Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio
Born September 28, 1571 in Milan, died July 18, 1610. He was an Italian artist active in Rome, Naples, Malta and Sicily between 1593 and 1610. He is commonly placed in the Baroque school, of which he was the first great representative.
Even in his own lifetime Caravaggio was considered enigmatic, fascinating, rebellious and dangerous. He burst upon the Rome art scene in 1600, and thereafter never lacked for commissions or patrons, yet handled his success atrociously. An early published notice on him, dating from 1604 and describing his lifestyle some three years previously, tells how "after a fortnight's work he will swagger about for a month or two with a sword at his side and a servant following him, from one ball-court to the next, ever ready to engage in a fight or an argument, so that it is most awkward to get along with him." In 1606 he killed a young man in a brawl and fled from Rome with a price on his head. In Malta in 1608 he was involved in another brawl, and yet another in Naples in 1609, possibly a deliberate attempt on his life by unidentified enemies. By the next year, after a career of little more than a decade, he was dead.
Crucifixion of Saint Peter, 1601, Cerasi Chapel, Santa Maria del Popolo, Rome.
http://i272.photobucket.com/albums/jj171/Azjahh/Art%20Museum/Caravaggio-Crucifixion_of_Peter.jpg
Boy with fruit, circa 1593 when Caravaggio arrived in Rome. In mid-1592 Caravaggio arrived in Rome, ?naked and extremely needy ... without fixed address and without provision ... short of money.? A few months later he was performing hack-work for the highly successful Giuseppe Cesari, Pope Clement VIII?s favourite painter, ?painting flowers and fruit? in his factory-like workshop. Known works from this period include a small Boy Peeling a Fruit (his earliest known painting), a Boy with a Basket of Fruit, and the Young Sick Bacchus, supposedly a self-portrait done during convalescence from a serious illness that ended his employment with Cesari.
http://i272.photobucket.com/albums/jj171/Azjahh/Art%20Museum/Michelangelo_CaravaggioBoywithfruit.jpg
The Cardsharps was painted circa 1594. It is an Oil on canvas on loan from the Kimbrel Art Museum, Fort Worth Texas.
http://i272.photobucket.com/albums/jj171/Azjahh/Art%20Museum/The_CardsharpsCaravaggio.jpg
Raising of Lazarus was painted shortly before his death in 1609. On loan from the Museo de Uffici, Messina. His style continued to evolve, showing now friezes of figures isolated against vast empty backgrounds. "His great Sicilian altarpieces isolate their shadowy, pitifully poor figures in vast areas of darkness; they suggest the desperate fears and frailty of man, and at the same time convey, with a new yet desolate tenderness, the beauty of humility and of the meek, who shall inherit the earth."
http://i272.photobucket.com/albums/jj171/Azjahh/Art%20Museum/CaravaggioRaisingofLazarus.jpg
The Taking of Christ, painted 1602, is on loan from the National Gallery of Ireland, Dublin. Caravaggio's application of the chiaroscuro technique shows through on the faces and armour notwithstanding the lack of a visible shaft of light. The figure on the extreme right is a self portrait.
http://i272.photobucket.com/albums/jj171/Azjahh/Art%20Museum/TakingofchristCaravaggio.jpg
Entombment of Christ, painted in 1602-03 is on loan from Pinocoteca Vaticana.
http://i272.photobucket.com/albums/jj171/Azjahh/Art%20Museum/CaravaggioEntombmentofChrist.jpg
Madonna of the Palafrenieri (1605) oil on canvas cm. 292x211 On 16 April 1606, the large, new canvas of the Madonna of the Palafrenieri was removed from one of the most important altars in St. Peter's after only a month, because of its lack of decorum and deviance from figurative tradition. It was then exhibited in Cardinal Borghese's collection in the hall of honour in the palazzo del Borgo and later transferred to the entrance hall in the Villa Borghese.
http://i272.photobucket.com/albums/jj171/Azjahh/Art%20Museum/Caravaggiopalafreniera1605.jpg
((All information and images are taken from Wikipedia. Full credit and rights belong to Wikipedia. Images are Public Domain due to copyright expiration.))
Born September 28, 1571 in Milan, died July 18, 1610. He was an Italian artist active in Rome, Naples, Malta and Sicily between 1593 and 1610. He is commonly placed in the Baroque school, of which he was the first great representative.
Even in his own lifetime Caravaggio was considered enigmatic, fascinating, rebellious and dangerous. He burst upon the Rome art scene in 1600, and thereafter never lacked for commissions or patrons, yet handled his success atrociously. An early published notice on him, dating from 1604 and describing his lifestyle some three years previously, tells how "after a fortnight's work he will swagger about for a month or two with a sword at his side and a servant following him, from one ball-court to the next, ever ready to engage in a fight or an argument, so that it is most awkward to get along with him." In 1606 he killed a young man in a brawl and fled from Rome with a price on his head. In Malta in 1608 he was involved in another brawl, and yet another in Naples in 1609, possibly a deliberate attempt on his life by unidentified enemies. By the next year, after a career of little more than a decade, he was dead.
Crucifixion of Saint Peter, 1601, Cerasi Chapel, Santa Maria del Popolo, Rome.
http://i272.photobucket.com/albums/jj171/Azjahh/Art%20Museum/Caravaggio-Crucifixion_of_Peter.jpg
Boy with fruit, circa 1593 when Caravaggio arrived in Rome. In mid-1592 Caravaggio arrived in Rome, ?naked and extremely needy ... without fixed address and without provision ... short of money.? A few months later he was performing hack-work for the highly successful Giuseppe Cesari, Pope Clement VIII?s favourite painter, ?painting flowers and fruit? in his factory-like workshop. Known works from this period include a small Boy Peeling a Fruit (his earliest known painting), a Boy with a Basket of Fruit, and the Young Sick Bacchus, supposedly a self-portrait done during convalescence from a serious illness that ended his employment with Cesari.
http://i272.photobucket.com/albums/jj171/Azjahh/Art%20Museum/Michelangelo_CaravaggioBoywithfruit.jpg
The Cardsharps was painted circa 1594. It is an Oil on canvas on loan from the Kimbrel Art Museum, Fort Worth Texas.
http://i272.photobucket.com/albums/jj171/Azjahh/Art%20Museum/The_CardsharpsCaravaggio.jpg
Raising of Lazarus was painted shortly before his death in 1609. On loan from the Museo de Uffici, Messina. His style continued to evolve, showing now friezes of figures isolated against vast empty backgrounds. "His great Sicilian altarpieces isolate their shadowy, pitifully poor figures in vast areas of darkness; they suggest the desperate fears and frailty of man, and at the same time convey, with a new yet desolate tenderness, the beauty of humility and of the meek, who shall inherit the earth."
http://i272.photobucket.com/albums/jj171/Azjahh/Art%20Museum/CaravaggioRaisingofLazarus.jpg
The Taking of Christ, painted 1602, is on loan from the National Gallery of Ireland, Dublin. Caravaggio's application of the chiaroscuro technique shows through on the faces and armour notwithstanding the lack of a visible shaft of light. The figure on the extreme right is a self portrait.
http://i272.photobucket.com/albums/jj171/Azjahh/Art%20Museum/TakingofchristCaravaggio.jpg
Entombment of Christ, painted in 1602-03 is on loan from Pinocoteca Vaticana.
http://i272.photobucket.com/albums/jj171/Azjahh/Art%20Museum/CaravaggioEntombmentofChrist.jpg
Madonna of the Palafrenieri (1605) oil on canvas cm. 292x211 On 16 April 1606, the large, new canvas of the Madonna of the Palafrenieri was removed from one of the most important altars in St. Peter's after only a month, because of its lack of decorum and deviance from figurative tradition. It was then exhibited in Cardinal Borghese's collection in the hall of honour in the palazzo del Borgo and later transferred to the entrance hall in the Villa Borghese.
http://i272.photobucket.com/albums/jj171/Azjahh/Art%20Museum/Caravaggiopalafreniera1605.jpg
((All information and images are taken from Wikipedia. Full credit and rights belong to Wikipedia. Images are Public Domain due to copyright expiration.))