"He was continually
skirmishing with the authorities and found himself in prison on several occasions." |
Michelangelo Merisi,
called Caravaggio, was born in the town of Caravaggio near Bergamo, Italy. He was
apprenticed to Simone Peterzano in Milan for four years beginning in 1584. He returned to
Caravaggio in 1589. In 1592 Caravaggio moved to Rome with his brother Giovanni Battista,
who was a priest. He worked with his friend Mario Minniti for a Sicilian painter named
Lorenzo until 1594. His unstable nature left him often in conflicts with the law.
He had a violent temperament and had no respect for authority. He was
involved in brawls and duels. He was continually skirmishing with the authorities and
found himself in prison on several occasions. His powerful art expressed his violent
nature. He worked directly on the canvas without the use of any preliminary drawings.
Caravaggio used strong, bright colours, a significant departure from the soft Mannerist
hues of the day.
In 1598 Caravaggio began to paint altarpieces. The most important
commissions he received during his stay in Rome were altarpieces, scenes from the life of
Saint Matthew. In these works, Caravaggio created a deeply religious yet extremely
powerful style. They make a startlingly dramatic appeal to the spectator, and grant a
sense of compassion for the sufferings and complexities of humanity. Both these qualities
are new in this period of painting. The Contarelli Chapel paintings, all oil on canvas,
consist of the altarpiece, St Matthew and the Angel, and the two
side paintings, The Calling of Matthew and The
Martyrdom of St Matthew. These works mark a revolution in seventeenth
century art and the powerful ripples of this revolution found homes throughout the known
world. Every master of the day borrowed his power and sense of reality, from Rembrandt in
Holland to Ribera in Spain.
In 1606 Caravaggio killed Ranunccio Tomassoni in a duel over a tennis match
and had to flee Rome. By 1607 he was in Naples; where he remained until he again had to
flee. Caravaggio was in Malta in 1607-8 where he again found himself in Jail. He escaped
and fled to Syracuse, then back to Naples where he was severely wounded in a brawl in
1609. On July 18, he died in Porto Ercole while on his way to Rome. It is believed that he
was poisoned through the agent one of his numerous enemies.
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