Caravaggio, A Painter Of Light And Shadow In His Life And His Work
Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio is one of the great masters of the Baroque. In his works, his great use of the chiaroscuro technique stands out above all. Next, we will discover everything you need to know about the life of this famous Italian painter and where you can see his most notorious creations.
Brief biography of Michelangelo Merisi
Michelangelo Merisi was born in Milan in 1571, although he soon moved with his family to Caravaggio, the city from which he would end up taking his stage name. After working as an apprentice to the painter Iombardo Simone and concluding his apprenticeship, he began to move to get to know the artistic and cultural heritage of his hometown.
In 1592 Caravaggio moved to Rome. There he worked in Giuseppe Cesari’s painting workshop, until two years later he decided to leave it to make his own way. In this way, and after carrying out several religious commissions, he ended up becoming the most famous painter in the Italian capital.
However, Caravaggio was not only known for the original approach to his works, but also for the various and continuous fights in which he was involved. In one of them, in 1606, he ended up killing a man, for which he had to flee from Rome. Four years later he died in Porto Ércole from malaria.
After Caravaggio’s death, the influence of his work endured and inspired many other artists. He did it above all in relation to the use of chiaroscuro, the interpretation of psychological realism and the drama that his works convey.
Works by Caravaggio in Spain
Madrid is the Spanish city that houses the most works by the Italian painter. One of them is Saint Catherine of Alexandria , exhibited at the Thyssen Museum and in which her naturalism stands out, as well as her interpretation of light and volume. For the painting he had as a model the famous courtesan Fillide Melandroni.
From the Thyssen Museum we went to the Prado Museum to observe the oil painting David victorious of Goliath, which shows the episode in which the young shepherd kills the biblical giant with his sling and then cuts off his head and exhibits it as a triumph. It seems that the painter portrayed himself in the figure of Goliath, thinking that he would die in the same way.
For its part, the Royal Palace of Madrid exhibits the painting Salomé with the head of Juan Bautista, one of the best works of Caravaggio’s final period due to its color, the contrast of lights characteristic of tenebrism or the great realism with which it He portrayed the characters that appear in the painting.
Other cities on the peninsula that can also boast of having some work by the famous Italian painter are Barcelona and Toledo. In Barcelona you can admire San Jerónimo, in the Museum of Montserrat. In Toledo you can find San Juan Bautista with the lamb, specifically, in the Cathedral of Santa María.
Other works by Caravaggio and where to find them
Most of Caravaggio’s works are found in his country of origin: Italy. Some examples are Child with Fruit Basket (Borghese Gallery, Rome), The Resurrection of Lazarus (National Museum, Messina), The Flagellation of Christ (Capodimonte Museum, Naples) or Bacchus (Uffizi Gallery, Florence).
Likewise, Caravaggio was commissioned to decorate the Contarelli chapel of San Luigi dei Francesi and the Ceresi chapel of Danta Maria del Popolo, both in Rome. For the first, he made The Vocation of Saint Matthew and The Martyrdom of Saint Matthew , and for the second, The Crucifixion of Saint Peter and The Conversion of Saint Paul .
Leaving Italy we find Emmaus Dinner (National Gallery, London), one of his masterpieces; The beheading of Saint John the Baptist (Co-Cathedral of Saint John of Valletta, Malta), the only one that bears the painter’s signature; o The Crowning with Thorns (Vienna Art History Museum), one of his most beautiful paintings.
