Caravaggio
Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio was an Italian painter of the late 16th and early 17th centuries who became a influential figure in the Baroque art movement known for his intense and unsettlingly realistic paintings. Caravaggio focused on biblical stories that often featured violent struggles, torture, and death. He accentuated the poverty and common humanity of Christ and his followers, the Apostles, saints, and martyrs, by emphasizing their ragged clothing and dirty feet. This may have been influenced by his choice of live models who were often beggars, criminals, and prostitutes. He developed a highly dramatic form of chiaroscuro, using extreme contrasts of light and dark to emphasize details or volume in three-dimensional objects and figures. This specific technique later became known as tenebrism. Despite having a violent and turbulant lifestyle that often rivaled the intensity of his paintings, he was able to find time to create a body of truly innovative work. Caravaggio's influence has extended past painting alone and has even inspired many notable filmmakers in modern cinema.
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