Lecture 29: Caravaggio
name of his town probably because he shared his ¿ rst name with the famous
Michelangelo, and contemporaries needed to avoid confusion. Between
1584 and 1588, Caravaggio apprenticed with Simone Peterzano in Milan,
an artist who shared the Naturalistic ideals of the Carracci. This was unusual
because Mannerist art had À ourished around Milan. The new realistic style
found many adherents in the Milan area, and they inÀ uenced Caravaggio.
Caravaggio arrived in Rome in late 1592 or early 1593. Those who would
judge artists by the morality of their lives have always disliked Caravaggio,
much of whose life is to be read in the police records of the day. He found
some early patrons—a Vatican lawyer, a monsignor who was a high-ranking
Vatican of¿ cial, and later, the Cardinal Francesco del Monte. Del Monte
lived at the Palazzo Madama and surrounded himself with young musicians,
writers, and painters. He eventually owned at least eight paintings by
Caravaggio, who remained in his service and patronage until at least 1600.
Many paintings from the beginning of Caravaggio’s residence in Rome have
homoerotic overtones, and there is little doubt that the artist was homosexual.
The secular subjects that he painted attest to the cardinal’s tastes. Around
1600, Caravaggio’s police record was a matter of brawls and assaults and
later escalated to carrying a sword without a license and using a sword in a
dispute over a woman. Imprisoned several times, he had to leave Rome at
least once. In 1606, he killed a man in a duel and À ed again. He had often
been rescued from his dif¿ culties by members of the Roman nobility and
was given sanctuary in a country estate of the Colonna family.
Our ¿ rst example shows Caravaggio’s Boy with a Basket of Fruit (c. 1594).
This still life embraces a homoerotic sensuality, but most historians believe
that it was painted before the artist went to live with Cardinal Del Monte.
At the time of Del Monte’s patronage, Caravaggio began to paint the religious
masterpieces that would de¿ ne his career and fame, one of them the Rest on
the Flight into Egypt (c. 1596–1597). It is not known who commissioned
this painting, although it was owned by Prince Pamphilj by 1672. There is
a more extensive landscape here than in any other painting by Caravaggio.
The subject demanded it, but Caravaggio utilized it in an unorthodox way,
for a mood rather than a locale. The Holy Family is seated in the foreground,
À anking a partially nude angel playing the violin. A contemporary