Happy Birthday Caravaggio 9/28/1573

What would you call this one?

Supper at Emmaus

Betrayal of Christ

Calling

Supper at Emmaus

The Inspiration of St. Matthew

Annunciation

A Man with a Monkey

Medusa

The Tooth Pulling

BORN MICHELANGELO MERISI on September 28, 1573 in Caravaggio, Italy, he became known by the name of his birthplace. In a short life (he died at the age of 37) Caravaggio ruffled quite a few feathers with his dramatic painting style and equally volatile temper. His temper saw him kill an acquaintance over a game of tennis - that was not his first brush with the law. He was accused of hitting a fellow painter, wounding a soldier, throwing a plate of artichokes in the face of waiter, throwing stones at the Roman guard, misuse of firearms and injuring a man in defense of a woman.

Giovanni Bellori narrates: "Caravaggio, although occupied by his painting, still found time to keep up his troublemaking. After spending several hours of the day at his painting, he would swagger along the city streets, with a sword at his side, clearly proving he had other interests beyond his art." Constantly on the run, Caravaggio fled to Naples then to Malta where he offended one of the Knights and was forced to flee to Palermo in Sicily. In 1610, Caravaggio set sail for Rome from Naples but after an argument with a sailor, was removed from the ship. The ship with his belongings sailed away and a distraught Caravaggio ran along the beach in the scorching sun for three days trying to locate the ship. He died alone on the beach of exhaustion and fever. A document granting him clemency arrived from Rome three days later.

Caravaggio aimed to make paintings that depicted the truth Caravaggio aimed to make paintings that depicted the truth. He was the best example of naturalistic painting - striving to transform Mannerism into reality. Caravaggio scorned the traditional idealization of religious subjects and took his models from the streets and painted them realistically. Thus his St Matthew has the physical features of a ploughman or common laborer. Caravaggio embarked on what was to be a lifelong quest - the search for light that, born from nowhere represents a revelation of divine origin. The light in his work not only portrays reality but also helps us understand the reality being depicted. Caravaggio may have used a lantern hung to one side in his shuttered studio while painting from his models. The result in his paintings is a harsh, raking light that strikes across the composition, illuminating parts of it while plunging the rest in deep shadow. This technique, became a hallmark of Baroque art.