Caravaggio Italian painter Date of Birth: 28.09.1573 Country: Italy

Biography of Caravaggio

Caravaggio, an Italian painter, was born on September 28, 1573, in a small town in Northern Italy. At the age of eleven, he started working as an apprentice for one of the Milanese painters. In 1590, he moved to Rome, which had become an artistic center for Italy and all of Europe by the late 16th century. It was in Rome that Caravaggio achieved his greatest successes and fame.

Breaking away from the traditional aesthetic values of his contemporaries, Caravaggio developed his own deeply individual style. This was partly a reaction to the clichés of late Mannerism. Biographers of Caravaggio write that he held great contempt for the great masters of the past and even ancient art. There is a story that he brought a gypsy from the streets, painted her as a fortune teller predicting the fate of a young man, and declared that nature was the only teacher he needed. While his independence from previous artistic traditions was somewhat exaggerated by his detractors, the novelty and originality of his art truly made Caravaggio a revolutionary figure in the cultural life of Rome at that time.

Caravaggio's realism went beyond mere imitation of nature. His paintings combined a deep understanding of human psychology with the accurate portrayal of light and form, allowing him to transform reality into a drama unfolding on canvas. These characteristics are best seen in his religious paintings from his Roman period, such as "The Conversion of Saul" (1601) for the Santa Maria del Popolo church and "The Death of the Virgin" (1605-1606, Louvre). In the former, the future apostle Paul, then still persecuting Christians as Saul, is depicted at the moment when he hears the voice of God and falls off his horse, struck with amazement. It seems as if his raised hands and his head, lying on the ground, extend beyond the frame of the painting into the viewer's space, making the viewer an immediate participant in the event. The supernatural nature of the event is emphasized by the intense artificial light. In "The Death of the Virgin," a religious subject is presented in a very human and simple way. The weakened and emaciated body of the Virgin rests on a bed, surrounded by grieving apostles and Mary Magdalene. The dimly lit room is filled with an atmosphere of quiet and all-consuming sorrow. Here, bright streams of light invade the darkness, illuminating details and intensifying the drama. These kinds of paintings were criticized by Caravaggio's contemporaries. During the Counter-Reformation, strict rules were established for religious art that every master had to follow. Caravaggio was accused of profaning the memory of saints and sacred events by speaking about them in ordinary "human" language. However, his art can be seen as an embodiment of the fundamental spiritual values of the Counter-Reformation, as it made religious ideas more comprehensible and significant for the believer. The religious sentiment that pervades Caravaggio's works is akin to the lives of the saints Philip Neri and Ignatius Loyola.

The personality and events of Caravaggio's biography are as fascinating as his paintings. It is evident that he arrived in Rome without means of support and in the early period of his career painted still lifes and genre compositions, such as the aforementioned "Fortune Teller" (c. 1595, Rome, Capitoline Museums) and "The Cardsharps" (c. 1596, formerly in the Sciarra Collection). Two paintings executed for the Roman church of San Luigi dei Francesi between 1597 and 1599, "The Calling of Saint Matthew" and "The Martyrdom of Saint Matthew," mark a turning point in Caravaggio's career. Both works are stylistically close to his early genre scenes but are already filled with the inner drama that would reach its full expression in his altarpieces of the early 1600s. Starting from 1600, the time of his greatest creative peak, Caravaggio's name began appearing in the records of the Roman police. Most documents refer to minor offenses: he and his friends were brought to court for indecent verses written against one of the painters, for threats made to a waiter at a tavern, or for insults directed at the police. However, there were also cases of physical violence, which led to arrests. In May 1606, Caravaggio killed a young acquaintance in a fight that arose from an argument during a game of ball. After the murder, the artist fled first to the outskirts of Rome and then to Naples. There, he continued to work on major commissions, and his art had a decisive influence on the development of the Neapolitan school of painting. In 1608, he moved to Malta, where he painted a portrait of the Grand Master of the Knights of Malta and became a member of the order himself. But Caravaggio's difficult character eventually got him into trouble again: he insulted a senior-ranking figure, was imprisoned, and escaped to Sicily. After living there for several months, the artist returned to Naples, where he was attacked in a tavern and disfigured. In late June 1610, Caravaggio boarded a ship, apparently intending to return to Rome. However, he was mistakenly arrested by Spanish guards on the shore and detained for three days. During this time, Caravaggio, most likely already suffering from malaria, died from an attack in the town of Porto Ercole on July 18, 1610.