(1571 –1610)
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Michelangelo
Merisi, called later Caravaggio, was born in either Milan, or a town of
Caravaggio near Milan, as the son of a ducal architect. His early training
started in 1584 under Simone Peterzano, a little known pupil of Titian,
and continued till 1588.
In 1592, Caravaggio went to Rome. His contact with Giuseppe Cesare d’Arpino
(1568-1640), the most popular painter and art dealer in Rome at the turn
of the century, brought him recognition. Through the art business
Caravaggio met his first patron Cardinal Francesco Maria Del Monte, who
not only held out the possibility of working independently, but also secured
for him his first public commission: side paintings in the Contarelli
Chapel, San Luigi dei Francesi. For Cardinal’s Casino dell’Aurora
he painted Jupiter, Neptune and Pluto
(c.1599-1600).
From then on he was flooded by public commissions. Yet because of his violent
temper he was constantly in trouble with the law. Since 1600, he is regularly
mentioned in police records, is constantly under accusations of assault,
libel and other crimes. In 1606, he became involved in murder and had to
flee, finding refuge on the estates of Prince Marzio Colonna, where he
painted Madonna of the Rosary
(c.1606-1607).
On his wanderings he paused in Naples, painting exclusively religious themes:
Seven
Works of Mercy (1606-1607),
The
Flagellation of Christ (1607). Not only these, but almost all
of Caravaggio’s religious subjects emphasize sadness, suffering, and death.
In Malta he was housed by the Knights of St. John and painted several portraits
of the Grand Master, Alof de Wignacourt.
The artistically fertile Maltese period brought him the title of a Knight
of St. John of Malta in 1608, but was shortly interrupted by imprisonment
for a passionate quarrel with a noble and a renewed flight.
Going through Syracuse and Messina, where some major late works came into
being, The Raising of Lazarus
(c.1608-1609) Caravaggio went on to Palermo and from there again to Naples.
Here the news of the Pope’s pardon reached him but, on arriving at Porto
Escole by ship, he was again arrested, though later released. By then the
ship had sailed, carrying away all his possessions. Struck down by a fever,
he died without setting foot in Rome again.
Few
artists in history have exercised as extraordinary an influence as this
tempestuous and short-lived painter. Caravaggio was destined to turn a
large part of European art away from the ideal viewpoint of the Renaissance
to the concept that simple reality was of primary importance. He was one
of the first to paint people as ordinary looking.
Bibliography:
Michelangelo da Caravaggio. by S Vsevolzhskaya. Moscow. 1960.
(in Russian)
Caravaggio. by R. Longhi. Dresden. 1968.
Painting of Western Europe. XVII century. by E. Rotenberg. Moscow.
Iskusstvo. 1989. (in Russian)
Painting of Europe. XIII-XX centuries. Encyclopedic Dictionary.
Moscow. Iskusstvo. 1999. (in Russian)
Caravaggio
: Quadrifolio (Rizzoli Quadrifolio) by Stefano Zuffi, Michelangelo
Merisi Da Caravaggio. Rizzoli, 2001.
M
: The Man Who Became Caravaggio by Peter Robb. Henry Holt &
Company, Inc., 2000.
Caravaggio
(Masters of Art) by Alfred Moir. Harry N Abrams, 1989.
Caravaggio:
A Play in Two Acts by Michael Whitney Straight. Devon Press,
1979.
Caravaggio
by Catherine Puglisi, Michelangelo Merisi Da Caravaggio. Phaidon Press,
1998.
Caravaggio
by John T. Spike, Michelangelo Merisi Da Caravaggio, Michele K. Spike.
Abbeville Press, 2001.
Caravaggio
(Icon Editions) by Howard Hibbard. Westview Press, 1985.
Caravaggio:
A Novel by Christopher Peachment. Thomas Dunne Books, 2003.
Caravaggio
and His Two Cardinals by Creighton E. Gilbert, Michelangelo
Merisi Da Caravaggio. Pennsylvania State University Press, 1995.