painting the figures within the decorative schemes of other artists. After ...
and
Onorio Longhi
Onorio Longhi (1568–1619) was an Italian architect, the father of Martino Longhi the Younger and the son of Martino Longhi the Elder.
Born in Viggiù, Lombardy, Longhi began as assistant for his father, and inherited the latter's commission ...
for writing offensive poems about him. The French ambassador intervened, and Caravaggio was transferred to house arrest after a month in jail in Tor di Nona.
Between May and October 1604, Caravaggio was arrested several times for possession of illegal weapons and for insulting the city guards. He was also sued by a tavern waiter for having thrown a plate of
artichoke
The globe artichoke ('' Cynara cardunculus'' var. ''scolymus'' ),Rottenberg, A., and D. Zohary, 1996: "The wild ancestry of the cultivated artichoke." Genet. Res. Crop Evol. 43, 53–58. also known by the names French artichoke and green artich ...
s in his face.
An early published notice on Caravaggio, dating from 1604 and describing his lifestyle three years previously, recounts that "after a fortnight's work he will swagger about for a month or two with a sword at his side and a servant following him, from one ball-court to the next, ever ready to engage in a fight or an argument, so that it is most awkward to get along with him."
In 1605, Caravaggio was forced to flee to Genoa for three weeks after seriously injuring Mariano Pasqualone di Accumoli, a notary, in a dispute over Lena, Caravaggio's model and lover. The notary reported having been attacked on 29 July with a sword, causing a severe head injury. Caravaggio's patrons intervened and managed to cover up the incident.
Upon his return to Rome, Caravaggio was sued by his landlady Prudenzia Bruni for not having paid his rent. Out of spite, Caravaggio threw rocks through her window at night and was sued again.
In November, Caravaggio was hospitalized for an injury which he claimed he had caused himself by falling on his own sword.
On 29 May 1606, Caravaggio killed a young man, possibly unintentionally, resulting in him fleeing Rome with a death sentence hanging over him. Ranuccio Tommasoni was a gangster from a wealthy family. The two had argued many times, often ending in blows. The circumstances are unclear, whether a brawl or a
duel with swords at
Campo Marzio
Campo Marzio is the 4th ''rione'' of Rome, identified by the initials R. IV. It belongs to the Municipio I and covers a smaller section of the area of the ancient ''Campus Martius''. The logo of this rione is a silver crescent on a blue backgrou ...
, but the killing may have been unintentional.
Many rumors circulated at the time as to the cause of the fight. Several contemporary ''
avvisi'' referred to a quarrel over a gambling debt and a
pallacorda game, a sort of tennis, and this explanation has become established in the popular imagination.
[
Because of the excessive ardour of his spirit Michelangelo was a little wild and he sometimes looked for the chance to break his neck or to risk the lives of others. People as quarrelsome as he were often to be found in his company: and having, in the end, confronted Ranuccio Tommasoni, a well-mannered young man, over some disagreement about a tennis match they challenged one another to a duel. After Ranuccio fell to the ground, Michelangelo struck him with the point of his sword and, having wounded him in the thigh, killed him.] Other rumors, however, claimed that the duel stemmed from jealousy over
Fillide Melandroni, a well-known Roman prostitute who had modeled for him in several important paintings; Tommasoni was her pimp. According to such rumors, Caravaggio castrated Tommasoni with his sword before deliberately killing him, with other versions claiming that Tommasoni's death was caused accidentally during the castration. The duel may have had a political dimension, as Tommasoni's family was notoriously pro-Spanish, while Caravaggio was a client of the French ambassador.
Caravaggio's patrons had hitherto been able to shield him from any serious consequences of his frequent duels and brawling, but Tommasoni's wealthy family was outraged by his death and demanded justice. Caravaggio's patrons were unable to protect him. Caravaggio was sentenced to
beheading
Decapitation or beheading is the total separation of the head from the body. Such an injury is invariably fatal to humans and most other animals, since it deprives the brain of oxygenated blood, while all other organs are deprived of the i ...
for murder, and an open bounty was decreed, enabling anyone who recognized him to legally carry the sentence out. Caravaggio's paintings began to obsessively depict severed heads, often his own, at this time.
Good modern accounts are to be found in
Peter Robb's ''
M'' and Helen Langdon's ''Caravaggio: A Life''. A theory relating the death to Renaissance notions of honour and symbolic wounding has been advanced by art historian
Andrew Graham-Dixon
Andrew Michael Graham-Dixon (born 26 December 1960) is a British art historian and broadcaster.
Life and career
Early life and education
Andrew Graham-Dixon is a son of the barrister Anthony Philip Graham-Dixon (1929–2012), Q.C., and ...
. Whatever the details, it was a serious matter.
Caravaggio was forced to flee Rome. He moved just south of the city, then to
Naples
Naples (; it, Napoli ; nap, Napule ), from grc, Νεάπολις, Neápolis, lit=new city. is the regional capital of Campania and the third-largest city of Italy, after Rome and Milan, with a population of 909,048 within the city's adminis ...
,
Malta
Malta ( , , ), officially the Republic of Malta ( mt, Repubblika ta' Malta ), is an island country in the Mediterranean Sea. It consists of an archipelago, between Italy and Libya, and is often considered a part of Southern Europe. It lies ...
, and
Sicily
(man) it, Siciliana (woman)
, population_note =
, population_blank1_title =
, population_blank1 =
, demographics_type1 = Ethnicity
, demographics1_footnotes =
, demographi ...
.
Exile and death (1606–1610)
Naples
![Caravaggio - Sette opere di Misericordia](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d7/Caravaggio_-_Sette_opere_di_Misericordia.jpg)
Following the death of Tomassoni, Caravaggio fled first to the estates of the
Colonna family south of Rome, then on to Naples, where Costanza Colonna Sforza, widow of Francesco Sforza, in whose husband's household Caravaggio's father had held a position, maintained a palace. In Naples, 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 Colonnas led to a stream of important church commissions, including the ''
Madonna of the Rosary'', and ''
The Seven Works of Mercy''. ''The Seven Works of Mercy'' depicts the
seven corporal works of mercy as a set of compassionate acts concerning the material needs of others. The painting was made for and is still housed in the church of
Pio Monte della Misericordia
The Pio Monte della Misericordia is a church in the historic center of Naples, southern Italy. It is famous for its art works, including Caravaggio's ''The Seven Works of Mercy''.
A charity brotherhood (''Pio Monte della Misericordia'' meaning ...
in
Naples
Naples (; it, Napoli ; nap, Napule ), from grc, Νεάπολις, Neápolis, lit=new city. is the regional capital of Campania and the third-largest city of Italy, after Rome and Milan, with a population of 909,048 within the city's adminis ...
. Caravaggio combined all seven works of mercy in one composition, which became the church's
altarpiece. Alessandro Giardino has also established the connection between the iconography of "The Seven Works of Mercy" and the cultural, scientific and philosophical circles of the painting's
commissioners.
Malta
Despite his success in Naples, after only a few months in the city Caravaggio left for
Malta
Malta ( , , ), officially the Republic of Malta ( mt, Repubblika ta' Malta ), is an island country in the Mediterranean Sea. It consists of an archipelago, between Italy and Libya, and is often considered a part of Southern Europe. It lies ...
, the headquarters of the
Knights of Malta. Fabrizio Sforza Colonna, Costanza's son, was a Knight of Malta and general of the Order's
galleys. He appears to have facilitated Caravaggio's arrival on the island in 1607 (and his escape the next year). Caravaggio presumably hoped that the patronage of
Alof de Wignacourt
Fra Alof de Wignacourt (1547 – 14 September 1622) was a French nobleman who was the 54th Grand Master of the Order of St. John of Jerusalem from 10 February 1601 to his death in 1622. Unlike a number of the other Grand Masters, he was popul ...
, Grand Master of the
Knights of Saint John, could help him secure a
pardon for Tomassoni's death.
Wignacourt was so impressed at having the famous artist as official painter to the Order that he inducted him as a Knight, and the early biographer Bellori records that the artist was well pleased with his success.
![The Beheading of Saint John-Caravaggio (1608)](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c8/The_Beheading_of_Saint_John-Caravaggio_%281608%29.jpg)
Major works from his Malta period include the ''
Beheading of Saint John the Baptist
The beheading of John the Baptist, also known as the decollation of Saint John the Baptist or the beheading of the Forerunner, is a biblical event commemorated as a holy day by various Christian churches. According to the New Testament, Her ...
'', his largest ever work, and the only painting to which he put his signature, ''
Saint Jerome Writing
''Saint Jerome Writing'', also called ''Saint Jerome in His Study'' or simply ''Saint Jerome'', is an oil painting by Italian painter Caravaggio. Generally dated to 1605–06, the painting is located in the Galleria Borghese in Rome.
Compositio ...
'' (both housed in
Saint John's Co-Cathedral
St John's Co-Cathedral ( mt, Kon-Katidral ta' San Ġwann) is a Roman Catholic co-cathedral in Valletta, Malta, dedicated to Saint John the Baptist. It was built by the Order of St. John between 1573 and 1578, having been commissioned by Grand Mas ...
,
Valletta
Valletta (, mt, il-Belt Valletta, ) is an administrative unit and capital of Malta. Located on the main island, between Marsamxett Harbour to the west and the Grand Harbour to the east, its population within administrative limits in 2014 wa ...
,
Malta
Malta ( , , ), officially the Republic of Malta ( mt, Repubblika ta' Malta ), is an island country in the Mediterranean Sea. It consists of an archipelago, between Italy and Libya, and is often considered a part of Southern Europe. It lies ...
) and a ''
Portrait of Alof de Wignacourt and his Page
''Portrait of Alof de Wignacourt with his Page'' (c. 1607-1608) is a painting by the Italian master Caravaggio, in the Louvre of Paris.
Alof de Wignacourt joined the Order of the Knights of Saint John (the Knights of Malta) in 1564, aged sevent ...
'', as well as portraits of other leading Knights.
According to Andrea Pomella, ''The Beheading of Saint John the Baptist'' is widely considered "one of the most important works in Western painting."
Completed in 1608, the painting had been commissioned by the Knights of Malta as an
altarpiece and measuring was the largest altarpiece Caravaggio painted.
It still hangs in
St. John's Co-Cathedral, for which it was commissioned and where Caravaggio himself was inducted and briefly served as a knight.
Yet, by late August 1608, he was arrested and imprisoned,
likely the result of yet another brawl, this time with an aristocratic knight, during which the door of a house was battered down and the knight seriously wounded.
Caravaggio was imprisoned by the Knights at
Valletta
Valletta (, mt, il-Belt Valletta, ) is an administrative unit and capital of Malta. Located on the main island, between Marsamxett Harbour to the west and the Grand Harbour to the east, its population within administrative limits in 2014 wa ...
, but he managed to escape. By December, he had been expelled from the Order "as a foul and rotten member", a formal phrase used in all such cases.
Sicily
![Room of caravaggio, regional museum od of messina](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/89/Room_of_caravaggio%2C_regional_museum_od_of_messina.JPG)
Caravaggio made his way to
Sicily
(man) it, Siciliana (woman)
, population_note =
, population_blank1_title =
, population_blank1 =
, demographics_type1 = Ethnicity
, demographics1_footnotes =
, demographi ...
where he met his old friend Mario Minniti, who was now married and living in
Syracuse. Together they set off on what amounted to a triumphal tour from Syracuse to
Messina and, maybe, on to the island capital,
Palermo. In Syracuse and Messina Caravaggio continued to win prestigious and well-paid commissions. Among other works from this period are ''
Burial of St. Lucy'', ''
The Raising of Lazarus
Lazarus of Bethany (Latinised from Lazar, ultimately from Hebrew Eleazar, "God helped"), also venerated as Righteous Lazarus, the Four-Days Dead in the Eastern Orthodox Church, is the subject of a prominent sign of Jesus in the Gospel of John, ...
'', and ''
Adoration of the Shepherds''. 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." Contemporary reports depict a man whose behaviour was becoming increasingly bizarre, which included sleeping fully armed and in his clothes, ripping up a painting at a slight word of criticism, and mocking local painters.
Caravaggio displayed bizarre behaviour from very early in his career. Mancini describes him as "extremely crazy", a letter from Del Monte notes his strangeness, and Minniti's 1724 biographer says that Mario left Caravaggio because of his behaviour. The strangeness seems to have increased after Malta. Susinno's early-18th-century ''Le vite de' pittori Messinesi'' ("Lives of the Painters of Messina") provides several colourful anecdotes of Caravaggio's erratic behaviour in Sicily, and these are reproduced in modern full-length biographies such as Langdon and Robb. Bellori writes of Caravaggio's "fear" driving him from city to city across the island and finally, "feeling that it was no longer safe to remain", back to Naples. Baglione says Caravaggio was being "chased by his enemy", but like Bellori does not say who this enemy was.
Return to Naples
![CaravaggioSalomeMadrid](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/48/CaravaggioSalomeMadrid.jpg)
After only nine months in Sicily, Caravaggio returned to Naples in the late summer of 1609. According to his earliest biographer, he was being pursued by enemies while in Sicily and felt it safest to place himself under the protection of the Colonnas until he could secure his pardon from the pope (now
Paul V) and return to Rome. In Naples he painted ''
The Denial of Saint Peter'', a final ''
John the Baptist (Borghese)'', and his last picture, ''
The Martyrdom of Saint Ursula''. His style continued to evolve—
Saint Ursula
Saint Ursula (Latin for 'little female bear', german: link=no, Heilige Ursula) is a legendary Romano-British Christian saint who died on 21 October 383. Her feast day in the pre-1970 General Roman Calendar is 21 October. There is little in ...
is caught in a moment of highest action and drama, as the arrow fired by the king of the
Huns
The Huns were a nomadic people who lived in Central Asia, the Caucasus, and Eastern Europe between the 4th and 6th century AD. According to European tradition, they were first reported living east of the Volga River, in an area that was part ...
strikes her in the breast, unlike earlier paintings that had all the immobility of the posed models. The brushwork was also much freer and more impressionistic.
![David with the Head of Goliath-Caravaggio (1610)](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f6/David_with_the_Head_of_Goliath-Caravaggio_%281610%29.jpg)
In October 1609 he was involved in a violent clash, an attempt on his life, perhaps ambushed by men in the pay of the knight he had wounded in Malta or some other faction of the Order. His face was seriously disfigured and rumours circulated in Rome that he was dead. He painted a ''
Salome with the Head of John the Baptist (Madrid)'', showing his own head on a platter, and sent it to Wignacourt as a plea for forgiveness. Perhaps at this time, he also painted a ''
David with the Head of Goliath'', showing the young David with a strangely sorrowful expression gazing at the severed head of the giant, which is again Caravaggio. This painting he may have sent to his patron, the unscrupulous art-loving Cardinal
Scipione Borghese
Scipione Borghese (; 1 September 1577 – 2 October 1633) was an Italian Cardinal, art collector and patron of the arts. A member of the Borghese family, he was the patron of the painter Caravaggio and the artist Bernini. His legacy is the establ ...
, nephew of the pope, who had the power to grant or withhold pardons. Caravaggio hoped Borghese could mediate a pardon in exchange for works by the artist.
News from Rome encouraged Caravaggio, and in the summer of 1610, he took a boat northwards to receive the pardon, which seemed imminent thanks to his powerful Roman friends. With him were three last paintings, the gifts for Cardinal Scipione. What happened next is the subject of much confusion and conjecture, shrouded in much mystery.
The bare facts seem to be that on 28 July, an anonymous ''
avviso
Journalism of Early Modern Europe was composed originally by handwritten newsletters used to convey political, military, and economic news quickly and efficiently throughout Europe during the early modern era (1500-1700). They were often written ...
'' (private newsletter) from Rome to the ducal court of Urbino reported that Caravaggio was dead. Three days later, another ''avviso'' said that he had died of fever on his way from Naples to Rome. 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
Porto Ercole () is an Italian town located in the municipality of Monte Argentario, in the Province of Grosseto, Tuscany. It is one of the two major towns that form the township, along with Porto Santo Stefano. Its name means "Port Hercules".
Ge ...
, near
Grosseto
Grosseto () is a city and ''comune'' in the central Italian region of Tuscany, the capital of the Province of Grosseto. The city lies from the Tyrrhenian Sea, in the Maremma, at the centre of an alluvial plain on the Ombrone river.
It is the ...
in
Tuscany
it, Toscano (man) it, Toscana (woman)
, population_note =
, population_blank1_title =
, population_blank1 =
, demographics_type1 = Citizenship
, demographics1_footnotes =
, demographics1_title1 = Italian
, demogra ...
.
Death
Caravaggio had a fever at the time of his death, and what killed him was a matter of controversy and rumour at the time, and has been a matter of historical debate and study since.
Contemporary rumors held that either the Tommasoni family or the Knights had him killed in revenge. Traditionally historians have long thought he died of
syphilis.
[ Some have said he had ]malaria
Malaria is a mosquito-borne infectious disease that affects humans and other animals. Malaria causes symptoms that typically include fever, tiredness, vomiting, and headaches. In severe cases, it can cause jaundice, seizures, coma, or death. S ...
, or possibly brucellosis
Brucellosis is a highly contagious zoonosis caused by ingestion of unpasteurized milk or undercooked meat from infected animals, or close contact with their secretions. It is also known as undulant fever, Malta fever, and Mediterranean fever.
The ...
from unpasteurised dairy.[ Some scholars have argued that Caravaggio was actually attacked and killed by the same "enemies" that had been pursuing him since he fled Malta, possibly Wignacourt and/or factions of the Knights.
Caravaggio's remains were buried in Porto Ercole's San Sebastiano cemetery, which closed in 1956, and then moved to St. Erasmus cemetery, where, in 2010, archaeologists conducted a year-long investigation of remains found in three crypts and after using DNA, carbon dating, and other methods, believe with a high degree of confidence that they have identified those of Caravaggio. Initial tests suggested Caravaggio might have died of lead poisoning—paints used at the time contained high amounts of lead salts, and Caravaggio is known to have indulged in violent behavior, as caused by lead poisoning. Later research concluded he died as the result of a wound sustained in a brawl in Naples, specifically from ]sepsis
Sepsis, formerly known as septicemia (septicaemia in British English) or blood poisoning, is a life-threatening condition that arises when the body's response to infection causes injury to its own tissues and organs. This initial stage is follo ...
caused by Staphylococcus aureus.
Vatican documents released in 2002 support the theory that the wealthy Tommasoni family had him hunted down and killed as a vendetta for Caravaggio's murder of gangster Ranuccio Tommasoni, in a botched attempt at castration after a duel over the affections of model Fillide Melandroni.
Sexuality
Since the 1970s art scholars and historians have debated the inferences of homoeroticism in Caravaggio's works as a way to better understand the man. Caravaggio never married and had no known children, and Howard Hibbard observed the absence of erotic female figures in the artist's oeuvre: "In his entire career he did not paint a single female nude", and the cabinet-pieces from the Del Monte period are replete with "full-lipped, languorous boys ... who seem to solicit the onlooker with their offers of fruit, wine, flowers—and themselves" suggesting an erotic interest in the male form. The model of ''Amor vincit omnia'', Cecco di Caravaggio, lived with the artist in Rome and stayed with him even after he was obliged to leave the city in 1606, and the two may have been lovers.[Andrew Graham-Dixon, ''Caravaggio: A life sacred and profane'', Penguin, 2011, p.4]
A connection with a certain Lena is mentioned in a 1605 court deposition by Pasqualone, where she is described as "Michelangelo's girl". According to G.B. Passeri, this 'Lena' was Caravaggio's model for the ''Madonna di Loreto''; and according to Catherine Puglisi, 'Lena' may have been the same person as the courtesan Maddalena di Paolo Antognetti, who named Caravaggio as an "intimate friend" by her own testimony in 1604. Caravaggio was also rumored to be madly in love with Fillide Melandroni, a well known Roman prostitute who modeled for him in several important paintings.[Andrew Graham-Dixon, ''Caravaggio: A life sacred and profane'', Penguin, 2011]
Caravaggio's sexuality also received early speculation due to claims about the artist by Honoré Gabriel Riqueti, comte de Mirabeau. Writing in 1783, Mirabeau contrasted the personal life of Caravaggio directly with the writings of St Paul in the Book of Romans
The Epistle to the Romans is the sixth book in the New Testament, and the longest of the thirteen Pauline epistles. Biblical scholars agree that it was composed by Paul the Apostle to explain that salvation is offered through the gospel of J ...
, arguing that "Romans
Roman or Romans most often refers to:
*Rome, the capital city of Italy
* Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD
*Roman people, the people of ancient Rome
*''Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a lette ...
" excessively practice sodomy or homosexuality
Homosexuality is romantic attraction, sexual attraction, or sexual behavior between members of the same sex or gender. As a sexual orientation, homosexuality is "an enduring pattern of emotional, romantic, and/or sexual attractions" to pe ...
. ''The Holy Mother Catholic Church teachings on morality'' (and so on; short book title) contains the Latin phrase "''Et fœminæ eorum immutaverunt naturalem usum in eum usum qui est contra naturam.''" The phrase, according to Mirabeau, entered Caravaggio's thoughts, and he claimed that such an "abomination" could be witnessed through a particular painting housed at the Museum of the Grand Duke of Tuscany
The rulers of Tuscany varied over time, sometimes being margraves, the rulers of handfuls of border counties and sometimes the heads of the most important family of the region.
Margraves of Tuscany, 812–1197 House of Boniface
:These were origin ...
—featuring a rosary of a blasphemous
Blasphemy is a speech crime and religious crime usually defined as an utterance that shows contempt, disrespects or insults a deity, an object considered sacred or something considered inviolable. Some religions regard blasphemy as a religio ...
nature, in which a circle of thirty men (''turpiter ligati'') are intertwined in embrace and presented in unbridled composition. Mirabeau notes the affectionate nature of Caravaggio's depiction reflects the voluptuous glow of the artist's sexuality. By the late nineteenth century, Sir Richard Francis Burton
Sir Richard Francis Burton (; 19 March 1821 – 20 October 1890) was a British explorer, writer, orientalist scholar,and soldier. He was famed for his travels and explorations in Asia, Africa, and the Americas, as well as his extraordinary kn ...
identified the painting as Caravaggio's painting of St. Rosario. Burton also identifies both St. Rosario and this painting with the practices of Tiberius
Tiberius Julius Caesar Augustus (; 16 November 42 BC – 16 March AD 37) was the second Roman emperor. He reigned from AD 14 until 37, succeeding his stepfather, the first Roman emperor Augustus. Tiberius was born in Rome in 42 BC. His father ...
mentioned by Seneca the Younger
Lucius Annaeus Seneca the Younger (; 65 AD), usually known mononymously as Seneca, was a Stoic philosopher of Ancient Rome, a statesman, dramatist, and, in one work, satirist, from the post-Augustan age of Latin literature.
Seneca was born in ...
. The survival status and location of Caravaggio's painting is unknown. No such painting appears in his or his school's catalogues.
Aside from the paintings, evidence also comes from the libel trial brought against Caravaggio by Giovanni Baglione
Giovanni Baglione (1566 – 30 December 1643) was an Italian Late Mannerist and Early Baroque painter and art historian. He is best remembered for his acrimonious and damaging involvement with the slightly younger artist Caravaggio and ...
in 1603. Baglione accused Caravaggio and his friends of writing and distributing scurrilous doggerel attacking him; the pamphlets, according to Baglione's friend and witness Mao Salini, had been distributed by a certain Giovanni Battista, a ''bardassa'', or boy prostitute, shared by Caravaggio and his friend Onorio Longhi. Caravaggio denied knowing any young boy of that name, and the allegation was not followed up.
Baglione's painting of "Divine Love" has also been seen as a visual accusation of sodomy
Sodomy () or buggery (British English) is generally anal or oral sex between people, or sexual activity between a person and a non-human animal ( bestiality), but it may also mean any non- procreative sexual activity. Originally, the term ''sod ...
against Caravaggio. Such accusations were damaging and dangerous as sodomy was a capital crime at the time. Even though the authorities were unlikely to investigate such a well-connected person as Caravaggio, "Once an artist had been smeared as a pederast, his work was smeared too." Francesco Susino in his later biography additionally relates the story of how the artist was chased by a schoolmaster in Sicily for spending too long gazing at the boys in his care. Susino presents it as a misunderstanding, but some authors have speculated that Caravaggio may indeed have been seeking sex with the boys, using the incident to explain some of his paintings which they believe to be homoerotic.
The art historian Andrew Graham-Dixon
Andrew Michael Graham-Dixon (born 26 December 1960) is a British art historian and broadcaster.
Life and career
Early life and education
Andrew Graham-Dixon is a son of the barrister Anthony Philip Graham-Dixon (1929–2012), Q.C., and ...
has summarised the debate:
A lot has been made of Caravaggio's presumed homosexuality, which has in more than one previous account of his life been presented as the single key that explains everything, both the power of his art and the misfortunes of his life. There is no absolute proof of it, only strong circumstantial evidence and much rumour. The balance of probability suggests that Caravaggio did indeed have sexual relations with men. But he certainly had female lovers. Throughout the years that he spent in Rome, he kept close company with a number of prostitutes. The truth is that Caravaggio was as uneasy in his relationships as he was in most other aspects of life. He likely slept with men. He did sleep with women. He settled with no one... utthe idea that he was an early martyr to the drives of an unconventional sexuality is an anachronistic fiction.
''Washington Post'' art critic Philip Kennicott has taken issue with what he regarded as Graham-Dixon's minimizing of Caravaggio's homosexuality:
There was a fussiness to the tone whenever a scholar or curator was forced to grapple with transgressive sexuality, and you can still find it even in relatively recent histories, including Andrew Graham-Dixon’s 2010 biography of Caravaggio, which acknowledges only that “he likely slept with men.” The author notes the artist’s fluid sexual desires but gives some of Caravaggio’s most explicitly homoerotic paintings tortured readings to keep them safely in the category of mere “ambiguity.”
As an artist
The birth of Baroque
Caravaggio "put the oscuro (shadows) into chiaroscuro
Chiaroscuro ( , ; ), in art, is the use of strong contrasts between light and dark, usually bold contrasts affecting a whole composition. It is also a technical term used by artists and art historians for the use of contrasts of light to achi ...
." Chiaroscuro was practiced long before he came on the scene, but it was Caravaggio who made the technique a dominant stylistic element, darkening the shadows and transfixing the subject in a blinding shaft of light. With this came the acute observation of physical and psychological reality that formed the ground both for his immense popularity and for his frequent problems with his religious commissions.
He worked at great speed, from live models, scoring basic guides directly onto the canvas with the end of the brush handle; very few of Caravaggio's drawings appear to have survived, and it is likely that he preferred to work directly on the canvas. The approach was anathema
Anathema, in common usage, is something or someone detested or shunned. In its other main usage, it is a formal excommunication. The latter meaning, its ecclesiastical sense, is based on New Testament usage. In the Old Testament, anathema was a cr ...
to the skilled artists of his day, who decried his refusal to work from drawings and to idealise his figures. Yet the models were basic to his realism. Some have been identified, including Mario Minniti
Mario Minniti (8 December 1577 – 22 November 1640) was an Italian artist active in Sicily after 1606.
Born in Syracuse, Sicily, he arrived in Rome in 1593, where he became the friend, collaborator, and model of the key Baroque painter Mic ...
and Francesco Boneri, both fellow artists, Minniti appearing as various figures in the early secular works, the young Boneri as a succession of angels, Baptists and Davids in the later canvasses. His female models include Fillide Melandroni, Anna Bianchini
Anna may refer to:
People Surname and given name
* Anna (name)
Mononym
* Anna the Prophetess, in the Gospel of Luke
* Anna (wife of Artabasdos) (fl. 715–773)
* Anna (daughter of Boris I) (9th–10th century)
* Anna (Anisia) (fl. 1218 to 1221)
...
, and Maddalena Antognetti (the "Lena" mentioned in court documents of the "artichoke" case as Caravaggio's concubine), all well-known prostitutes, who appear as female religious figures including the Virgin and various saints. Caravaggio himself appears in several paintings, his final self-portrait being as the witness on the far right to the '' Martyrdom of Saint Ursula''.
Caravaggio had a noteworthy ability to express in one scene of unsurpassed vividness the passing of a crucial moment. '' The Supper at Emmaus'' depicts the recognition of Christ by his disciples: a moment before he is a fellow traveller, mourning the passing of the Messiah, as he never ceases to be to the inn-keeper's eyes; the second after, he is the Saviour. In ''The Calling of St Matthew
''The Calling of Saint Matthew'' is a painting by Caravaggio, depicting the moment at which Jesus Christ inspires Matthew to follow him. It was completed in 1599–1600 for the Contarelli Chapel in the church of the French congregation, San Luig ...
'', the hand of the Saint points to himself as if he were saying, "who, me?", while his eyes, fixed upon the figure of Christ, have already said, "Yes, I will follow you". With '' The Resurrection of Lazarus'', he goes a step further, giving a glimpse of the actual physical process of resurrection. The body of Lazarus is still in the throes of rigor mortis, but his hand, facing and recognising that of Christ, is alive. Other major Baroque artists would travel the same path, for example Bernini, fascinated with themes from Ovid
Pūblius Ovidius Nāsō (; 20 March 43 BC – 17/18 AD), known in English as Ovid ( ), was a Roman poet who lived during the reign of Augustus. He was a contemporary of the older Virgil and Horace, with whom he is often ranked as one of the th ...
's ''Metamorphoses
The ''Metamorphoses'' ( la, Metamorphōsēs, from grc, μεταμορφώσεις: "Transformations") is a Latin narrative poem from 8 CE by the Roman poet Ovid. It is considered his ''magnum opus''. The poem chronicles the history of the ...
''.
The Caravaggisti
The installation of the St. Matthew paintings in the Contarelli Chapel had an immediate impact among the younger artists in Rome, and Caravaggism became the cutting edge for every ambitious young painter. The first Caravaggisti included Orazio Gentileschi
Orazio Lomi Gentileschi (1563–1639) was an Italian painter. Born in Tuscany, he began his career in Rome, painting in a Mannerist style, much of his work consisting of painting the figures within the decorative schemes of other artists. After ...
and Giovanni Baglione
Giovanni Baglione (1566 – 30 December 1643) was an Italian Late Mannerist and Early Baroque painter and art historian. He is best remembered for his acrimonious and damaging involvement with the slightly younger artist Caravaggio and ...
. Baglione's Caravaggio phase was short-lived; Caravaggio later accused him of plagiarism and the two were involved in a long feud. Baglione went on to write the first biography of Caravaggio. In the next generation of Caravaggisti there were Carlo Saraceni
Carlo Saraceni (1579 – 16 June 1620) was an Italian early- Baroque painter, whose reputation as a "first-class painter of the second rank" was improved with the publication of a modern monograph in 1968.
Life
Though he was born and died in ...
, Bartolomeo Manfredi
Bartolomeo Manfredi (baptised 25 August 1582 – 12 December 1622) was an Italian painter, a leading member of the Caravaggisti (followers of Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio) of the early 17th century.
Life
Manfredi was born in Ostiano, nea ...
and Orazio Borgianni
Orazio Borgianni (6 April 1574 – 14 January 1616) was an Italian painter and etcher of the Mannerist and early- Baroque periods. He was the stepbrother of the sculptor and architect Giulio Lasso.
Borgianni was born in Rome, where he was doc ...
. Gentileschi, despite being considerably older, was the only one of these artists to live much beyond 1620 and ended up as a court painter to Charles I of England
Charles I (19 November 1600 – 30 January 1649) was King of England, Scotland, and Ireland from 27 March 1625 until his execution in 1649. He was born into the House of Stuart as the second son of King James VI of Scotland, but after hi ...
. His daughter Artemisia Gentileschi was also stylistically close to Caravaggio and one of the most gifted of the movement. Yet, in Rome and in Italy, it was not Caravaggio, but the influence of his rival Annibale Carracci, blending elements from the High Renaissance
In art history, the High Renaissance was a short period of the most exceptional artistic production in the Italian states, particularly Rome, capital of the Papal States, and in Florence, during the Italian Renaissance. Most art historians stat ...
and Lombard realism, which ultimately triumphed.
Caravaggio's brief stay in Naples produced a notable school of Neapolitan Caravaggisti, including Battistello Caracciolo and Carlo Sellitto
Carlo Sellitto (1581 – 2 October 1614 in Naples) was an Italian painter of the Baroque period.
One of the most gifted followers of Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio (1571–1610), Sellitto played an important role in the spread of Caravaggism ...
. The Caravaggisti movement there ended with a terrible outbreak of plague in 1656, but the Spanish connection—Naples was a possession of Spain—was instrumental in forming the important Spanish branch of his influence.
A group of Catholic artists from Utrecht
Utrecht ( , , ) is the fourth-largest city and a municipality of the Netherlands, capital and most populous city of the province of Utrecht. It is located in the eastern corner of the Randstad conurbation, in the very centre of mainland Net ...
, the "Utrecht Caravaggisti", travelled to Rome as students in the first years of the 17th century and were profoundly influenced by the work of Caravaggio as Bellori describes. On their return to the north, this trend had a short-lived but influential flowering in the 1620s among painters like Hendrick ter Brugghen
Hendrick Jansz ter Brugghen (or Terbrugghen) (1588 – 1 November 1629) was a Dutch painter of genre scenes and religious subjects. He was one of the Dutch followers of Caravaggio – the so-called ''Utrecht Caravaggisti''. Along with Gerrit va ...
, Gerrit van Honthorst
Gerard van Honthorst (Dutch: ''Gerrit van Honthorst''; 4 November 1592 – 27 April 1656) was a Dutch Golden Age painter who became known for his depiction of artificially lit scenes, eventually receiving the nickname ''Gherardo delle Notti' ...
, Andries Both and Dirck van Baburen
Dirck Jaspersz. van Baburen (c. 1595 – 21 February 1624) was a Dutch painter and one of the Utrecht Caravaggisti.
Biography
Dirck van Baburen was probably born in Wijk bij Duurstede, but his family moved to Utrecht when he was still youn ...
. In the following generation the effects of Caravaggio, although attenuated, are to be seen in the work of Rubens (who purchased one of his paintings for the Gonzaga of Mantua and painted a copy of the ''Entombment of Christ
The burial of Jesus refers to the entombment of the body of Jesus after crucifixion, before the eve of the sabbath described in the New Testament. According to the canonical gospel narratives, he was placed in a tomb by a councillor of the san ...
''), Vermeer
Johannes Vermeer ( , , see below; also known as Jan Vermeer; October 1632 – 15 December 1675) was a Dutch Baroque Period painter who specialized in domestic interior scenes of middle-class life. During his lifetime, he was a moderately succe ...
, Rembrandt and Velázquez, the last of whom presumably saw his work during his various sojourns in Italy.
Death and rebirth of a reputation
Caravaggio's innovations inspired the Baroque, but the Baroque took the drama of his chiaroscuro without the psychological realism. While he directly influenced the style of the artists mentioned above, and, at a distance, the Frenchmen Georges de La Tour
Georges de La Tour (13 March 1593 – 30 January 1652) was a French Baroque painter, who spent most of his working life in the Duchy of Lorraine, which was temporarily absorbed into France between 1641 and 1648. He painted mostly religious chia ...
and Simon Vouet
Simon Vouet (; 9 January 1590 – 30 June 1649) was a French painter who studied and rose to prominence in Italy before being summoned by Louis XIII to serve as Premier peintre du Roi in France. He and his studio of artists created religious and ...
, and the Spaniard Giuseppe Ribera, within a few decades his works were being ascribed to less scandalous artists, or simply overlooked. The Baroque, to which he contributed so much, had evolved, and fashions had changed, but perhaps more pertinently, Caravaggio never established a workshop as the Carracci did and thus had no school to spread his techniques. Nor did he ever set out his underlying philosophical approach to art, the psychological realism that may only be deduced from his surviving work.
Thus his reputation was doubly vulnerable to the critical demolition jobs done by two of his earliest biographers, Giovanni Baglione
Giovanni Baglione (1566 – 30 December 1643) was an Italian Late Mannerist and Early Baroque painter and art historian. He is best remembered for his acrimonious and damaging involvement with the slightly younger artist Caravaggio and ...
, a rival painter with a vendetta, and the influential 17th-century critic Gian Pietro Bellori
Giovanni Pietro Bellori (15 January 1613 – 19 February 1696), also known as Giovan Pietro Bellori or Gian Pietro Bellori, was an Italian painter and antiquarian, but, more famously, a prominent biographer of artists of the 17th century, equiva ...
, who had not known him but was under the influence of the earlier Giovanni Battista Agucchi and Bellori's friend Poussin
Nicolas Poussin (, , ; June 1594 – 19 November 1665) was the leading painter of the classical French Baroque style, although he spent most of his working life in Rome. Most of his works were on religious and mythological subjects painted for ...
, in preferring the "classical-idealistic" tradition of the Bolognese school led by the Carracci. Baglione, his first biographer, played a considerable part in creating the legend of Caravaggio's unstable and violent character, as well as his inability to draw.
In the 1920s, art critic Roberto Longhi
Roberto Longhi (28 December 1890 – 3 June 1970) was an Italian academic, art historian, and curator. The main subjects of his studies were the painters Caravaggio and Piero della Francesca.
Early life and career
Longhi was born in December 18 ...
brought Caravaggio's name once more to the foreground and placed him in the European tradition: " Ribera, Vermeer
Johannes Vermeer ( , , see below; also known as Jan Vermeer; October 1632 – 15 December 1675) was a Dutch Baroque Period painter who specialized in domestic interior scenes of middle-class life. During his lifetime, he was a moderately succe ...
, La Tour and Rembrandt could never have existed without him. And the art of Delacroix Delacroix is a French surname that derives from ''de la Croix'' ("of the Cross").
It may refer to:
People
* Caroline Delacroix (1883–1945), French-Romanian mistress of Leopold II of Belgium
* Charles-François Delacroix (1741–1805), ...
, Courbet
Jean Désiré Gustave Courbet ( , , ; 10 June 1819 – 31 December 1877) was a French painter who led the Realism movement in 19th-century French painting. Committed to painting only what he could see, he rejected academic convention and t ...
and Manet
A wireless ad hoc network (WANET) or mobile ad hoc network (MANET) is a decentralized type of wireless network. The network is ad hoc because it does not rely on a pre-existing infrastructure, such as routers in wired networks or access points ...
would have been utterly different". The influential Bernard Berenson
Bernard Berenson (June 26, 1865 – October 6, 1959) was an American art historian specializing in the Renaissance. His book ''The Drawings of the Florentine Painters'' was an international success. His wife Mary is thought to have had a large ...
agreed: "With the exception of Michelangelo, no other Italian painter exercised so great an influence."
Epitaph
Caravaggio's epitaph was composed by his friend Marzio Milesi. It reads:
He was commemorated on the front of the Banca d'Italia 100,000-lire banknote in the 1980s and '90s (before Italy switched to the euro) with the back showing his ''Basket of Fruit''.
Oeuvre
There is disagreement as to the size of Caravaggio's oeuvre, with counts as low as 40 and as high as 80. In his biography, Caravaggio scholar Alfred Moir writes, "The forty-eight color plates in this book include almost all of the surviving works accepted by every Caravaggio expert as autograph, and even the least demanding would add fewer than a dozen more". One, ''The Calling of Saints Peter and Andrew
''The Calling of Saints Peter and Andrew'' is a painting by the Italian Baroque master Caravaggio. It takes its theme from a passage in the Gospel of Matthew describing the moment when Christ called the two brothers Simon – later known as Pete ...
'', was in 2006 authenticated and restored; it had been in storage in Hampton Court
Hampton Court Palace is a Grade I listed royal palace in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames, southwest and upstream of central London on the River Thames. The building of the palace began in 1514 for Cardinal Thomas Wolsey, the chie ...
, mislabeled as a copy. Richard Francis Burton
Sir Richard Francis Burton (; 19 March 1821 – 20 October 1890) was a British explorer, writer, orientalist scholar,and soldier. He was famed for his travels and explorations in Asia, Africa, and the Americas, as well as his extraordinary kn ...
writes of a "picture of St. Rosario (in the museum of the Grand Duke of Tuscany), showing a circle of thirty men ''turpiter ligati''" ("lewdly banded"), which is not known to have survived. The rejected version of ''Saint Matthew and the Angel
''Saint Matthew and the Angel'' (1602) is a painting from the Italian master Caravaggio (1571–1610), completed for the Contarelli Chapel in the church of San Luigi dei Francesi in Rome. It was destroyed in Berlin in 1945 and is now known on ...
'', intended for the Contarelli Chapel
The Contarelli Chapel or Cappella Contarelli is located within the church of San Luigi dei Francesi in Rome. It is famous for housing three paintings on the theme of Saint Matthew the Evangelist by the Baroque master Caravaggio. The paintings wer ...
in San Luigi dei Francesi
The Church of St. Louis of the French ( it, San Luigi dei Francesi, french: Saint Louis des Français, la, S. Ludovici Francorum de Urbe) is a Roman Catholic church in Rome, not far from Piazza Navona. The church is dedicated to the Virgin Mary ...
in Rome
, established_title = Founded
, established_date = 753 BC
, founder = King Romulus (legendary)
, image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg
, map_caption ...
, was destroyed during the bombing of Dresden
The bombing of Dresden was a joint British and American aerial bombing attack on the city of Dresden, the capital of the German state of Saxony, during World War II. In four raids between 13 and 15 February 1945, 772 heavy bombers of the Roya ...
, though black and white photographs of the work exist. In June 2011 it was announced that a previously unknown Caravaggio painting of Saint Augustine
Augustine of Hippo ( , ; la, Aurelius Augustinus Hipponensis; 13 November 354 – 28 August 430), also known as Saint Augustine, was a theologian and philosopher of Berber origin and the bishop of Hippo Regius in Numidia, Roman North Afr ...
dating to about 1600 had been discovered in a private collection in Britain. Called a "significant discovery", the painting had never been published and is thought to have been commissioned by Vincenzo Giustiniani
Marchese Vincenzo Giustiniani (13 September 1564 – 27 December 1637) was an aristocratic Italian banker, art collector and intellectual of the late 16th and early 17th centuries, known today largely for the Giustiniani art collection, assembled ...
, a patron of the painter in Rome.
A painting believed by some experts to be Caravaggio's second version of ''Judith Beheading Holofernes'', tentatively dated between 1600 and 1610, was discovered in an attic in Toulouse
Toulouse ( , ; oc, Tolosa ) is the prefecture of the French department of Haute-Garonne and of the larger region of Occitania. The city is on the banks of the River Garonne, from the Mediterranean Sea, from the Atlantic Ocean and from Pa ...
in 2014. An export ban was placed on the painting by the French government while tests were carried out to establish its provenance. In February 2019 it was announced that the painting would be sold at auction after the Louvre
The Louvre ( ), or the Louvre Museum ( ), is the world's most-visited museum, and an historic landmark in Paris, France. It is the home of some of the best-known works of art, including the ''Mona Lisa'' and the ''Venus de Milo''. A central l ...
had turned down the opportunity to purchase it for €100 million. After an auction was considered, the painting was finally sold by mutual agreement to a private individual. The buyer is said to be J. Tomilson Hill for $110 million. After restoration the painting could be exhibited in a museum, possibly the Met.
In April 2021 a minor work believed to be from the circle of a Spanish follower of Caravaggio, Jusepe de Ribera
Jusepe de Ribera (1591 – 1652) was a painter and printmaker, who along with Francisco de Zurbarán, Bartolomé Esteban Murillo, and the singular Diego Velázquez, are regarded as the major artists of Spanish Baroque painting. Referring ...
, was withdrawn from sale at the Madrid auction house Ansorena when the Museo del Prado alerted the Ministry of Culture Ministry of Culture may refer to:
*Ministry of Tourism, Cultural Affairs, Youth and Sports (Albania)
* Ministry of Culture (Algeria)
*Ministry of Culture (Argentina)
*Minister for the Arts (Australia)
*Ministry of Culture (Azerbaijan)
* Ministry of ...
, which placed a preemptive export ban on the painting. The by painting has been in the Pérez de Castro family since 1823, when it was exchanged for another work from the Real Academia of San Fernando. It had been listed as “Ecce-Hommo con dos saiones de Carabaggio” before the attribution was later lost or changed to the circle of Ribera. Stylistic evidence, as well as the similarity of the models to those in other Caravaggio works, has convinced some experts that the painting is the original Caravaggio 'Ecce Homo' for the 1605 Massimo Massimi commission. The attribution to Caravaggio is disputed by other experts. The painting is now undergoing restoration by Colnaghi
Colnaghi is an art dealership in St James's, central London, England, which is the oldest commercial art gallery in the world, having been established in 1760.
Foundation
The business that became the Colnaghi gallery was established by Itali ...
s, who will also be handling the future sale of the work.
Art theft
In October 1969, two thieves entered the Oratory of Saint Lawrence in Palermo, Sicily
(man) it, Siciliana (woman)
, population_note =
, population_blank1_title =
, population_blank1 =
, demographics_type1 = Ethnicity
, demographics1_footnotes =
, demographi ...
, and stole Caravaggio's ''Nativity with St. Francis and St. Lawrence
''Nativity with St. Francis and St. Lawrence'' is a painting of the nativity of Jesus from 1609 by Italian painter Caravaggio. It has been missing since 1969 when it was stolen from the Oratory of Saint Lawrence in Palermo. Investigators believe ...
'' from its frame. Experts estimated its value at $20 million.
Following the theft, Italian police
Italian(s) may refer to:
* Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries
** Italians, an ethnic group or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom
** Italian language, a Romance language
*** Regional Ita ...
set up an art theft task force with the specific aim of re-acquiring lost and stolen artworks. Since the creation of this task force, many leads have been followed regarding the ''Nativity''. Former Italian mafia
Organized crime in Italy and its criminal organizations have been prevalent in Italy, especially Southern Italy, for centuries and have affected the social and economic life of many Italian regions since at least the 19th century.
There are six ...
members have stated that ''Nativity with St. Francis and St. Lawrence'' was stolen by the Sicilian Mafia and displayed at important mafia gatherings. Former mafia members have said that the ''Nativity'' was damaged and has since been destroyed.
The whereabouts of the artwork are still unknown. A reproduction currently hangs in its place in the Oratory of San Lorenzo.
Legacy
Caravaggio's work has been widely influential in late-20th-century American gay culture, with frequent references to male sexual imagery in paintings such as '' The Musicians'' and '' Amor Victorious''.["Caravaggio." In ] British filmmaker Derek Jarman
Michael Derek Elworthy Jarman (31 January 1942 – 19 February 1994) was an English artist, film maker, costume designer, stage designer, writer, gardener and gay rights activist.
Biography
Jarman was born at the Royal Victoria Nursing Home ...
made a critically applauded biopic entitled '' Caravaggio'' in 1986. Several poems written by Thom Gunn
Thomson William "Thom" Gunn (29 August 1929 – 25 April 2004) was an English poet who was praised for his early verses in England, where he was associated with The Movement, and his later poetry in America, even after moving towards a looser, ...
were responses to specific Caravaggio paintings.
In 2013, a touring Caravaggio exhibition called "Burst of Light: Caravaggio and His Legacy" opened in the Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art in Hartford, Connecticut. The show included five paintings by the master artist that included ''Saint John the Baptist in the Wilderness'' (1604–1605) and ''Martha and Mary Magdalene'' (1589). The whole travelled to France and also to Los Angeles, California. Other Baroque artists like Georges de La Tour
Georges de La Tour (13 March 1593 – 30 January 1652) was a French Baroque painter, who spent most of his working life in the Duchy of Lorraine, which was temporarily absorbed into France between 1641 and 1648. He painted mostly religious chia ...
, Orazio Gentileschi
Orazio Lomi Gentileschi (1563–1639) was an Italian painter. Born in Tuscany, he began his career in Rome, painting in a Mannerist style, much of his work consisting of painting the figures within the decorative schemes of other artists. After ...
, and the Spanish trio of Diego Velazquez, Francisco de Zurbaran, and Carlo Saraceni were also included in the exhibitions.
See also
* Caravaggisti
The Caravaggisti (or the "Caravagesques") were stylistic followers of the late 16th-century Italian Baroque painter Caravaggio. His influence on the new Baroque style that eventually emerged from Mannerism was profound. Caravaggio never establi ...
* List of paintings by Caravaggio
The following is a list of paintings by the Italian artist Caravaggio, listed chronologically.Spike, John T. ''Caravaggio''. New York : Abbeville Press, 2001: p. 253–54
List of paintings
Footnotes
Further reading
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
...
References
Citations
Primary sources
The main primary sources for Caravaggio's life are:
* Giulio Mancini's comments on Caravaggio in ''Considerazioni sulla pittura'', c. 1617–1621
* Giovanni Baglione's ''Le vite de' pittori'', 1642
* Giovanni Pietro Bellori's ''Le Vite de' pittori, scultori et architetti moderni'', 1672
All have been reprinted in Howard Hibbard's ''Caravaggio'' and in the appendices to Catherine Puglisi's ''Caravaggio''.
Secondary sources
*
* Erin Benay (2017) ''Exporting Caravaggio: the Crucifixion of St. Andrew'' Giles Press Ltd.
* Ralf van Bühren
Ralf van Bühren (born 3 February 1962) is a German art historian, architectural historian, church historian, and theologian, who teaches at the Pontifical University of Santa Croce in Rome. His art history lectures are open to students of US un ...
,
Caravaggio's 'Seven Works of Mercy' in Naples. The relevance of art history to cultural journalism
', in ''Church, Communication and Culture'' 2 (2017), pp. 63–87
* Claudio Strinati,
Caravaggio Vero
', Scripta Maneant, 2014, .
* Maurizio Calvesi, ''Caravaggio'', Art Dossier 1986, Giunti Editori (1986) (ISBN not available)
*
* John Denison Champlin and Charles Callahan Perkins, Ed., ''Cyclopedia of Painters and Paintings'', Charles Scribner's Sons, New York (1885), p. 241 (available at the Harvard's Fogg Museum Library and scanned on Google Books)
*
* Andrea Dusio, ''Caravaggio White Album'', Cooper Arte, Roma 2009,
* Michael Fried, ''The Moment of Caravaggio'', Yale University Press, 2010, ISB: 9780691147017
Review
* Walter Friedlaender, Caravaggio Studies, Princeton: Princeton University Press 1955
* John Gash, ''Caravaggio'', Chaucer Press, (2004) )
* Rosa Giorgi, ''Caravaggio: Master of light and dark – his life in paintings'', Dorling Kindersley (1999)
* Andrew Graham-Dixon
Andrew Michael Graham-Dixon (born 26 December 1960) is a British art historian and broadcaster.
Life and career
Early life and education
Andrew Graham-Dixon is a son of the barrister Anthony Philip Graham-Dixon (1929–2012), Q.C., and ...
, ''Caravaggio: A Life Sacred and Profane'', London, Allen Lane, 2009.
* Jonathan Harr (2005). ''The Lost Painting: The Quest for a Caravaggio Masterpiece''. New York: Random House. The Taking of Christ"* Howard Hibbard, ''Caravaggio'' (1983)
* Harris, Ann Sutherland. ''Seventeenth-century Art & Architecture'', Laurence King Publishing (2004), .
* Michael Kitson
Michael William Lely Kitson (30 January 1926 – 7 August 1998) was a British art historian who became an international authority on the work of the painter Claude Lorrain.
His teaching career took in the Slade School of Fine Art and Courtauld ...
, ''The Complete Paintings of Caravaggio'' London, Abrams, 1967. New edition: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1969 and 1986,
* Pietro Koch, ''Caravaggio – The Painter of Blood and Darkness'', Gunther Edition, (Rome – 2004)
* Gilles Lambert, ''Caravaggio'', Taschen, (2000)
* Helen Langdon, ''Caravaggio: A Life'', Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1999 (original UK edition 1998)
* Denis Mahon
Sir John Denis Mahon, (8 November 1910 – 24 April 2011) was a British collector and historian of Italian art. Considered to be one of the few art collectors who was also a respected scholar, he is generally credited, alongside Sacheverel ...
(1947). ''Studies in Seicento Art''. London: Warburg Institute.
* Alfred Moir, ''The Italian Followers of Caravaggio'', Harvard University Press (1967)
* Ostrow, Steven F., review of ''Giovanni Baglione: Artistic Reputation in Baroque Rome'' by Maryvelma Smith O'Neil, ''The Art Bulletin
The College Art Association of America (CAA) is the principal organization in the United States for professionals in the visual arts, from students to art historians to emeritus faculty. Founded in 1911, it "promotes these arts and their understa ...
'', Vol. 85, No. 3 (Sep. 2003), pp. 608–611
online text
* Catherine Puglisi, ''Caravaggio'', Phaidon (1998)
* Peter Robb, '' M'', Duffy & Snellgrove, 2003 amended edition (original edition 1998)
*
* John Spike
John Thomas Spike (born November 8, 1951, in New York City) is an American art historian, curator, and author, specializing in the Italian Renaissance and Baroque periods. He is also a contemporary art critic and past director of the Florence Bien ...
, with assistance from Michèle Kahn Spike
Michèle Kahn Spike is an American lawyer, historian, and lecturer. She graduated from Boston University School of Law in 1976 and became a member of the Bar of the State of New York in 1977, concentrating in international corporate law. From the l ...
, ''Caravaggio'' with Catalogue of Paintings on CD-ROM, Abbeville Press, New York (2001)
* John L. Varriano, ''Caravaggio: The Art of Realism'', Pennsylvania State University Press (University Park, PA – 2006)
* Rudolf Wittkower
Rudolf Wittkower (22 June 1901 – 11 October 1971) was a British art historian specializing in Italian Renaissance and Baroque art and architecture, who spent much of his career in London, but was educated in Germany, and later moved to the Unite ...
, ''Art and Architecture in Italy, 1600–1750'', Penguin/Yale History of Art, 3rd edition, 1973,
* Alberto Macchi, "L'uomo Caravaggio" – Atto unico (pref. Stefania Macioce), AETAS, Roma 1995,
*
*
External links
Biography
Caravaggio, The Prince of the Night
Articles and essays
* Christiansen, Keith
In ''Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History''. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2000–. (October 2003)
''The Passion of Caravaggio''
''Deconstructing Caravaggio and Velázquez''
Rembrandt with Caravaggio.
Roberta Lapucci's website and most of her publications on Caravaggio as freely downloadable PDF
Art works
caravaggio-foundation.org
175 works by Caravaggio
caravaggio.org
Analysis of 100 important Caravaggio works
Caravaggio, Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio WebMuseum, Paris webpage
Caravaggio's EyeGate Gallery
Music
Lachrimae Caravaggio, by Jordi Savall, performed by Le Concert des Nations & Hesperion XXI (Article at Answers.com)
Video
at Smarthistory
Smarthistory is a free resource for the study of art history created by art historians Beth Harris and Steven Zucker. Smarthistory is an independent not-for-profit organization and the official partner to Khan Academy for art history.
Smarthisto ...
, accessed 13 February 2013
''Caravaggio's Crucifixion of Saint Peter''
accessed 13 February 2013
accessed 13 February 2013
accessed 13 February 2013
accessed 13 February 2013
accessed 13 February 2013
{{DEFAULTSORT:Caravaggio
1571 births
1610 deaths
Italian Baroque painters
16th-century Italian painters
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