Caravaggio: Master or Murderer?
To understand Caravaggio, you must try to separate the man from the artist. As an artist, he was, without doubt, one of the great masters to have ever lived. But as a person, he was evil, a murderer, and morally depraved.
It troubles me when critics describe him simply as “Arts Bad Boy”, in a way to justify his appalling behaviour.
So, I will make my argument for both the man and the artist, and let you make your own judgment.
Caravaggio brought to art, mastery of light, shadow, realism, and intense chiaroscuro. His work is associated with a renowned masterful technique of the Baroque period. He was without doubt the master of dark space. He painted the world around him as his version of realism. He chose the exact expression of intense emotion when painting a scene using people as if they were ordinary everyday humans and chose not to idolize the perfect image of humanity, unlike other artists of the day.
He was famous for depicting a single dramatic moment to frame the narrative of the story. His trademark was in his ability to illuminate faces and hands by highlighting them within a predominantly dark setting. Caravaggio will be seen as the father of tenebrism and would have had a large following of renowned artists at the time.
His career finally erupted when his work got the attention of a major art patron Cardinal Maria del Monte, the artist would get many commissions from both churches and palaces throughout Rome.
Caravaggio was born Michelangelo Merisi Caravaggio in Italy in 1571. After losing both of his parents to the plague when he was a child, he moved to Rome and started selling his own paintings on the streets.
A German art historian at the time wrote of Caravaggio, as “a brash swaggering fellow artist and talented swordsman.” Caravaggio was a passionate man who found himself crossing swords with people of influence, by writing derogatory letters about their deeds and actions. he would find himself in court defending his actions of character assassination on numerous occasions. On another occasion, he presented himself in front of a magistrate, following a physical assault on a waiter.
A serious incident that occurred after a tennis match in 1606 would change the life of Caravaggio forever. It is believed that in a fit of rage-fuelled jealousy, he attempted to castrate a man named Ranuccio Tomassonihe. The Barber-Surgeon’s report tells of Tomassoni’s death and reported,” he bled out through the femoral artery in his groin, suggesting Caravaggio had tried to castrate him, which in turn suggests the fight was over a woman”.
Having been found guilty and with a price on his head, Caravaggio went on the run to Naples where he continued to produce masterpieces for many provincial aristocratic patrons unconcerned by his desperate status. His poor behaviour continued to provide him with many enemies and was continuously pursued by the aggrieved and more worryingly for him, determined assassins. He was amazingly very productive during this period, furiously painting many masterpieces.
Having fled to Malta, Caravaggio would encounter trouble in the form of a vicious assault that left him with severe facial disfigurement. He escaped from prison after assaulting a high-ranking knight. It was at this point the 38-year-old decided to return to Rome to seek a papal pardon from his death warrant after receiving an offer of a knighthood. On his journey home while traveling through Porto Ercole, Caravaggio succumbed to his illness and died on July 18, 1610. It is thought he died from sepsis following an injury by a sword, others suggest syphilis, and some have suggested a simple and less dramatic case of heatstroke that caused his untimely death.
Perhaps it is Ranuccio Tomassonihe and him alone, who has earned the right to answer this question.
