The Violence of Caravaggio

The Violence of Caravaggio

Caravaggio is considered to be one of the greatest artists of all time; his style was one of a kind, especially compared to the art in Italy. His method of painting was one of a kind, and a great reason for his popularity. He set the trend for future painters; he had many followers who took after him, but compared to the painters of his time, he was unique. He was a very different man, he looked at figures and stories in a completely different light (literally). His life was very short, as were many artists' lives in the early centuries, but still action-packed. He was born in a time of many of the great people we still know today. He ran from authorities much of the time and got into fights with all types of people. He had the type of attitude that no one liked, except his closest followers. I believe that his attitude affected his work. He went out with the intent to offend people and make himself feel like he was better than the next guy. He did that by pushing his paintings into an area where no one had ever gone. In the end, he was praised for it. He was an aggressive man and it shows through what we know of his life and this aggression is reflected in his compositions.

        Caravaggio was born in 1571, as Michelangelo Merisi. He was born seven years after the death of Michelangelo, who is considered to be "the last and greatest of the Italian Renaissance [painters]" (Robb 7). He was also born twenty-one years before Montaigne, the first modern European writer. Caravaggio was born seven years after Marlowe and Shakespeare, Marlowe being the man who invented modern drama and Shakespeare being, arguably, the...