Who Was Caravaggio? 4 Characteristics of Caravaggio’s Work

Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio (1571–1610), known simply as Caravaggio, was an Italian painter from Milan working towards the end of the Renaissance period. Caravaggio's work triggered the beginning of the Baroque period. He lived a short and tempestuous life, and his paintings were controversial, popular, and inspired a generation of painters across Europe, leading to a movement called Caravaggism.

Caravaggio, who was active in Rome for most of his life, is most famous for his use of tenebrism, selectively illuminating key figures in a composition for dramatic effect. His paintings realistically depict the human form and the complexity of human emotion and expression. He was known to have used orphaned children and prostitutes as models for his religious paintings.

Not very much is known about Caravaggio’s early life. For example, it is uncertain where he was an apprentice or which Milanese artist taught him to paint. However, on record, he moved to Rome, the artistic center of the Italian peninsula, in his early twenties.

• Early beginnings: Historians think Caravaggio spent his first couple of years in Rome painting still lifes of bowls of fruit and flowers and selling them on the street. In his earliest dated paintings that survive, Young Bacchus and Boy with a Basket of Fruit, some scholars believe them to be self-portraits that he used to showcase his talents as a painter to potential patrons.
• First public commission: In 1595, Caravaggio received his first public commission: the decoration of the Contarelli chapel in the San Luigi dei Francesi, a church in Rome. The French cardinal, who is buried in his family chapel, left specific instructions in his will for a cycle of paintings to be created that depicted the life of his name saint, Matthew. The fact that Caravaggio was offered the commission was surprising since he had never produced a large-scale religious painting before that point. The images Caravaggio created in the chapel were so compelling and innovative that they made him a celebrity virtually overnight.
• Early death: Caravaggio’s biographers recount him as being infamously argumentative, as someone who would swagger around Rome between completing painting commissions, looking to get into arguments and fights. Caravaggio was arrested for getting into brawls and illegally carrying arms on multiple occasions. In 1606, Caravaggio got into a duel with a man, where Caravaggio stabbed him, killing the man. Fleeing Rome, Caravaggio was on the run from justice for the rest of his short life, seeking refuge in Naples, then Malta, and Sicily, while his allies in Rome appealed to the Pope issue him a pardon. Shortly after that, he suddenly fell ill and died soon afterward en route to Rome to beg the Pope for a pardon.

Caravaggio’s style of painting is unique from Mannerism and the High Renaissance.

1. 1. Painted on the canvas: Like Titian, Caravaggio painted directly onto the canvas rather than carefully creating compositions using preparatory drawings.
2. 2. Exploration of ordinary life: Caravaggio’s version of naturalism was radical because he painted the world around him, filling his paintings with figures who looked like ordinary people, creating a significant contrast between Michelangelo’s depictions of the idealized and perfected image of humanity. However, Caravaggio’s depiction of the humanity of the religious subject matter was not an end in itself but a means of conveying profoundly spiritual content. For example, he goes so far as to paint the dirt on the soles of the kneeling shepherds’ feet in the Adoration of the Shepherds (also called the Madonna di Loreto).
3. 3. Depiction of singular moments: He often chose to depict a single, dramatic moment in a narrative, where figures display expressions of intense emotion.
4. 4. Use of light and shadow: One of the major characteristics of Caravaggio’s art was his extreme use of tenebrism or the intense contrast of light and dark. He often positioned his subject matter in indistinct, shadowy, or sparse settings and introduced dramatic lighting to heighten the scene’s emotional intensity.

Caravaggio’s work is emulated through his style, technique, and subject matter choice for decades following his death. Here’s how Caravaggio significantly influenced Baroque painting:

• He inspired other painters to incorporate diagonals. In paintings like the Martyrdom of St. Peter, the artist creates a series of sharp compositional diagonals that amplify the drama of the biblical subject matter. Caravaggio chooses to depict the moment when St. Peter’s cross is being raised for his crucifixion; the saint’s tormentors are laboring to push the cross into an upright position, creating a long diagonal across the composition that draws the viewer’s eye towards the body of the suffering saint. After seeing Caravaggio’s work, some Baroque painters began creating compositions that incorporated sharp diagonals that emphasize the scene’s drama.
• He helped popularize tenebrism. Caravaggio’s style was so pervasive and influential that painters from around Italy, France, and the Low Countries (modern-day Belgium and Holland) are considered his followers, even though none of them were his students or would have even met him. These Caravaggisti, as they are referred to, adopted the theatrical lighting and intense tenebrism into their painting practices, following his example when depicting the effects of light. They depicted deeply naturalistic and individuated figures close to the foreground, allowing the viewer to focus directly on the subject matter.

While Caravaggio was very prolific in his short life, the below paintings show his use of tenebrism, his diagonal compositions, and his depiction of ordinary people and life.

1. 1. Calling of St. Matthew (1599–1600): This painting is perhaps the best example of Caravaggio’s use of tenebrism in his paintings. He incorporates theatrical lighting to emphasize the drama of the biblical scene.
2. 2. The Martyrdom of St. Matthew (1599–1600): This painting shows St. Matthew on his deathbed being murdered by a shirtless soldier sent by a king. This was one of Caravaggio’s most immense and intricate paintings, and modern analysis reveals he repainted it multiple times.
3. 3. Young Bacchus (1593): This painting is thought to be one of Caravaggio’s earliest surviving artworks and might even be a self-portrait. Caravaggio might have used this painting as a way to showcase his talents to potential clients.
4. 4. Adoration of the Shepherds (1609): Also known as the Madonna di Loreto, this painting is an example of Caravaggio painting holy figures to look like real, average people.
5. 5. Crucifixion of St. Peter (1601): This painting shows St. Peter as he is being hoisted onto the cross to be crucified and demonstrates how Caravaggio used steep diagonals to create compositions that focused the viewer’s gaze on the drama unfolding in the painting.

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