Caravaggio a Roma

Michelangelo Merisi was born in Milan on September 29, 1571, the day of Saint Michael the Archangel, to Fermo Merisi and Lucia Aratori. His father was responsible for the buildings owned by the Marquis of Caravaggio, a small town in the Bergamo area from which Lucia originated and from which the artist's nickname derives.

At 13 years old he worked as an apprentice in the workshop of Simone Peterzano, a Mannerist painter and student of Titian. It is not known precisely when, but starting from 1592, his arrival in Rome is documented. For an artist of the time, the call of the Eternal City was strong; these were years of great ferment; from a construction and urban planning perspective, large-scale construction sites were active, such as the reconstruction of ancient basilicas and the completion of St. Peter's. However, the circles Caravaggio frequented were of ambiguous reputation: he preferred taverns, dives, and slums. In the workshop of Cavalier d'Arpino, where he "painted flowers and fruit," he was noticed by Cardinal Francesco del Monte, his future patron, who would open the doors of collectors to him.

The naturalism present in The Fortune Teller (1593-94) and Young Man with a Basket of Fruit (1593-95) shows that Caravaggio's way of painting was based on empirical observation, accentuated by the use of the mirror as an "optical chamber." Cardinal del Monte encouraged him and hosted him at Palazzo Madama. In 1600 he received his first major commission: the decoration of Cardinal Contarelli's chapel in San Luigi dei Francesi. Thus he created the two side canvases of the chapel, the Martyrdom (1599-1600) and the Calling of Saint Matthew (1599-1600), and the altarpiece, Saint Matthew and the Angel (1602). They are scenes that come alive before the viewer, real characters, bordering on the prosaic, so much so that they caused scandal. But the true revolution is in the light: theatrical, dramatic, symbolic. These were the years of success. Monsignor Cerasi commissioned two canvases for the family chapel in Santa Maria del Popolo: the Crucifixion of Saint Peter (1600-1601) and the Conversion of Saint Paul (1600-1601). From this period are the celebrated paintings for the Mattei family: Saint John the Baptist (1602-03) at the Capitoline Picture Gallery and the Supper at Emmaus (1601) at the National Gallery in London. For the church of Sant'Agostino he painted the Madonna of the Pilgrims, destined to cause scandal for those dirty feet in the foreground.

Fame and success grew, but so did problems with the law, until, in 1606, a game turned into a duel: Caravaggio was wounded, but his rival died. The flight began and the trial in absentia condemned him to death. For four years he wandered along the Mediterranean coasts, leaving traces of himself at every stop: The Seven Works of Mercy (1606-07) in Naples, the Beheading of Saint John the Baptist (1608), the only signed painting, in Malta, the Raising of Lazarus (1608-09), in Messina. In 1610 he died, alone, one step away from pardon, struck by a fever, on the beach of Porto Ercole.

Art Locations

Galleria Borghese Piazzale Scipione Borghese, 5 Reservation required The Gallery's collection, the fruit of the passion and taste of Cardinal Scipione Borghese (1577-1663), comprises six works by Caravaggio. The Sick Bacchus (1593-94) and Young Man with a Basket of Fruit (1593-95) testify to the painter's youthful period, when he was in Cavalier d'Arpino's workshop, years in which he executed "mirror" portraits and genre subjects. In the first, a self-portrait of the painter is recognized; in the second, the young man is represented in the transience of the moment, as emphasized by the beautiful still life. The Madonna of the Grooms (1605) was commissioned for the altar of the Confraternity of Grooms in the chapel of Sant'Anna, in St. Peter's. It was rejected for lack of decorum and acquired by Cardinal Scipione Borghese, who displayed it in the great entrance hall. For the cardinal-collector he executed Saint Jerome (1605-06), portrayed here as a scholar and not as a penitent. David with the Head of Goliath (c. 1610), executed shortly before his death, can be read as a request for pardon. Caravaggio had been fleeing for four years for the killing of Ranuccio Tomassoni. Critics now agree in recognizing the artist's self-portrait in the severed head of the giant. Finally, Saint John the Baptist (1610), a theme Caravaggio tackled several times, is captured here in an introspective variant, as emphasized by the lean flesh and the shadowy frame of the landscape.

Casino Ludovisi Via Lombardia, 46 Reservation required The sixteenth-century Casino is what remains of Villa Ludovisi, built in 1662 by Cardinal Ludovico Ludovisi on the "Horti Sallustiani," as testimony to ancient splendors. Inside the building, in the Aurora Room, one can admire Guercino's celebrated tempera fresco, depicting Aurora advancing on a chariot scattering flowers. In the small vault of the alchemical laboratory is preserved Caravaggio's only oil painting on wall, depicting Jupiter, Neptune and Pluto (c. 1597). In the upper part is Jupiter with the eagle; below, Neptune, with the trident and the sea horse with webbed feet; and finally, Pluto, with Cerberus. What strikes the viewer is the accentuated foreshortening, the "from below upward," traceable to the painter's Lombard ancestry.

Palazzo Barberini Via delle Quattro Fontane, 13 The Palace, originally the residence of the papal family, has been home to the National Gallery of Ancient Art since 1953, together with Palazzo Corsini. While the Palazzo Corsini location houses a separate historical picture gallery, Palazzo Barberini presents a chronological display representative of the main painting schools from the thirteenth to the eighteenth century. Three works by Caravaggio are preserved here. The mirrored representation of Narcissus (1597-99) offers an unprecedented compositional scheme of the classical myth, perfectly suited to the story of the young hunter who falls in love with his own image reflected in the water. Judith and Holofernes (c. 1599) is Caravaggio's first true history painting and inaugurates the phase of strong contrasts between light and shadow. Painted for the banker Ottavio Costa, it represents a scene from the Old Testament, in which Judith, a young Jewish widow, saves her people from the enemy siege by the Assyrian army. The light highlights gruesome details of the crucial moment. The subject of an important restoration in 2000 is the canvas depicting Saint Francis in Meditation (1606-07), found in 1968 in the church of San Pietro in Carpineto Romano. Investigations confirmed the authorship of the Barberini canvas, and the date of execution, according to some scholars, would be around 1606, when Caravaggio, fleeing from Rome after the murder of Ranuccio Tommasoni, took refuge in the Colonna estates, close to those of the Aldobrandini, who commissioned the work.

Galleria Doria Pamphilj Via del Corso, 305 The Gallery, created by the will of Pope Innocent X, constitutes one of the most substantial private art collections. Most of the masterpieces are concentrated in the four wings overlooking the inner courtyard and in the Aldobrandini and Primitives Room. By Caravaggio one can admire the Penitent Magdalene (1594-95), portrayed "without decorum" - according to the seventeenth-century art writer Giovan Pietro Bellori - in a bare room, seated on a low chair and illuminated by light coming from above. The abandoned jewels and the ointment with which she restores the Lord are her iconographic attributes. The same model appears in the extraordinary canvas depicting the Rest on the Flight into Egypt (1595-96), one of the few scenes set by Caravaggio in a landscape and which preserves Lombard-Venetian ancestry, in the diffused luminosity and atmosphere of rustic quiet in the composition. The idyll is composed in a perfect dialogue between human and divine, anticipating the contrast of future works between light and shadow: the ideal beauty of the angel in the act of playing the violin is joined, on one side, by the vivid realism of Joseph's face and, on the other, by the sweetness of the sleeping Virgin with the Child in her arms. The notes on the score follow a motet written in 1519 by the Flemish composer Noel Bauldewijn on text taken from the Song of Songs, whose first six verses are dedicated to the Madonna.

Capitoline Museums Piazza del Campidoglio, 1 This is the world's first public collection, whose origin dates back to the donation, which took place in 1471, by Pope Sixtus IV to the Roman People, of a core of bronze sculptures, including the famous Etruscan She-wolf, the Spinario, and the Head of Constantine. An unmissable opportunity to appreciate up close two paintings by Caravaggio: The Fortune Teller (1595) and Saint John the Baptist (1602-03). In the first, it is possible to recognize the painter's youthful hand, where Lombard derivations are still strong. It is a scene of everyday life, in which a young gypsy girl, with the pretext of reading the palm of an unwary young man, stealthily removes a ring from him. The Saint John the Baptist, painted in 1602 for Ciriaco Mattei, a passionate collector and prominent figure in those years, is a clear homage to the name of Ciriaco's son, Giovanni Battista. The private destination of the painting contributes to the freedom with which Caravaggio renders a sacred theme. Indeed, one cannot deny the subtle licentiousness of the subject, which we would call more pagan than religious. The torsion of the pose is a clear reference to Michelangelo's Nudes in the Sistine Chapel.

Church of San Luigi dei Francesi Piazza di San Luigi de' Francesi The jewel of the itinerary is the cycle dedicated to the life of Saint Matthew, which Caravaggio painted between 1599 and 1602 for Cardinal Mathieu Cointrel's chapel. In the Martyrdom of Saint Matthew (1599-1600) the episode unfolds before the viewer in full drama. The saint is in the center, wounded and on the ground, held by the assassin ready to deliver the fatal blow. The light bursts in suddenly and revealingly, sculpting the scream of the altar boy fleeing in horror. In the left corner, the artist's compassionate and pitying face emerges from the shadow. X-rays performed on this canvas show that what we see is the third version, confirming that Caravaggio did not execute preparatory drawings, but sketches with the tip of the brush.

Without second thoughts, however, the Calling of Saint Matthew (1599-1600) is painted, portrayed while intent on counting taxes. The light directs the gaze, from right to left, from Christ's gesture of invitation to Matthew's astonished response to the call. It is at the same time symbolic light, as divine grace that enters daily life and brings salvation. The altarpiece is the second and definitive version of Saint Matthew and the Angel (1602). The reason for the rejection of the first, now lost, is to be found in the excessive realism and lack of decorum with which the Saint is treated. In the definitive version, the Saint does not have the appearance of an illiterate peasant, but of a scholar, inspired by the angel.

Church of Sant'Agostino Piazza Sant'Agostino, 80 Not far from the previous one, this church holds the celebrated Madonna of the Pilgrims (1604-06), created as an altarpiece dedicated to the Holy House of Loreto. To the traditional iconography of the Madonna in flight with the house where Jesus was born, Caravaggio substitutes the reality of a house doorway with a crumbling wall, at which the Virgin with the Child appears. Posing for this painting is Maddelena Antognetti (called Lena), a high-class prostitute, described in a trial involving the painter as "Caravaggio's woman." Contrasting with the beauty of the divine figures is the popular character of the pilgrims, in whose faces the Cavalletti patrons, devoted to the Madonna of Loreto, are portrayed. The evidence of their dirty and callused feet causes such uproar among Caravaggio's contemporaries.

Church of Santa Maria del Popolo Piazza del Popolo, 12 For the side walls of Cardinal Tiberio Cerasi's chapel in the church in Piazza del Popolo, he executed the Conversion of Saint Paul (1600-01) and the Martyrdom of Saint Peter (1600-01). The altarpiece, however, depicting the Assumption, is the work of Annibale Carracci. In the contract he is recognized as egregius in Urbe pictor: Caravaggio is at the height of his fame. As with the cycle of San Luigi dei Francesi, in these works too we witness the passage to the new style played on the contrasts between light and shadow; both scenes take place in the foreground, emerging from darkness. A complex structure, based on the intersection of multiple diagonals, composes the Martyrdom of Saint Peter, in whose face we seem to recognize the model of Saint Matthew and the angel just seen. The executioners assume the humanity of laborers, who do not act cruelly; they are rather simple men caught in the act of performing hard work. Extraordinarily innovative for its iconographic interpretation is the Conversion of Saint Paul: the miraculous event does not occur along the road to Damascus, but in a stable within which the horse dominates and on the ground, with arms spread wide, is the saint in the act of receiving the light, symbol of divine grace.

Vatican Picture Gallery Vatican Museums Viale Vaticano The Deposition (c. 1600-04), commissioned for the family chapel in Santa Maria in Vallicella by Girolamo Vittrice, is considered among the masterpieces of the mature Caravaggio. In 1797, following the Treaty of Tolentino, the work went to Paris, where it remained for about twenty years. In 1816 it became part of the Picture Gallery of Pius VII. The subject of the painting is not actually the traditional one, in which Christ is lowered into the tomb, but the one in which he is laid down by Nicodemus and John on the marble bed intended for funeral rites. In Nicodemus's face the patron is portrayed, thus finding himself as the guardian of Christ's body. Behind him are the gestures and faces of those who witnessed the Passion: the desperate gesture of Mary of Cleophas's arms to the sky, the tears of Magdalene, the Virgin petrified by pain, and John, who touches Christ's lifeless body one last time.

Galleria Corsini Via della Lungara, 10 Preserved here is the Saint John the Baptist (1604-06), whose attribution has long been the subject of debate. Once again, attention focuses on Caravaggio's freedom in treating traditional iconography. Absent is the traditional camel skin with which the saint is identified; other attributes are barely evident, such as the bowl, a reference to the baptism of Jesus, and the cross, almost hidden, at the edge of the painting. Saint John is here semi-nude, beardless, covered by the red cloak. The representation of a moment of rest during penance is rendered more contemporary, without mediations