An Introduction to Caravaggio in 5 Paintings The stories behind some of the Italian Baroque master's most famous works. Medusa - by Caravaggio Merisi Uffizi Gallery. See how it looks on the shield itself in Museum View:. The Cardsharps c. The story featured may in some cases have been created by an independent third party and may not always represent the views of the institutions, listed below, who have supplied the content.
Translate with Google. Before the expulsion Caravaggio had escaped to Sicily and the company of 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 on to the island capital, Palermo.
In each city Caravaggio continued to win prestigious and well-paid commissions. Among other works from this period are a Burial of St. His style continued to evolve, showing now friezes of figures isolated against vast empty backgrounds. After only nine months in Sicily Caravaggio returned to Naples. 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.
His style continued to evolve - Saint Ursula is caught in a moment of highest action and drama, as the arrow fired by the king of the Huns strikes her in the breast, unlike earlier paintings which had all the immobility of the posed models. The brushwork was much freer and more impressionistic. Had Caravaggio lived, something new would have come. The Denial of Saint Peter, c. Oil on canvas, 94 x cm. Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.
In the chiaroscuro a woman points two fingers at Peter while a soldier points a third. Caravaggio tells the story of Peter denying Christ three times with this symbolism. In Naples an attempt was made on his life, by persons unknown. At first it was reported in Rome that the "famous artist" Caravaggio was dead, but then it was learned that he was alive, but seriously disfigured in the face.
He painted a Salome with the Head of John the Baptist Madrid , showing his own head on a platter, and sent it to de Wignacourt as a plea for forgiveness. Perhaps at this time he painted also a David with the Head of Goliath, showing the young David with a strangely sorrowful expression gazing on the wounded head of the giant, which is again Caravaggio's. This painting he may have sent to the unscrupulous art-loving cardinal-nephew Scipione Borghese, who had the power to grant or withhold pardons.
In the summer of he took a boat northwards to receive the pardon, which seemed imminent thanks to his powerful Roman friends. With him were three last paintings, gifts for Cardinal Scipione.
What happened next is the subject of much confusion and conjecture. The bare facts are that on 28 July an anonymous avviso 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. These were the earliest, brief accounts of his death, which later underwent much elaboration. No body was found. 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, near Grosseto in Tuscany.
From wikipedia. Report error on this page. The Conversion of St Paul. Order a Hand-Painted Reproduction of this Painting. Biography of Caravaggio. Early life Caravaggio was born in Milan, where his father, Fermo Merisi, was a household administrator and architect-decorator to the Marchese of Caravaggio. Rome Caravaggio fled Milan for Rome in mid after "certain quarrels" and the wounding of a police officer. Exile and death Caravaggio led a tumultuous life.
Newsletter For exclusive news and discounts Submit Email. With these commissions, the artist embarked on the radical reinterpretation of divine figures which would become a hallmark of his career.
Caravaggio humanized divine individuals by rendering them as lower-class folk. In this manner, Caravaggio critiqued and subverted the pristine, idealized figures of the Italian Renaissance and Roman classical traditions. Examples of this approach can be seen in Death of a Virgin and Judith Beheading Holofernes The latter painting had a profound effect on other artists, particularly Artemisia Gentileschi who created a number of images of the same subject matter.
Caravaggio's religious paintings received very mixed reviews with the realism of the works and the juxtaposition of holy individuals with modern, 17 th -century interiors inflaming some critics. Indeed, many of Caravaggio's works were rejected by commissioning institutions on the grounds of blasphemous or indecent portrayals.
Caravaggio's time in Rome came to an end in a dramatic fashion. Court records indicate that Caravaggio was involved in myriad scrapes and mishaps of an increasingly violent nature, and was often protected from prosecution by witnesses reticent to confirm the artist's involvement for fear of reprisal from the artist's influential and prominent patrons. In one of the more colorful episodes, in April 24, , Caravaggio started a brawl with a waiter regarding his order of eight cooked artichokes, in which the artist smashed the man's face with a plate.
Caravaggio's temper, trouble with the law, and violent acts reached their climax on May 28, , when Caravaggio murdered his former friend Ranuccio Tomassoni, possibly in the context of a duel. Caravaggio fled Rome before formal charges for the murder were leveled against him; he was sentenced to indefinite exile from the city, condemned as a murderer, and subject to a capital sentence which allowed anyone in the papal states to receive a monetary reward for killing him.
The artist then spent nine months in the Spanish-controlled city of Naples, arriving there by September In this period Caravaggio began to experiment more with color and contrast taking his lead from Venetian painters such as Titian. In Caravaggio moved to Malta and it is probable that he was guaranteed safe passage by General Fabrizio Sforza Colonna, son of his protector Costanza Colonna. During his time in Malta Caravaggio achieved great success and prominence and on July 14, , he was invested into the Order of the Knights of Malta.
His works from this period are distinctive - he began to paint with increasingly rapid brushstrokes and utilized reddish-brown hues more prominently. A month after receiving his title Caravaggio was involved in a violent, armed fight at the house of the organist of the Conventual Church of St.
This upheaval resulted in Caravaggio's criminal detention, his escape from prison, and his flight to Syracuse in the fall of The Knights of Malta subsequently revoked the artist's honors in absentia on December 1, Caravaggio moved from Syracuse to Messina to Palermo and then back to Naples in In Naples armed men slashed the artist's face for reasons unknown, leaving Caravaggio with near-fatal wounds. After this event, he remained convalescing at Constanza Colonna's palace until July Caravaggio then attempted to return to Rome after learning that one of his prominent patrons had secured a papal pardon for him.
When he arrived in Palo, however, he was mistakenly arrested and put in prison for two days. Soon after his release, on July 18, , Caravaggio died of a fever, possibly malaria, at the age of Caravaggio has been alternately identified as an exemplar of late Mannerist style, or as a harbinger of the Baroque era.
0コメント