The Short Life of Caravaggio

Michelangelo Caravaggio (Michelangelo) was born in 1506 in Ancona, Italy. From an early age he showed great interest in the arts, especially painting. When his father died, he inherited his father's workshop where he spent most of his time painting portraits. Although he gained much fame in the art world during his lifetime, he was never able to live up to the standards set by his father. Caravaggio was known for his bold use of color and also for his use of dramatic lighting in his works, which were often based on religious or Biblical themes. Michelangelo Caravaggio was a controversial and influential Italian artist. He was orphaned at age 11 and apprenticed with a painter in Milan. His work became popular for the tenebrism technique he used, which used shadow to emphasize lighter areas. His career, however, was short-lived. He killed a man during a brawl and fled Rome. He died not long after, on July 18, 1610.

Michelangelo's Early Years

Michelangelo's early years were focused on painting. He studied under his father, who introduced him to the skills of sculpting. At the age of 14, Michelangelo entered the workshop of Lorenzo di Pietro, an artist who was lauded for his work in religious art. Although Lorenzo di Pietro was highly regarded in his time, his work did not appeal to Michelangelo. Instead, Michelangelo found inspiration in the work of Lorenzo's contemporaries, such as Caravaggio and Francesco del Cossa. Michelangelo Caravaggio was one of the most influential painters of his time. He was born in Milan in 1571 and was raised in extreme poverty. He spent his early career creating religious works for churches in Milan and Rome. In 1620, Caravaggio discovered a group of young artists who were inspired by the new style of painting known as Baroque. This group of artists included painters like Bartolomeo Ambrosio and Antonio da Sangallo. Michelangelo was a precocious child. When he was 15, his father decided to send him to Rome to study art. Early in his studies, he was taken under the wing of an artist named Francesco da Sangallo, who introduced him to the techniques of Renaissance painting and architecture. By age 21, Michelangelo had become one of the most celebrated artists of all time a world-renowned painter and sculptor whose works adorn the walls of the Vatican and other major European landmarks.
A prolific painter, Michelangelo Caravaggio was known to work quickly, often starting and completing a painting in just two weeks. By the time he had come under the influence of del Monte, Caravaggio already had 20 works to his name. The lineup included "Boy with a Basket of Fruit," "The Young Bacchus" and "The Music Party."

The Life and Work of Michelangelo

Michelangelo Caravaggio (1507-1594) was an Italian painter of oil on canvas who has become known as one of the greatest artists in the history of Western art. He was strongly influenced by Renaissance art, and by the artistic philosophies of the Florentine Renaissance man, Leonardo Da Vinci. His most recognized work is The Last Supper, which depicts Jesus and his Apostles sharing a meal. Caravaggio was one of the greatest artists of his time, but many people don't know about him. His influence on Italian Renaissance painting is virtually unparalleled. He was not only a great artist but also a great architect, sculptor, and musician. Much of his work took place in Rome, where he found considerable success during his lifetime. His most important creations include The Burial of Count Giovanni de' Medici and The Fall of Daniel. Michelangelo was born in 1483 in Cascia, Italy. His father Francesco was a teacher at a local art school where Michelangelo attended the classes for a number of years before eventually earning his degree. He began his artistic career as a painter of frescoes at an early age; however, it was not until he moved to Rome in 1508 that he began to receive formal training in the art of painting. The Life and Work of Michelangelo is an unparalleled account of an artist's life, filled with beautiful imagery, drama, heroism, and tragedy. The work itself represents some of the most dramatic examples of Renaissance painting in the Sistine Chapel, as well as some of the most hauntingly dramatic moments in art history. The primary focus of this work is Michelangelo's incredible capacity for creativity; his constant search for new figures, positions, and techniques; and his relentless pursuit of perfection.

From Troubled Life To Iconic Painter

Caravaggio’s life story has everything one could hope for in a compelling biography: rags to riches, scandal, scandalous behavior, run-ins with the law, religious oppression. The life of Michelangelo Caravaggio is the stuff of legend. Born into poverty in 1522, he was brought up by his uncle and aunt, who paid for his education at the Florence Academy of Art. He soon joined the Florentine painters guild and gained fame for his religious commissions. At age 24, however, he was forced into exile after being arrested for painting religious pictures in Florence without permission. He spent the next nine years working as an apprentice under several important artists, including Raphael and Leonardo da Vinci. During this time he mastered his craft and developed his own style of painting. Caravaggio is perhaps best known for his dramatic portrayals of religious figures. He painted almost 50 religious paintings during his lifetime. Five of these are considered masterpieces, including The Agony in the Garden, The Taking of Christ, and The Crucifixion. However, his other paintings are just as good, if not more so; he painted a number of portraits, including portraits of his fellow artists, Pope Leo X, and King Henry V. Michelangelo Caravaggio was one of the most talented painters of the Renaissance. He was very prolific, painting more than 200 works of art. He is considered one of the founders of Italian painting, and his work is highly influential on artists of the 20th and 21st centuries. His most famous work, however, is not one of his religious paintings but rather his series of frescoes on the Sistine Chapel ceiling. These frescoes are famous for their innovative use of light and color, as well as their depiction of biblical stories in a secular context.

Caravaggio's Life Was One Big Fight

Controversy only fueled the success of Michelangelo Caravaggio, and as that success grew, so did his personal turmoil. He became violent, had mood swings, and loved to drink and gamble.
Michelangelo Caravaggio was an Italian painter famous for his creativity. A frequent fighter, Caravaggio eventually served a short prison sentence in 1603 following another painter's complaint that Caravaggio had attacked him. The next few years only saw Caravaggio's temper becoming hotter. His litany of assaults included throwing a plate of artichokes at a waiter in 1604, and attacking Roman guards with stones in 1605. "After a fortnight's work Michelangelo swaggered around town with a sword at his side and a servant following him, from one ballcourt to the next, ever ready to engage in a fight or an argument."
Art historians have long speculated about what was at the root of Michelangelo Caravaggio’s temper. Some have suggested that it was over an unpaid debt, while others have claimed that it was the result of an argument over a game of tennis. More recently, historians, including Andrew Graham Dixon, have pointed to Michelangelo's and Caravaggio’s lust for Tomassoni’s wife, Lavinia.

A Life Measured in Shadows

Michelangelo Caravaggio fled Rome after the murder. He sought refuge in a host of other locations: Naples, Maltaand Sicily, among others. But even as he fled from punishment for his crime, fame followed Michelangelo Caravaggio. In Malta, he was received into the Order of Malta as a Knight of Justice, an award that he was soon stripped of when the Order learned of the crime he had committed.
However, even as he fled, Michelangelo continued to work. In Naples, continued to paint the "Madonna of the Rosary" for a fellow painter, and later "The Seven Works of Mercy" for the church of Maria Pio Chapel of Monte della Misericordia."
Michelangelo Caravaggio lived from 1571 to 1610. In Malta, his work included "The Beheading of St. John the Baptist" for the cathedral in Valletta. In Messina, his work included "The Resurrection of Lazarus" and "The Adoration of the Shepherds." He painted the "Adoration with St. Francis and St. Lawrence" in Palermo.
One of Michelangelo Caravaggio's more shocking paintings from this period is "Resurrection," which reveals a less saintly, more bedraggled Jesus Christ escaping from his tomb in the middle of the night. This scene was no doubt inspired by events in Caravaggio's own life. By this time, Caravaggio was a nervous wreck, always on the run and in constant fear for his life, so much so that he slept with his clothes on and with a dagger at his side, just like Michelangelo.

The Death of Caravaggio

The few facts that can be agreed on are these: he was born in 1571, he died at the end of July 1610 from a combination of lead poisoning and an infected wound, and during his lifetime he committed at least one murder and was a member of a Neapolitan gang known as the "bandits of Naples". The range of works attributed to him is also significant. In the course of his short life, Caravaggio painted around seventy-five paintings and many more drawings and etchings, as well as designing decorations for various important occasions. Although he has been described as the most revolutionary European painter prior to Picasso, no one is entirely sure which paintings were created by him. In this period it was common for artists to have pupils imitating their style, so one would expect many works to be wrongly attributed. But in Caravaggio's case it is a near certainty that some works now attributed to him were not done by him at all.

Michelangelo Carvaggio style

Every artist has some characteristic style, some combination of elements that is instantly recognizable as his. Picasso's is elongated figures and distorted faces; Caravaggio's is strong light effects, dramatic chiaroscuro. The artist's style is not just a matter of habit. If you gave Picasso a computer program for doing elongated figures, he could use it to do his next picture. But no one can copy Caravaggio's style without looking like a clumsy phony. His distinctive style comes from something more than just his personal taste. It comes because he found a way to express his vision more powerfully than anyone else. No one has ever matched the way Caravaggio used light to bring drama to his subjects. Artists are always trying to find new styles, but almost all of them fail. For every artist who succeeds in doing something different, there are thousands who try and fail, because the task is much harder than it looks. Caravaggio employed a realistic technique in order to portray his subjects in a dramatic light filled with strong chiaroscuro. His work was radically different from that of his contemporaries in that he painted secular subjects in a religious style, effectively inventing modern painting.

The 5 Most Famous Michelangelo Caravaggio Painting

1.The Calling of Saint Matthew

Michelangelo Caravaggio was an Italian painter. This masterpiece by Caravaggio shows the very moment in which Jesus inspired Matthew to follow him. Standing alongside Saint Peter, Jesus points at Matthew, who is sitting at a table with four other men. It is evident that Caravaggio was inspired by the real world in most of his art, and this work is no exception as he anchors the biblical scene in a modern reality.

2.Bacchus

Michelangelo Caravaggio’s Bacchus was the Roman name for Dionysus, the Greek god of wine, madness and ecstasy. Here, he is portrayed as a 17th century Italian teenager. The painting is interesting for a number of reasons: Many have speculated that Caravaggio used a mirror to paint, modelling himself posing as Bacchus (note that the wine is held in the figure’s left hand). What’s more, upon restoration of the work, a tiny reflection of Caravaggio, paintbrush in hand, was also discovered on the wine carafe!

3.The Fortune Teller

There are hundreds of Michelangelo’s paintings, but this is one of his most famous. Unlike some Italian art of the time, ‘The Fortune Teller’ does not portray a story from the Bible or Greco-Roman mythology; it is simply a scene from everyday life. The work shows a wealthy young man who naively trusts a gypsy girl to read his palm. With his eyes fixed on hers, he seems unaware that she had already slipped off his ring! The work is an example of the artist’s penchant for drawing his inspiration from nature and everyday events, rather than from the works of the hallowed artistic masters of the past.

4.The Beheading of Saint John the Baptist

One of the most important works in Western art, Hailed as “one of the most important works in Western painting” by author Andrea Pomella, this masterpiece was Michelangelo’s largest altarpiece ever painted. The canvas is so large that the figures are approximately life-sized, hanging dominantly in St. John’s Co-Cathedral in Malta, the church for which it was originally commissioned. The oil depicts the execution of John the Baptist and is the only work that Michelangelo ever signed. His signature, located in the blood that spills from John’s throat, was discovered during restoration of the work.

5.David with the Head of Goliath

Michelangelo Caravaggio’sDavid with the Head of Goliath’ is another extremely dramatic and theatrical work. David is depicted not celebrating his victory over the giant, but rather lost in thought, perhaps pondering his curious biblical connection and bond with his adversary. Another thought-provoking aspect is the fact that Caravaggio painted himself as Goliath.