Caravaggio
1571 - 1610
A Genius beyond His Time
Michelangelo Merisi, known as Caravaggio, after the name of his
native village near Bergamo, was an Italian painter active in Rome for
most of his artistic life. His life was sulphurous and his paintings
scandalous. He was a painter of genius, who worked with extraordinary
speed, painting directly onto the canvas without even sketching out the
main figures.
"He came to destroy painting"
Nicolas Poussin
Caravaggio is the most mysterious and perhaps the most revolutionary
painter in the history of art. In Rome he originated a violent reaction to the Mannerism of the elders, which he regarded as constrained, mawkish and academic. He created a new language of theatrical
realism, choosing his models in the streets. The primacy of nature and truth was his watchword.
"After him, painting could never be the same again"
Giuliano Briganti
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