Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio was born on Sept. 29, 1571. His father was a architect/decorator for a nobleman. His father and grandfather died on the same day when he was 6. His mother raised her five children in poverty. At age 13, he was apprenticed to a painter in Milan for four years. He was forced to leave the city after numerous fights (of the gang variety) and wounding a policeman. He arrived in Rome with just the clothes on his back. He quickly became popular, but controversial. Some of his critics called him “the anti-Christ of painting”. His painting style differed from the religious paintings of the Renaissance. He developed the use of chiaroscuro which is the use of strong contrasts of lights and dark. This can be seen in his paintings “The Calling of St. Matthew” and “The Conversion of St. Paul”. He was not a traditional artist because he used live models and did not do sketches, he went straight onto the canvas. He often painted violent scenes with torture and death. He showed flaws in his figures. His paintings may have reflected his personality. He was mentally unstable and violent. He often fought in brawls and was arrested numerous times, but his patrons took care of him. He was the leading painter in Rome from 1600-1606. He did some daring paintings. One was “The Death of the Virgin” which showed her dead, her legs showing, and it was rumored he used a prostitute for Mary. He was becoming more and more unstable. Once he threw a plate of artichokes in a waiter’s face. But his biggest problem was when he killed a gang leader in a duel over a prostitute they “shared”. He either castrated him and then finished him off or he castrated him which led to his death. Either way, the victim’s wealthy family wanted Caravaggio dead and the law sentenced him in absentia to death by beheading. A bounty was put on his head. Caravaggio fled the city. He continued to work in other cities and several of his masterworks showed beheadings, like John the Baptist and Goliath. He continued his brawling and in 1609, he suffered a disfiguring of his face. He died on July 18, 1610, officially of a fever. However, many thought he was murdered, possibly by the gangster’s family. Or could it have been lead-poisoning from the paints he used. This might also explain his aberrant behavior. He fell out of favor among art critics in the next few centuries, but had a revival in the 20th Century and is now considered one the greatest painters of all time and certainly the greatest brawler.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caravaggio
https://www.artble.com/artists/caravaggio
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