The stormy life of the painter Michelangelo Merisi began in the small Italian town of Caravaggio on September 28, 1573. At 11 he became an apprentice to an artist in the nearby town of Milan, but after 4 years he left to be on his own. When he was about 18, Michelangelo Da Caravaggio arrived in Rome, where he was known by the name of his birthplace.
Caravaggio painted detailed pictures of baskets of fruits and flowers, and scenes of everyday life. But it is for his religious paintings that Caravaggio is famous. Through the influence of his patron Cardinal del Monte, he was commissioned to paint pictures for two churches in Rome. Church officials, however, demanded that Caravaggio repaint the pictures. They were shocked that he had shown religious figures as peasants with dirty feet and torn robes. By depicting the saints as ordinary men of his time. Caravaggio believed he would make the Bible stories seem more real. To give a spiritual quality to a figure, he would set it apart from the surrounding darkness by a brilliant and dramatic night.
Caravaggio had a violent temper and was always getting into fights. In 1606 he stabbed a man had to flee Rome. He went to Naples. then to the island of Malta. Because of another fight he had to escape from the island. After fleeing from city to city, he decided to return to Rome, hoping for a pardon. On the way he feel ill and on July 18, 1610. It was rumored that the Pope had already granted his pardon.
Caravaggio painted detailed pictures of baskets of fruits and flowers, and scenes of everyday life. But it is for his religious paintings that Caravaggio is famous. Through the influence of his patron Cardinal del Monte, he was commissioned to paint pictures for two churches in Rome. Church officials, however, demanded that Caravaggio repaint the pictures. They were shocked that he had shown religious figures as peasants with dirty feet and torn robes. By depicting the saints as ordinary men of his time. Caravaggio believed he would make the Bible stories seem more real. To give a spiritual quality to a figure, he would set it apart from the surrounding darkness by a brilliant and dramatic night.
Caravaggio had a violent temper and was always getting into fights. In 1606 he stabbed a man had to flee Rome. He went to Naples. then to the island of Malta. Because of another fight he had to escape from the island. After fleeing from city to city, he decided to return to Rome, hoping for a pardon. On the way he feel ill and on July 18, 1610. It was rumored that the Pope had already granted his pardon.
