Caravaggio 1571 - 1610 |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
Caravaggio – (Michelangelo Merisi) 1571- 1610
1571 - Born in Milan.
His father, Fermo Merisi, was a household administrator and architect-decorator
to the Marchese of Caravaggio. His mother, Lucia Aratori, came from a propertied family of the
same district.
1576 - Family moves to
Caravaggio to escape the plague in
1584 - Apprenticed for four
years to the
1592 – Flees to
1594 – Leaves Cesari’s studio. The painter Onorio Orsi
introduces him to important collectors. Another friend the architect Onorio
Longhi introduces him to the underworld of Roman taverns.
The 16-year old Sicilian artist Mario Minitti will serve as his
model (in The Fortune Teller) and later help him get important commissions
in
The Musicians, The Lute Player, a tipsy Bacchus, Boy Bitten by a Lizard
are some of the genre paintings Caravaggio will paint for the Cardinal and his
circle of connoisseurs.
1599 - Through the influence of Del Monte, Caravaggio is
commissioned to decorate the Contarelli Chapel in the church of San Luigi dei Francesi
for which he paints the Martyrdom of Saint Matthew and the Calling of Saint Matthew,
delivered in 1600. these paintings provoked an immediate sensation.
Caravaggio's tenebrism (emphatic chiaroscuro) brought high drama to his subjects, while his acutely observed
realism brought a new level of emotional intensity. Opinion among Caravaggio's
artist peers was polarized. Some denounced him for his insistence on painting
from life, without drawings and careful preparation, but for the most part he
was hailed as a great artistic visionary: "The painters then in Rome were
greatly taken by this novelty, and the young ones particularly gathered around
him, praised him as the unique imitator of nature, and looked on his work as a
miracles." Caravaggio went on to secure a string of prestigious
commissions for increasingly powerful and naturalistic religious altarpieces.
1601 - The Death of the Virgin
is commissioned by a wealthy jurist for his private chapel in the new Carmelite
church of Santa Maria della Scala. It was, however, rejected by the Carmelites
in 1606 because, according to Giulio Mancini, Caravaggio had used a well-known prostitute as his model for the
Virgin or possibly because of the Virgin’s bare legs.
The painting was immediately after its rejection purchased by the
Duke of Mantua, on the advice of Rubens.
1602 – Amor Vincitor was painted for Vincenzo Giustiniani, a member of Del
Monte's circle. The model was named in a memoir of the early 17th century as
"Cecco", the diminutive for Francesco. He is possibly Francesco
Boneri, identified with an artist active in the period 1610-1625 and known as Cecco del Caravaggio ('Caravaggio's
Cecco').
1606 - Caravaggio led a tumultuous life. He was notorious for brawling
and the transcripts of his police records and trial proceedings fill several
pages. On 29 May, he killed, possibly unintentionally, a young man named
Ranuccio Tomassoni. Previously his high-placed patrons had protected him from
the consequences of his escapades, but this time they could do nothing.
Caravaggio, outlawed, fled to Naples. There he was protected
by the Colonna family, quickly becoming the most famous painter in the city. He
received a host of important church commissions, including the Madonna of the Rosary,
and The Seven Works of Mercy.
Despite his success, after only a few months he leaves for Malta,
the base of the Knights of Malta, presumably hoping that the patronage of Alof de Wignacourt, Grand Master of the
Knights, could help him secure a pardon for Tomassoni's death. De Wignacourt
was so impressed at having the famous artist as official painter to the Order
that he inducted him as a knight, and the early biographer Bellori
records that the artist was well pleased with his success. Major works from his
Malta period include a huge Beheading of Saint
John the Baptist (the only painting to
which he put his signature) and a Portrait of Alof de
Wignacourt and his Page, as well as portraits
of other leading knights.
1608 - Arrested and imprisoned
in
1609 - After nine months in Sicily Caravaggio returns to
1610 – Leaves in the summer by boat for
|
< Prev | Next > |
---|