Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio led a turbulent life, consisting of murder charges, ambushes by knights, and a death that is shrouded in mystery to this day. He poured his passion into his artwork, producing realistic high renaissance pieces that had an incredible amount of detail. His use of light and dark contrast, or chiaroscuro, was incredibly influential to fellow artists and paved the way for the tenebrism technique. Singulart explores the tempestuous life of Caravaggio, his use of chiaroscuro, and one of his earliest masterpieces, The Cardsharps.
The Life of Caravaggio
Not much is known about Caravaggio’s early life. He was born Michelangelo Merisi, on September 29, 1571, in Milan, Italy. When he was five years old, his family moved to the Caravaggio countryside to escape an outbreak of the bubonic plague, though by 1577 Caravaggio lost his father, younger brother, paternal grandparents, and uncle to the disease. His mother died in 1584, just after Caravaggio began an apprenticeship with painter Simone Peterzano. What Caravaggio did in the following years is unclear, though it is thought he may have traveled to Venice to view the works of Titian and Giorgione.
Around 1592, Caravaggio fled to Rome following his involvement in a murder and the wounding of a police officer. He remained in Rome until 1606, working as an assistant to fresco painter Giuseppe Cesari. During this time, he was primarily responsible for painting background flowers and fruits, and was commended for his attention to detail- something that is clearly evident in his later work. Although Caravaggio had come to Rome with no money, naked and scared, by the end of his work with Cesari he had met his future patron, Cardinal Francesco Maria del Monte. While he enjoyed success and recognition for paintings such as Amor Vincit Omnia, in 1606 he killed a young man, his former friend Ranuccio Tomassoni, in a street brawl and was on the run once again. He was exiled from the city and the courts deemed that any citizens in the papal states would receive an award for executing him.
It is believed that Caravaggio was granted entry into Naples by Constanza Colonna Sforza- Caravaggio had ties to the powerful family, even though they were lower class. While he had become well known for his use of chiaroscuro and radical naturalism, his later pieces showed experimentation with color and contrast. He began to use rapid brushstrokes and a palette that heavily featured red and brown. Through his relationship with the Sforzas, he was commissioned to paint a number of pieces for churches, such as the Madonna of the Rosary and The Seven Works of Mercy.
Caravaggio moved to Malta in 1607, and it was here that his dramatic lifestyle led to his downfall. Although he completed important pieces such as The Beheading of Saint John the Baptist, his largest painting, he was eventually arrested following an altercation at the Conventual Church of Saint John. During the fight a knight was seriously wounded, and Caravaggio was captured and imprisoned by the Knights at Valletta. Incredibly, he managed to escape, but his artistic honors were revoked by the Order of the Knights of Malta, who expelled him as “a foul and rotten member”.
After a brief period in Sicily, where he continued to experiment with his style, Caravaggio returned to Naples. It is thought that he was being pursued by enemies, so he returned to the place where he had connections with the Colonna Sforza family who would be able to protect him. However, they were unable to prevent an ambush on Caravaggio that left him with a slashed face and near fatal wounds. He recovered at the Colonna’s palace, completing pieces such as Salome with the Head of John the Baptist and David with the Head of Goliath. In 1610, he returned to Rome after hearing that he had secured a pardon from the papal.
It is not entirely clear what happened on his return to Rome, however, it is generally believed that Caravaggio was mistakenly arrested and put in jail. However, he died two days after being released, and to this day his cause of death is debated. While it is thought he may have been suffering from malaria, historians believe he died from syphilis. It is also thought that he may have been attacked by the same group behind his ambush in Naples.
Caravaggio and chiaroscuro
While it would be easy for Caravaggio’s work to be overshadowed by his explosive personal life, he was one of the most important artists of his time. Caravaggio was a master of chiaroscuro, the use of strong contrasts between light and dark, which affects the entire composition of a piece. Art historian Gilles Lambert stated that Caravaggio “put the oscuro (shadows) in chiaroscuro”. While he did not invent the technique, it was through his work where it became a dominant element, with subjects being bathed in beams of light and the rest of the piece plunged into dark shadows.
One of the greatest examples of Caravaggio’s chiaroscuro is Saint John the Baptist in the Wilderness. In this artwork, we can see the figure of Saint John the Baptist emerging from a shadowy forest, while his face and body are lit by a beam of golden light. As was common with his use of chiaroscuro, we do not see a source of light, just the way it shines on the subjects of the piece.
Caravaggio’s use of chiaroscuro paved the way for a technique which would become known as tenebrism. Tenebrism is also known as ‘dramatic illumination’, chiaroscuro with an extremely high contrast. It is seen in Baroque paintings where a spotlight illuminates the subject and leaves the rest of the piece in dark shadows.
The Cardsharps
The Cardsharps depicts a card game being played between three players: two cardsharps and a dupe. They are playing a game of primero, an early form of poker. We can see one of the cheats signaling to his partner behind the dupe’s back, while the second cheat reaches into his waistband to draw out an extra card. The first cheat’s fingertips are exposed from his gloves – this made it easier for cardsharps to feel ‘marked’ cards. A stack of coins sits on the table, inevitably to be won by the cardsharps.
It is clear by the dupe’s lace collar and ruffled cuffs that he is of a higher class (though perhaps with not much worldly experience). His dandy style is quite a contrast to the gaudy stripes of the cardsharps. By obscuring the right eye of the cardsharp on the left, his visible eye takes on a forced emphasis; we can see the sinfulness of the scene, and the tension between the two cardsharps. In this artwork, Caravaggio is lamenting a loss of innocence. Although there are only three subjects in the piece, they each hold an important part of the story: the young boy being duped by the older, experienced cardsharp, and the younger cardsharp being corrupted as he is implicated in the scene.
The Cardsharps was believed to be a turning point in Caravaggio’s career. After painting background flowers and fruits in Cesari’s pieces, this realistic artwork was what captured the attention of his patron Cardinal Francesco Maria del Monte. The Cardsharps inspired countless imitations, most notably Cheat with the Ace of Clubs by Georges de La Tour. It is considered one of Caravaggio’s earliest masterpieces.
