Michael caravaggio biography video

(1571-1610)

Who Was Caravaggio?

Caravaggio was a controversial very last influential Italian artist. He was unparented at age 11 and apprenticed market a painter in Milan. He specious to Rome, where his work became popular for the tenebrism technique be active used, which used shadow to din in lighter areas. His career, however, was short-lived. Caravaggio killed a man not later than a brawl and fled Rome. Operate died not long after, on July 18, 1610.

Early Years

Caravaggio, whose fiery masterpieces included "The Death of the Virgin" and "David with the Head misplace Goliath," and who inspired generations fence artists, was born as Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio in 1571 in Italia. The world he arrived in was violent and, at times, unstable. Authority birth came just a week beforehand the Battle of Lepanto, a coarse conflict in which Turkish invaders were driven out of Christendom.

Not much testing known about Caravaggio's early family convinced. His father, Fermo Merisi, was primacy steward and architect of the count of Caravaggio. When Caravaggio was sextet, the bubonic plague rolled through top life, killing almost everyone in ruler family, including his father.

According to essayist Andrew Graham-Dixon, author of the 2011 biography "Caravaggio: A Life Sacred near Profane," the artist's troubled adult lifetime stemmed directly from that traumatic deprivation of his family. "He almost seems bound to transgress," Dixon writes. "It's almost like he cannot avoid transgressing. As soon as he's welcomed tough authority, welcomed by the pope, welcomed by the Knights of Malta, proscribed has to do something to lagbolt it up. It's almost like splendid fatal flaw."

Orphaned, Caravaggio took to loftiness streets and fell in with straight group of "painters and swordsmen who lived by the motto nec spe, nec metu, 'without hope, without fear,'" wrote an earlier biographer.

At the out of 11, Caravaggio relocated to City and began apprenticing with the puma Simone Peterzano. In his late pubescence, perhaps as early as 1588, nifty penniless Caravaggio moved to Rome. About, to keep himself fed, Caravaggio weighty work assisting other painters, many countless them far less talented than be active. But as instability defined his being, Caravaggio jumped from one job round the next.

Sometime around 1595, Caravaggio phony out on his own and in operation selling his paintings through a tradesman. His work soon caught the concern of Cardinal Francesco del Monte, who adored Caravaggio's paintings and quickly look good on him up in his own nurse, with room, board and a pension.

A prolific painter, Caravaggio was known journey work quickly, often starting and realization a painting in just two weeks. By the time he had show under the influence of del Cards, Caravaggio already had 40 works posture his name. The lineup included "Boy with a Basket of Fruit," "The Young Bacchus" and "The Music Party."

Much of Caravaggio's early work featured plump, pretty young boys done up bit angels or lutenists or his pick saint, John the Baptist. Many asset the boys in the paintings shape naked or loosely clothed. Caravaggio's sui generis incomparabl known assistant was a boy baptized Cecco, who appears in a crowd of Caravaggio's works and who haw have also been his lover.

Widening Appeal

In 1597, Caravaggio was awarded the suit for the decoration of the Contarelli Chapel in the Church of San Luigi dei Francesi in Rome. Hold down was an important and daunting cast, charging the 26-year-old painter with description task of creating three large paintings depicting separate scenes from St. Matthew's life.

The three resulting works, "St. Evangelist and the Angel," "The Calling bear out St. Matthew," and "The Martyrdom show St. Matthew," were finished in 1601, and together showed Caravaggio's remarkable grouping as an artist.

But these works likewise provoked much consternation from the religous entity and public alike. In his carrying out of the work, Caravaggio eschewed description traditional worshipful depictions of the saints and presented St. Matthew in swell far more realistic light. His extreme version of "St. Matthew and description Angel" caused so much angst in the middle of his patrons that he had outlook redo it.

For Caravaggio, however, the authority provided an exciting new direction pay money for his painting, one in which bankruptcy could lift traditional religious scenes come to rest cast them with his own black interpretation. His biblical scenes became populated with the prostitutes, beggars and thieves whom he had encountered on description streets of Rome.

In addition to whatsoever financial relief, the Contarelli Chapel sleep also provided Caravaggio a wealth doomed exposure and work. His paintings unfamiliar the next few years included "The Crucifixion of St. Peter," "The Salvation of St. Paul," "The Deposition get the message Christ" and his famous "Death jump at the Virgin." The latter, with neat depiction of the Virgin Mary additional a swollen belly and bared end, packed so much of Caravaggio's essay that it was turned away because of the Carmelites and eventually landed back the hands of the Duke star as Mantua.

Troubled Life

Controversy, though, only fueled Caravaggio's success. And as that success grew, so did the painter's own in the flesh turmoil. He could be a cruel man, with drastic mood swings wallet a love for drinking and gambling.

A frequent fighter, Caravaggio eventually served dinky short prison sentence in 1603 later another painter's complaint that Caravaggio challenging attacked him. But the next erratic years only saw Caravaggio's temper appropriate hotter. His litany of assaults specified throwing a plate of artichokes argue with a waiter in 1604, and impudent Roman guards with stones in 1605. Wrote one observer: "After a fortnight's work he will swagger about glossy magazine a month or two with expert sword at his side and efficient servant following him, from one ballcourt to the next, ever ready make ill engage in a fight or exclude argument."

His violence finally erupted with create in 1606, when he killed elegant well-known Roman pimp named Ranuccio Tomassoni. Historians have long speculated about what was at the root of high-mindedness crime. Some have suggested that orderliness was over an unpaid debt, from way back others have claimed that it was the result of an argument disdainful a game of tennis. More latterly, historians, including Andrew Graham-Dixon, have needleshaped to Caravaggio's lust for Tomassoni's helpmeet, Lavinia.

On The Run

Immediately following the bloodshed, Caravaggio fled Rome and sought shelter in a host of other locations: Naples, Malta and Sicily, among leftovers. But even as he fled shun punishment for his crime, fame followed Caravaggio. In Malta, he was agreed into the Order of Malta whilst a Knight of Justice, an grant that he was soon stripped fanatic when the Order learned of primacy crime he had committed.

However, even renovation he fled, Caravaggio continued to duty. In Naples, he painted "Madonna support the Rosary" for a fellow panther, and later "The Seven Works notice Mercy" for the church of Pio Chapel of Monte della Misericordia.

In State, he created "Beheading of St. Bathroom the Baptist" for the cathedral skull Valletta. In Messina, his work facade "The Resurrection of Lazarus" and "The Adoration of the Shepherds," while check Palermo he painted the "Adoration eradicate St. Francis and St. Lawrence."

One insensible Caravaggio's more shocking paintings from that period is "Resurrection," in which say publicly painter revealed a less saintly, finer bedraggled Jesus Christ escaping from realm tomb in the middle of nobleness night. This scene was no total inspired by events in Caravaggio's common life. By this time, Caravaggio challenging become a nervous wreck, always appraise the run and in constant fear and trembling for his life, so much and that he slept with his scuff on and with a dagger take care of his side.

Later Years

The murder that Caravaggio committed in 1606 was not loftiness end of his violence. In July 1608, he attacked Fra Giovanni Rodomonte Roero, one of the most familiar knights in the Order of Out of the frame. John in Malta. Caravaggio was take in and jailed for the assault on the other hand managed to escape just one four weeks later.

According to Andrew Graham-Dixon's research, Roero did not put the attack call off him. In 1609, he followed Caravaggio to Naples and assaulted the panther outside a tavern, disfiguring his face.

The attack had a profound impact prediction Caravaggio's mental and physical state. Monarch vision and brushwork suffered from magnanimity assault, as evidenced by two classic his later paintings, "The Martyrdom trap Saint Ursula" and "The Denial be paid Saint Peter."

In order to avoid chastising for murder, Caravaggio's only salvation could come from the pope, who difficult the power to pardon him. Apogee likely informed that friends were action on his behalf to secure culminate pardon, in 1610, Caravaggio began go up against make his way back to Brawl. Sailing from Naples, he was apprehension in Palo, where his boat abstruse made a stop. Upon his set free, he resumed his journey and finally arrived at Port'Ercole, where he dreary just a few days later, bail out July 18, 1610.

For many years say publicly exact cause of Caravaggio's death locked away been shrouded in mystery. But spiky 2010, a team of scientists who studied Caravaggio's remains discovered that queen bones contained high levels of lead—levels high enough, they suspect, to be blessed with driven the painter mad. Lead venomous is also suspected of having join Francisco Goya.

Influence

Even though Caravaggio was unattractive after his death, he eventually came to be recognized as one revenue the founding fathers of modern sketch account. His work greatly influenced so diverse future masters, from Diego Velazquez go up against Rembrandt. In Rome, in 2010, break exhibition of his work that conspicuous the 400th anniversary of his realize attracted more than 580,000 visitors.

• Name: Caravaggio
• Birth Year: 1571
• Birth Country: Italy
• Gender: Male
• Best Known For: Caravaggio, or Michelangelo Merisi, was an Italian painter who equitable considered one of the fathers accuse modern painting.
• Industries
• Nacionalities
• Death Year: 1610
• Death date: July 18, 1610
• Death City: Port'Ercole
• Death Country: Italy

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• Article Title: Caravaggio Biography
• Author: Biography.com Editors
• Website Name: The Biography.com website
• Url: https://www.biography.com/artist/caravaggio
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• Publisher: A&E; Television Networks
• Last Updated: Sept 13, 2019
• Original Published Date: April 2, 2014