Michelangelo Merisi (1571-1610) was born and raised in the northern Italian village of Caravaggio, where his father served as architect to the Marquis of Caravaggio.By the age of thirteen Caravaggio showed great artistic promise and was sent to apprentice with the painter Peterzano in Milan. Despite Peterzano’s own mediocrity as a painter, working in an established studio allowed the young Caravaggio to hone his own considerable painting skills. At the age of twenty-one Caravaggio set out to make a name for himself in Rome.
The young artist’s skill was admirable and he was on the cusp of gaining an important following when he sabotaged his own career through his fondness for drinking, carousing, and “wanton” behavior. In 1606 Caravaggio killed a young man in a fight over a tennis match, and was forced to flee to Zagarolo and on to Naples. In the next four years he traveled to Malta, Syracuse, and Messina, during which time he was involved in three other murders.
Throughout this period of exile Caravaggio continued to paint furiously, often sending his masterpieces to powerful Italian lords and religious leaders in an attempt to gain a pardon. His strong naturalistic style and his insistence on using common street people for models –even for adored religious figures-- led to an upset in the established art world. Poussin, in particular, reviled Caravaggio’s work publicly, calling it “crude and ugly” and “as vulgar as the artist himself.” In fact, Caravaggio’s paintings languished, virtually ignored, for centuries, and his stature as an artist was only resurrected during the Milan exhibit in 1951.
In July of 1610, hearing that he might soon be receiving the pardon that would allow him to return to Rome, Caravaggio stowed away on a ship bound for Naples. He was discovered and put down at the beach of Porto Ercole, where he wandered the shore for three days and nights, sick and alone. On July 18th he succumbed to fever. Soon afterward, his death no yet known, Caravaggio’s pardon was granted on the basis of his artistic contributions to the world.