Caravaggio is located in Lombardy in the province of Bergamo, in the center of the Bergamo area. The city seems to have been founded by the Lombards and is known above all for being the birthplace of the great seventeenth-century painter Michelangelo Merisi known as the "Caravaggio, " precisely.
In this quiet town, there is the important Marian sanctuary of Santa Maria del Fonte, with its beautiful avenue and the complex of the San Bernardino Civic Center, a former convent with a church attached. Instead in the center of the village there is the enchanting parish church of Saints Fermo and Rustico. Tourists should not miss a visit to the church of S.Elisabetta and that of S. Liberata. The town is charming and well kept, however it is known above all for being the cradle of Merisi, who, orphaned at a young age, soon left the Bergamo area to go to Rome to seek his fortune.
Caravaggio from Cavalier D'Arpino to the rope ball, to the escape
It was important for Michelangelo Merisi to enter the workshop of Cavalier d'Arpino, a much appreciated painter in the city of the time, where he learned a lot, but did not last long, since Caravaggio was already irascible. However, the painter's career underwent a sudden acceleration when he entered under the protective wing of Cardinal Francesco Maria del Monte, under whose aegis he gained fame and honors. According to critics, he was a genius who invented "cinematographic images" with his extraordinary painting, not always accepted by his contemporaries, in fact, many altarpieces and sacred-themed works that had been commissioned were later refused. A rock star life that of the Bergamo painter, lived in an unscrupulous way, a bit like Raffaello before him.
His painting fascinated, but the realism, the ragged poor with dirty feet, or his mistresses, known prostitutes used as models in an ostentatious way for sacred images, caused a scandal and provoked enmities. A frequenter of ill-reputed taverns, he was often involved in fights or was arrested because, in contravention of the law, he went around armed. The quarrelsome nature gave him many problems, from which he managed to get out of the way only thanks to the powerful who protected him, which was not possible in the event that changed his life. In 1606, during a competition of ball rope, in a brawl or duel between Merisi and Ranuccio Tommasoni, with whom the painter had already had other skirmishes, his antagonist was killed and the crime led to a sentence of beheading. At that point Cardinal Del Monte could not help him and therefore he had no choice but to flee south.
To Malta
After some daring stages, Michelangelo Merisi arrives in Malta, where he meets the Grand Master of the Order of the Knights, which makes him enter the order, but for a short time, since he was quickly removed from it, probably because it was discovered that he was sentenced to death. Merisi fled again to Sicily where an old friend got him some orders, but he probably didn't feel safe and feared for his life, but he still painted a lot, never tamed. In this period he created the Burial of Saint Lucia and the Resurrection of Lazarus.
Restless, perhaps not very lucid due to the lead poisoning present in the colors he used, which gave him or aggravated that irascible character, he secretly embarked on a ferry bound for Porto Ercole, in Tuscany, but was mistakenly arrested. Released, he tried to recover his possessions, especially the canvas with which he believed he could trade his freedom, but adverse fate made him lose the ship. Finally, feverish and desperate, he probably wandered in delirium on the beach of Porto Ercole where he died at 39, and it was July 18, 1610. Ironically; a few days later, the letter annulling the sentence arrived in Naples. He sank into alcohol, lived among the simplest, knew flight, fear, even dishonor, poisoned and clouded by his own work, however showing an extraordinary talent, to which that bitter end does not do justice to the greatest Italian talent of the seventeenth century.