PART OF THE ARTSCHOOL ONLINE NETWORK
 
THE LIFE AND TIMES OF THE ARTIST CARAVAGGIO (1571-1610)

Caravaggio was one of the most extraordinary characters in the history of art. He was not only the most powerful and influential Italian painter of the 17th century, but also one of the prototypes of the idea of the artist as a rebel outside the normal conventions of society. His tempestuous career was punctuated by disputes with patrons about his unconventional treatment of religious themes and by a series of acts of physical violence.
After a struggle to establish himself in Rome, Caravaggio had achieved widespread fame by his early 30s, his dramatic use of light and shade and uncompromising realism creating a new pictorial vocabulary for European art. At the height of his career, however, he fled Rome after killing a man, and the rest of his short life was spent restlessly moving from place to place. Caravaggio died aged 38.

Michelangelo Merisi, the son of Fermo di Bernardino Merisi, was born in 1571, probably in Milan, not far from the village of Caravaggio where his family came from (and which he named himself after some 20 years later). His father who was majordomo (head butler) to Francesco Sforza, Marchese di Caravaggio, died in 1577, and Michelangelo, with two brothers (one of whom died in 1588) and a sister, was brought up by his mother, Lucia Aratori.
In 1584, at the age of 12, Michelangelo joined the workshop of Milanese painter Simone Peterzano as an apprentice. Nothing else is known about his early life, except that his mother died in 1590, and two years later Michelangelo, his brother and his sister divided the family property between them. Michelangelo inherited 393 imperial pounds, which enabled him to set off for Rome where successive popes had embarked on ambitious schemes to embellish the town, and the prospect of large and lucrative commissions attracted painters, sculptors and architects from all over Italy and beyond.
With large numbers of Italian and foreign painters flooding the Roman market, the going was bound to be tough for a young, inexperienced artist trained by a minor provincial master. Caravaggio should have been able to live comfortably for several years on his inheritance but true to his later lifestyle, he seems to have spent it quickly and unwisely and his early years in Rome were marked by poverty.
There are no documents which record Caravaggio's activities in the Holy City until 1599. It is generally agreed, however, that at some point he was employed by Giuseppe Cesari, the Cavaliere d'Arpino, one of the leading fresco painters of the day, who was working on huge papal and ecclesiastical commissions. Yet even this promising association came to an abrupt end when Caravaggio was committed to hospital, the Ospedale della Consolazione - according to one source, because he had been kicked by a horse.
AN INFLUENTIAL PATRON
Some time later, Caravaggio attracted the attention of Cardinal DelMonte, a wealthy and sophisticated cleric, collector of paintings, lover of music, and official cardinal-protector of the Accademia di San Luca, the painters' academy in Rome. Del Monte represented the interests of Florence at the papal court and resided in the Medici Palazzo Madama, near the Piazza Navona.
Caravaggio became a member of the Cardinal's household, was given lodgings, food and a regular allowance, and he painted, in response, a number of pictures of rather effeminate young men. That Del Monte was a discreet hedonist, dallying with young boys, and that Caravaggio shared his taste, has often been inferred from those early works; and even in later, publicly displayed alterpieces, we find Caravaggio including angels of an alluringly androgynous nature. On the other hand, some of the most overtly erotic depictions of young boys, including the Victorious Cupid (left), were painted for patrons who were beyond any suspicion of homoerotic inclinations.
And it is surprising that at a time when homosexuality was considered a serious crime, no suspicion seems to have fallen on Caravaggio himself. Had there been any doubts about him, the many enemies he managed to make in his short life would have exploited them publicly and with relish. What gave rise to the rumours was the dubious reputation of his girlfriend Lena, a prostitute, whom he was said to have used as the model for some of his depictions of the Virgin Mary.
All of Caravaggio's early paintings were relatively small works, still-lifes, genre-scenes and a few occasional religious subjects. They were produced either for particular patrons, like Del Monte or the Prior of the Ospedale della Consolazione, or for the open market, to be sold by picture dealers. This was not the way to become rich and famous. In the course of the Counter Reformation, Rome was witnessing an unprecedented building-boom of new churches, and each new church required chapel-decorations and alterpieces. This was where the big money was and where public reputations were established. Caravaggio, now in his late 20s, must have been desperate to be given the chance to compete in this lucretive market.
The chance came in 1599 with the commission of two large paintings for the Contrarelli Chapel in San Luigi dei Francesi. The church is only a few steps down the street from the Palazzo Madama, and Cardinal Del Monte was probably instrumental in securing this important contract for his protege.
AMBITIOUS PAINTINGS
Never before, as far as we know, had Caravaggio attempted anything on a comparable scale. And x-ray photographs of the Martyrdom of St Matthew have revealed his initial uncertainty. He was fumbling about the right size of his figures and for a convincing composition. After several attempts to improve and correct his original version he was forced to start all over again. Yet the final outcome seems to have been an overwhelming success; even Caravaggio's arch-enemy, the painter Giovanni Baglione, who later wrote a Life of Caravaggio, admitted that much: "This commission made Caravaggio famous", he wrote, and added maliciously, "and the paintings were escessively praised by evil people".
This was Caravaggio's breakthrough. Large commissions folowed one another in quick succession, and after a couple of years, the painter's fame had spread right across Europe. The Dutch art-historian Karel van Mander, living in Haarlem, wrote in 1603: "There is a certain Michelangelo da Caravaggio, who is doing extraordinary things in Rome". Yet is was not only the news of the painter's talent that had reached van Mander; he had also been informed of Caravaggio's notorious life-style and violent behaviour: "He does not study his art constantly, so that after two weeks of work he will sally forth for two months with his rapier at his side and his servant-boy after him, going from one tennis court to another, always ready to argue or fight, so that he is impossible to get along with". While van Mander's information about Caravaggio's paintings was inaccurate, that about his public behaviour was correct.
From 1600 onward, since his first great public success, Caravaggio appeared regularly in the protocols of the Roman police: in November of that year he attacked a colleague with a stick, and the following February he was brought before the magistrates, accused of having raised his sword against a soilder. In 1603, Giovanni Baglione brought a libel action againt Caravaggio and others; the painter was briefly imprisoned and released only on condition that he stayed at home and promised not to offend Baglione - any breach of these conditions would lead to him being made a galley slave. In April 1604, he was accused of having thrown a dish of hot artichokes in the face of a waiter in a restaurant, and of having threatened him with his sword. Later in the same year he was arrested for insulting a policeman. In 1605 he was arrested for carrying a sword and a dagger without permission; brought before the magistrates for insulting a lady and her daughter, and for attacking a notary in a quarrel over his girlfriend; and finally he was accused by his landlady of not paying his rent and of thowing stones through her windows.
Perhaps we should judge Caravaggio's character not simply by his criminal records and his violent behaviour. He was supported and protected by some of the most sophisticated patrons in Rome, including Del Monte and the Marchese Giustiniani. Some of his best friends and companions in his rakish adventures were well-educated and refined men. Giovanni Battista Marino, perhaps the most erudite and cultivated poet of the age, had his portrait painted by Caravaggio and immortalized his art in poems. And while Caravaggio"s public statements about earlier and contemporary artists could appear brutish and simplistic, he privately studied the art of Leonardo, Raphael, Michelangelo, and the great Venetian painters with considerable sensitivity and a fine understanding. We simply don't know enough about his intimate life, his interests or learning to form a fuller and more just image of his character than that provided by the criminal records of the Roman police.
On 28 May 1606, Caravaggio's violent temper finally led to disaster: unwilling to pay a wager of 10 scudi on a tennis match, he and several friends got involved in a fierce fight with his opponent, a certain Ranuccio Tommasoni, and his friends on the Campo Marzo. The painter was badly wounded, and so was one of his supporters, a Captain Petronio, who was subsequently imprisoned. Tommasoni, however, died from Caravaggio"s attack.
FLIGHT FROM ROME
The painter went into hiding for three days, probably in the palace of the Marchese Giustiniani, and then fled secretly from Rome, which he was never to see again. Caravaggio's exact whereabouts over the next five months are unclear. By October 1606 he was in Naples, well outside papal jurisdiction. In less than a year he completed at least three major altarpieces, waiting impatiently for his influential friends and patrons in Rome to secure a papal pardon which would allow him to return. Yet the authorities were slow to respond, and in July 1607 Caravaggio left Naples and arrived on the island of Malta.
Whether he undertook the trip to Malta of his own accord, presumably in the hope of being made a Knight of St John, or whether he had been invited by the Maltese Knights to paint certain pictures, we do not know. But Caravaggio's stay on the island was productive: in addition to portraits, among them that of the Grandmaster Alof de Wignacourt, he painted his largest work ever, the Beheading of St John, the patron saint of the Knights Order.
On 14 July 1608, Caravaggio was made a Knight of the Order of Obedience, obviously as a reward for his work. In addition, Bellori reports, "the Grandmaster put a gold chain around his neck and made him a gift of two Turkish slaves, along with other signs of esteem and appreciation for his work." Caravaggio was not to enjoy the benefits of his new honor for very long. According to Bellori, his "tormented nature" led him into an ill-considered quarrel with a noble knight. Perhaps the news of his Roman crime had caught up with him: in any case, Caravaggio was thrown into prison. He managed to escape by night and fled to Sicily. The Knights of Malta subsequently stripped the artist of all his honors and excluded him from the Order.
After short stays in Syracuse, Messina and Palermo, and the rapid completion of alterpieces in each of these towns, Caravaggio returned to Naples. His fame enabled him to request and recieve large payments for each work he undertook, but he was still a fugitive, by now perhaps not only from papal justice but also that of the Maltese Knights. By October 1609 rumours had reached Rome that he had been killed or badly wounded in Naples. According to Baglione, "his enemy finally caught up with him and he was so severely slashed in the face that he was almost unrecognizable.
In Rome, Caravaggio's friends were still pressing for a pardon, now supported by Cardinal Ferdinando Gonzaga, who had bought his Death of the Virgin after it had been rejected by the priests of Sta Maria della Scala. In the summer of 1610, Caravaggio left Naples suddenly and set sail, on a samll boat, to Port'Ercole, a port about 80 miles north of Rome which was under Spanish protection. It is clear that he expected to be able to return to Rome very soon but could not yet enter papal territory. After four unhappy years of restlessness he could look forward with confidence to rejoining his friends and patrons in the Holy City. But this was not to happen.
Baglione, Caravaggio' s old enemy, has left us the most vivid account of the artist's last days. Having gone ashore in Port'Ercole, Caravaggio "was mistakenly captured and held for two days in prison and when he was released, his boat was no longer to be found. This made him furious, and in desperation he started out along the beach under the fierce heat of the summer sun, trying to catch sight of the vessel that had his belongings. Finally, he came to a place where he was put to bed with a raging fever; and so, without the aid of God or man, in a few days he died, as miserably as he had lived". Caravaggio died on 18 July 1610; he was not even 40 years old.
Medusa
GALLERY OF CARAVAGGIO PAINTINGS

BACK TO MAIN PAGE