Overview

Caravaggio Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio 28 September 1571 – 18 July 1610) was an Italian painter active in Rome, Naples, Malta, and Sicily from the early 1590s to 1610. His paintings combine a realistic observation of the human state, both physical and emotional, with a dramatic use of lighting, and they had a formative influence on Baroque painting.
Caravaggio vividly expressed crucial moments and scenes, often featuring violent struggles, torture and death. He worked rapidly, with live models, preferring to forego drawings and work directly onto the canvas. His influence on the new Baroque style that emerged from Mannerism was profound. It can be seen directly or indirectly in the work of Peter Paul Rubens, Jusepe de Ribera, Gian Lorenzo Bernini, and Rembrandt, and artists in the following generation heavily under his influence were called the "Caravaggisti" or "Caravagesques", as well as tenebrists or tenebrosi ("shadowists").

Career

• During 1590s, he made many paintings which had themes pertaining to daily life and were not in tune with the spiritual themes prevalent during that time. His paintings during that period include ‘The Fortune Teller’, ‘The Cardsharps’, ‘Boy with a Fruit Basket’, ‘The Young Bacchus’, and ‘The Music Party’.
  
• In and around 1595, he created his own paintings and sold them to a trader named Maestro Valentino, and this trader made his paintings come to the notice of Cardinal Francesco del Monte.
  
• In 1596, he put on canvas the ‘Basket of Fruit’ painting which is distinct and lifelike. With his works ‘Realism’ style of painting took a lead over the ‘Mannerism’ form of painting.
  
• One of his early realistic paintings which defied spiritual themes was ‘Penitent Magdalene’. This was followed by many paintings, based on the same line, like ‘Martha and Mary Magdalene’, ‘Saint Catherine’, ‘The Taking of Christ’, ‘Saint Francis of Assisi in Ecstasy’, ‘Sacrifice of Isaac’ and ‘Rest on the Flight into Egypt’.
  
• In 1597, he got the opportunity to decorate the ‘Contarelli Chapel’, which was a turning point in his life and for the Italian style of painting. He made lifelike images of St. Matthew’s life cycle which vividly manifested the realism in his art form.
  
• Some of his notable paintings from 1601 to 1602 are ‘Crucifixion of St. Peter’, ‘Conversion of Saint Paul on the Road to Damascus’, ‘Conversion on the Way to Damascus’, ‘Supper at Emmaus’, ‘Amor Vincit Omnia’, ‘Saint Matthew and the Angel’, ‘The Inspiration of Saint Matthew’, ‘John the Baptist’, ‘The Incredulity of Saint Thomas’ and ‘The Taking of Christ’.
  
• This talented artist’s paintings from 1608 till his death comprise of ‘Portrait of Alof de Wignacourt and his Page’, ‘Portrait of Fra Antonio Martelli’, ‘The Beheading of Saint John the Baptist’, ‘Sleeping Cupid’, ‘Annunciation’, ‘Burial of Saint Lucy’, Raising of Lazarus’, ‘Adoration of the Shepherds’, ‘Salome with the Head of John the Baptist’, ‘The Denial of Saint Peter’, ‘Saint Francis in Prayer’, and ‘The Martyrdom of Saint Ursula’.

Legacy

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 and Simon Vouet, 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.

On View

• The Louvre, Paris
• Museo Nacional Del Prado, Madrid
• Detroit Institute of Arts, Detroit
• Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland
• Capitoline Museums, Rome
• Germaldegalerie, Berlin
• National Gallery, London

ArtWorks

Bacchus

The painting is interesting for a number of reasons: Many have speculated that Caravaggio used a mirror to paint, modelling himself posing as Bacchus (note that the wine is held in the figure’s left hand). What’s more, upon restoration of the work, a tiny reflection of Caravaggio, paintbrush in hand, was also discovered on the wine carafe!

Basket of Fruit

Caravaggio helped make the still-life a popular artistic genre. The late 16th-century painting ‘Basket of Fruit’ is an example of the sheer effort and design that went into all his works. The basket sits at eye level and juts out over the edge of the table, threatening to fall right into the viewer’s lap.

David with the Head of Goliath

Another extremely dramatic and theatrical work, David is depicted not celebrating his victory over the giant, but rather lost in thought, perhaps pondering his curious biblical connection and bond with his adversary. Another thought-provoking aspect is the fact that Caravaggio painted himself as Goliath.

Head of Medusa

The work is truly unique – it is painted on a ceremonial shield that was presented to Ferdinand I de’ Medici, who was the Duke of Tuscany at the time. The concave surface of the shield must have presented Caravaggio with a perspective challenge – one that he successfully navigated by the looks of things!

The Taking of Christ

This painting, completed around 1602 and depicting the arrest of Jesus Christ, is today located in the National Gallery of Ireland in Dublin. Aside from Caravaggio’s mastery of the lighting, color and shade, the story of the painting’s disappearance and recent discovery are notable.

The Beheading of St John the Baptist

Hailed as “one of the most important works in Western painting” by author Andrea Pomella, this masterpiece was the largest altarpiece ever painted by Caravaggio. The canvas is so large that the figures are approximately life-sized, hanging dominantly in St. John’s Co-Cathedral in Malta, the church for which it was originally commissioned.

The Calling of Saint Matthew

This masterpiece by Caravaggio shows the very moment in which Jesus inspired Matthew to follow him. Standing alongside Saint Peter, Jesus points at Matthew, who is sitting at a table with four other men. It is evident that Caravaggio was inspired by the real world in most of his art and this work is no exception, as he anchors the biblical scene in a modern reality.

The Doubting Thomas

One of the apostles, Thomas doubted the resurrection of Christ, saying he would not believe it until he could place his finger where the nails had pierced his crucified body. Caravaggio provides us with an incredibly detailed, visceral and gory picture of the scene – it’s even possible to see Thomas’ dirty fingernails as he confirms sensation of the wound.

The Forturne Teller

Unlike most Italian art of the time, ‘The Fortune Teller’ does not portray a story from the Bible or Greco-Roman mythology. It is simply a scene from everyday life, which was popular in the paintings of northern Europe, not Italy. Caravaggio’s work shows a wealthy young man who naively trusts a gypsy girl to read his palm. He stares into her eyes as she gently slips a ring off his finger!