Caravaggio

Baroque

He worked around 1600, mainly in Rome.

💡 Did you know? Caravaggio revolutionised painting around 1600 so profoundly that Baroque art is almost divided into „before“ and „after“ him.

chiaroscuro

Figures emerge from darkness as if lit by a spotlight.

💡 Did you know? His figures emerge from deep black into harsh light; this extreme form of chiaroscuro is called tenebrism.

stark realism

Caravaggio painted saints with dirty feet and everyday faces: his models came from the street, not an ideal world.

💡 Did you know? For some contemporaries this was a scandal.

violence and flight

With a death sentence hanging over him, he fled Rome and kept painting.

💡 Did you know? In 1606 Caravaggio killed a man and fled across half of Italy with a death sentence over his head.

Caravaggisti

His style influenced a whole generation across Europe.

💡 Did you know? From Rome to Utrecht whole schools of painters imitated his dramatic handling of light.

at 38 (1610)

Caravaggio died in 1610 aged just 38 under still-unexplained circumstances on a Tuscan beach.

💡 Did you know? He painted his own face as the severed head of Goliath.

The Calling of Saint Matthew

Painted around 1609.

💡 Did you know? A shaft of light follows Christ's pointing hand: its gesture echoes Michelangelo's „Creation of Adam.“

The Beheading of Saint John the Baptist

Painted around 1608.

💡 Did you know? It is the only picture Caravaggio ever signed: fittingly with his name in the painted blood.

Supper at Emmaus

Painted around 1601.

💡 Did you know? At the moment the disciples recognise Christ, a bowl of fruit tips dramatically half over the table's edge.

Judith Beheading Holofernes

Around 1599: a stark, dramatically lit scene of violence.

💡 Did you know? Caravaggio shows the very instant of the cut without mercy: the blood spurts in jets.

Amor Vincit Omnia

Painted around 1601.

💡 Did you know? A cheekily grinning Cupid tramples symbols of art, war and science: „Love conquers all.“

Medusa

Painted around 1597.

💡 Did you know? Painted on a round jousting shield, it shows Medusa's head at the moment of death, with Caravaggio's own features.

Self-Portrait as Bacchus

Painted around 1595.

💡 Did you know? The „sick Bacchus“ with his sallow skin was probably made while Caravaggio himself was seriously ill.

Death of the Virgin

Painted around 1603.

💡 Did you know? A drowned woman is said to have served as the model for the dead Virgin: the patron rejected the painting.

Bacchus

Painted around 1598.

💡 Did you know? The wine god offers the viewer a cup: look closely and a tiny self-portrait is reflected in the wine.

The Fortune Teller

Painted around 1594.

💡 Did you know? As the fortune-teller reads the young man's future, she quietly slips the ring from his finger.

David with the Head of Goliath

Caravaggio painted his own face as the head of Goliath.

💡 Did you know? The severed head of Goliath bears Caravaggio's own features: a painted confession of guilt.

The Cardsharps

Painted around 1596.

💡 Did you know? A cheat secretly draws a card from his belt: the painting made the young Caravaggio famous.

Caravaggio

Caravaggio (1571 to 1610) was an Italian Baroque painter who revolutionised art with radical realism and dramatic chiaroscuro.

💡 Did you know? Caravaggio was as brilliant as he was hot-tempered: Roman police records list countless brawls before he became a murderer and fugitive.