Michelangelo Merisi, called "Caravaggio" was born in Milan on 29 September 1571 he died in Porto Ercole in 1610. Today the birthday of a talent difficult to harness, with a daring life, an immense descriptive skill, which has made him one of the most important and recognizable painters in the history of Italian art. What Caravaggio does, in the history of art, is not only the sublime use of light, the almost geometric ability to create different volumes, underline actions, as if to discover plastic forms through the chiaroscuro, what Caravaggio does is to make art daily.
The protagonists of the works
The protagonists of his paintings are people, indeed, more, the emotions that guide people's actions. I am anger, discouragement, wonder. With the genius of Caravaggio the psyche, the emotional sphere, become representation. His models are commoners, prostitutes, people met on the street. He frequents taverns, very poor characters and on the margins. He often painted himself, but also other artists, including Mario Minniti from Syracuse: he is the face portrayed in the Young boy with a basket of fruit. The first work with religious reference by Caravaggio portrays the Penitent Magdalene, to impersonate Maddalena is Annuccia Bianchini, a prostitute whom Caravaggio knew and frequented. Annuccia always poses for the opera Rest on the flight to Egypt, here she is portrayed as the Madonna, who guards her sleeping son.
Light and theatricality of the scenes in Caravaggio
The choice was unsettling, also because Caravaggio made the painted figures extremely recognizable. So it was traced back to their identities. It was like a theatrical scene, composed and dynamic. According to Merisi, only "those who know how to paint well and imitate natural things well" were skilled painters. What was important to Caravaggio was to describe a moment of real life, where anyone could recognize themselves, where normal people rediscovered the divine that was in them. They felt like protagonists.
Death of the Virgin (1605-1606) is a famous work, which was rejected by the client for the realism of the scene, it is said that Caravaggio chose a prostitute drowned in the Tiber to portray the Virgin. And it is said that that woman with a swollen belly, found among the waves, was just Annuccia Bianchini.
Another model of Caravaggio, the favorite, is Fillide Melandroni, also a prostitute, but a more attentive woman, trying to level up, to build a future. There is, again, Maddalena Antognetti, another prostitute who is used by Caravaggio twice, and always to represent the Virgin. Especially in the controversial Madonna dei Pellegrini.
Lights and shadows in Caravaggio
Caravaggio was very skilled a to dose lights and shadows in his paintings, but not the same in life. Even though he made money, he wore clothes that were expensive, but threadbare and worn, like his soul. His studio was set up with strategic lights from lamps and candles and was almost transformed into a modern film set, in fact, Caravaggio, is the first master of light and photography, we could say, which paves the way for the Baroque.
In 1606, he kills Ranuccio Tommasoni in a fight. His life is turned upside down. He sought refuge in Malta, but also here another fight and prison. He escapes, chased by feelings of guilt and the terror of death. He died in Porto Ercole in 1610, he is 38 years old, he was traveling to ask for an audience with the Pope, but he is tired, wounded, tried by a daring existence, avenging figures and above all his demons do not give him respite. He will never know that the Pontiff a few weeks earlier had condoned him of his crimes.
Photo source in evidence: “Caravaggio, Calling of St. Matthew” by profzucker is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0
