Caravaggio
ARTIST’S
Caravaggio
LIFE
Caravaggio
Rodolfo Papa
Frontispiece: Basket of Fruit (c. 1597-1598), detail, Milan, Pinacoteca Ambrosiana.
Managing editor Claudio Pescio Editing Sara Draghi Augusta Tosone English Translation Julia Hanna Weiss Graphic design and Layout Paola Zacchini Image Research Cristina Reggioli www.giunti.it © XXXX Giunti Editore S.p.A. Via Bolognese, 165 - 50139 Firenze - Italia Via Dante, 4 - 20121 Milano - Italia ISBN 9788809765573 Edizione digitale realizzata da Simplicissimus Book Farm srl Prima edizione digitale 2010
Contents 1571-1592
6
The background The Caravaggio controversy A childhood between Caravaggio and Milan Youth: the years in Milan Lombard culture in the late sixteenth century Peterzano’s workshop and the Lombard-Venetian matrix
1592-1599
40
The early years in Rome Arrival The first paintings
1599-1606
72
The years of fame The Contarelli Chapel The greatest painter in Rome Trouble with the law and convictions
1606-1610
126
The dramatic years 28 May 1606: the murder The Neapolitan sojourn Between Naples and Malta Escape to Sicily The last year
154 156 158
Chronology Index Bibliography
1571
1592
Lute Player (c. 1595-1596), detail, Saint Petersburg, Hermitage.
The background
THE CARAVAGGIO CONTROVERSY Caravaggio’s life story has often been told like a novel: the brawls, the triumphs, the envy of his colleagues, his masterful skill and then the murder, the escapes to different places to avoid arrest, the inevitable death sentence, and then, finally the long-hoped for pardon that arrived just before his mysterious death on a beach. But Caravaggio’s life is not limited to these few, legend-like biographical notes, in fact in some ways these episodes have often been an insurmountable hurdle for a true understanding of his artistic output. If we have to know about an artist’s life in order to understand his work, in Caravaggio’s case this has sometimes absorbed the true meaning of his art, reducing it to fruit of the mind of a deeply troubled
and violent man. The legend of the temperamental and “cursed” artist began taking shape when Caravaggio was still alive. Today, thanks to historical-documentary studies we can uncover some of the mysteries surrounding this man. To understand Caravaggio’s artistic career we have to place him in the historical-cultural context where he was born and where he matured. Therefore, we must broaden the picture and add a wider range of information that can provide what we need to bring Merisi’s paintings out of the world of myth and into history. The great theological issues of the sixteenth century had such repercussions on art that they cannot be ignored if we want to understand the differences among the various stylistic trends. Above all we must avoid considering Caravaggio’s style as born from nothing – without roots or teachers –
8
The background
Ottavio Leoni, Portrait of Caravaggio (c. 1621-1625), Florence, Biblioteca Marucelliana.
in the total solitude of a genius who spent his life alone in psychological and existential misery, in a desperate quest for a little tranquillity, without ever satisfying his longing for perfection and beauty. Caravaggio was a genius precisely because, like all geniuses, he knew how to use what was around him and what came before him, and transform it into something else. His contemporaries, even those who opposed him, could not disregard his work, not only because of the success his paintings enjoyed – especially in Rome between 1600 and 1606 – but because what
Caravaggio was saying with his paintbrush was precisely the right artistic response to the changed cultural and intellectual needs of the patrons. Caravaggio can certainly be included among the artists who found themselves living and working in a period of transition from one era to the next and who, between insights and research, succeeded in carrying art from one shore to the next, opening paths, trails and roads which, for a long time, would lead towards new frontiers, even amidst the contradictions and surprises that contributed to its greatness.
The Caravaggio controversy
9
Saint John the Baptist (or Isaac) (c. 1602), Rome, Pinacoteca Capitolina.
10
Studying the paintings from Caravaggio’s early years in Rome, we get the impression of an artist who was still tied to late sixteenth century forms and themes which, in some ways were oddly steeped in Mannerism. We can feel a certain fascination – albeit softened in the Roman milieu – for the allegorical and for rhetorical structures that involve themes still related to his Lombard background. His mature works, on the other hand, reveal a stronger dramatic character in the compositions, in the invention of increasingly compact form; Caravaggio succeeded in pitting himself against Michelangelo in a manner of speaking, translating the master into his own stylistic language, and redeveloping all forms of “natural” light which is the only true subject of his painting. Caravaggio is still an open, and somewhat controversial issue. Many of his paintings seem enigmatic or they do not correspond to what we are accustomed to thinking about them. Over the years, others have been studied – and perhaps understood – opening new interpretative paths to follow. The acquisition of new documents has made it possible to date some of his paintings differently, clarifying some issues, but inevitably raising others. Even today, as we look at Caravaggio’s paintings we cannot help but ask new questions.
The background
Saint Jerome writing (c. 1605-1606), detail, Rome, Galleria Borghese.
The Caravaggio controversy
The Fortune-teller (1595), Rome, Pinacoteca Capitolina.
11
12
The background
A CHILDHOOD BETWEEN CARAVAGGIO AND MILAN
Stemmario Cremosano, the coat of arms of the Merisi da Caravaggio family.
Simone Peterzano, Self-portrait (1589).
We know very little about Michelangelo’s birth and childhood. The only information we have comes from biographers such as the Sienese physician, Giulio Mancini. His Considerazioni sulla pittura, written between 1617 and 1621, contains notes and comments that are sometimes puzzling. Or, we can deduce information from Giovanni Baglione, the Roman painter who, in 1625 wrote Le vite de’ pittori, scultori et architetti, that was published in Rome in 1642. We can only make assumptions about the artist’s early life and the circumstances of his birth. The most accredited hypothesis proposes 1571 as his birth year and it is based on calculations from two documents: the marriage contract dated 14 January 1571 in Caravaggio between his father Fermo and Lucia Aratori (she was Fermo’s second wife) and the baptismal certificate of their second son, Giovanni Battista, recorded in Milan on 21 November 1572. Therefore, their first child, Michelangelo could only have been born between September and November 1571. And then, there are two hypotheses about the place of birth: Milan or Caravaggio, and the latter is more consistent with the name he was known by once he arrived in Rome
A childhood between Caravaggio and Milan
13
Simone Peterzano, Angelica and Medoro (c. 1570).
and that was also used in official documents such as his induction into to the Sovereign Order of the Knights of Malta (1608): ‘Michael Angelus Carraca oppido vulgo de Caravaggio in Longobardis natus’. There is no documentation concerning his baptism: neither in the parish of Caravaggio since the records for the years from 1564 to 1585 have been lost, nor in the parish of Santa Maria in Passerella in Milan
where the family lived from at least 1563, as the parish books start as of 21 October 1571. The young Michelangelo certainly spent the first years of his life between Milan and Caravaggio since his father, who was steward to Francesco I Sforza of Caravaggio worked in Milan. Then, in 1576 to escape from the plague Fermo moved the marchese’s small court – and his own family – to the fief of Caravaggio.
14
The background
Giovanni da Monte, The Crowning with Thorns (1568), Monza (Milan), Collegio della Guastalla.
Caravaggio
LIFE
Caravaggio
Rodolfo Papa
Frontispiece: Basket of Fruit (c. 1597-1598), detail, Milan, Pinacoteca Ambrosiana.
Managing editor Claudio Pescio Editing Sara Draghi Augusta Tosone English Translation Julia Hanna Weiss Graphic design and Layout Paola Zacchini Image Research Cristina Reggioli www.giunti.it © XXXX Giunti Editore S.p.A. Via Bolognese, 165 - 50139 Firenze - Italia Via Dante, 4 - 20121 Milano - Italia ISBN 9788809765573 Edizione digitale realizzata da Simplicissimus Book Farm srl Prima edizione digitale 2010
Contents 1571-1592
6
The background The Caravaggio controversy A childhood between Caravaggio and Milan Youth: the years in Milan Lombard culture in the late sixteenth century Peterzano’s workshop and the Lombard-Venetian matrix
1592-1599
40
The early years in Rome Arrival The first paintings
1599-1606
72
The years of fame The Contarelli Chapel The greatest painter in Rome Trouble with the law and convictions
1606-1610
126
The dramatic years 28 May 1606: the murder The Neapolitan sojourn Between Naples and Malta Escape to Sicily The last year
154 156 158
Chronology Index Bibliography
1571
1592
Lute Player (c. 1595-1596), detail, Saint Petersburg, Hermitage.
The background
THE CARAVAGGIO CONTROVERSY Caravaggio’s life story has often been told like a novel: the brawls, the triumphs, the envy of his colleagues, his masterful skill and then the murder, the escapes to different places to avoid arrest, the inevitable death sentence, and then, finally the long-hoped for pardon that arrived just before his mysterious death on a beach. But Caravaggio’s life is not limited to these few, legend-like biographical notes, in fact in some ways these episodes have often been an insurmountable hurdle for a true understanding of his artistic output. If we have to know about an artist’s life in order to understand his work, in Caravaggio’s case this has sometimes absorbed the true meaning of his art, reducing it to fruit of the mind of a deeply troubled
and violent man. The legend of the temperamental and “cursed” artist began taking shape when Caravaggio was still alive. Today, thanks to historical-documentary studies we can uncover some of the mysteries surrounding this man. To understand Caravaggio’s artistic career we have to place him in the historical-cultural context where he was born and where he matured. Therefore, we must broaden the picture and add a wider range of information that can provide what we need to bring Merisi’s paintings out of the world of myth and into history. The great theological issues of the sixteenth century had such repercussions on art that they cannot be ignored if we want to understand the differences among the various stylistic trends. Above all we must avoid considering Caravaggio’s style as born from nothing – without roots or teachers –
8
The background
Ottavio Leoni, Portrait of Caravaggio (c. 1621-1625), Florence, Biblioteca Marucelliana.
in the total solitude of a genius who spent his life alone in psychological and existential misery, in a desperate quest for a little tranquillity, without ever satisfying his longing for perfection and beauty. Caravaggio was a genius precisely because, like all geniuses, he knew how to use what was around him and what came before him, and transform it into something else. His contemporaries, even those who opposed him, could not disregard his work, not only because of the success his paintings enjoyed – especially in Rome between 1600 and 1606 – but because what
Caravaggio was saying with his paintbrush was precisely the right artistic response to the changed cultural and intellectual needs of the patrons. Caravaggio can certainly be included among the artists who found themselves living and working in a period of transition from one era to the next and who, between insights and research, succeeded in carrying art from one shore to the next, opening paths, trails and roads which, for a long time, would lead towards new frontiers, even amidst the contradictions and surprises that contributed to its greatness.
The Caravaggio controversy
9
Saint John the Baptist (or Isaac) (c. 1602), Rome, Pinacoteca Capitolina.
10
Studying the paintings from Caravaggio’s early years in Rome, we get the impression of an artist who was still tied to late sixteenth century forms and themes which, in some ways were oddly steeped in Mannerism. We can feel a certain fascination – albeit softened in the Roman milieu – for the allegorical and for rhetorical structures that involve themes still related to his Lombard background. His mature works, on the other hand, reveal a stronger dramatic character in the compositions, in the invention of increasingly compact form; Caravaggio succeeded in pitting himself against Michelangelo in a manner of speaking, translating the master into his own stylistic language, and redeveloping all forms of “natural” light which is the only true subject of his painting. Caravaggio is still an open, and somewhat controversial issue. Many of his paintings seem enigmatic or they do not correspond to what we are accustomed to thinking about them. Over the years, others have been studied – and perhaps understood – opening new interpretative paths to follow. The acquisition of new documents has made it possible to date some of his paintings differently, clarifying some issues, but inevitably raising others. Even today, as we look at Caravaggio’s paintings we cannot help but ask new questions.
The background
Saint Jerome writing (c. 1605-1606), detail, Rome, Galleria Borghese.
The Caravaggio controversy
The Fortune-teller (1595), Rome, Pinacoteca Capitolina.
11
12
The background
A CHILDHOOD BETWEEN CARAVAGGIO AND MILAN
Stemmario Cremosano, the coat of arms of the Merisi da Caravaggio family.
Simone Peterzano, Self-portrait (1589).
We know very little about Michelangelo’s birth and childhood. The only information we have comes from biographers such as the Sienese physician, Giulio Mancini. His Considerazioni sulla pittura, written between 1617 and 1621, contains notes and comments that are sometimes puzzling. Or, we can deduce information from Giovanni Baglione, the Roman painter who, in 1625 wrote Le vite de’ pittori, scultori et architetti, that was published in Rome in 1642. We can only make assumptions about the artist’s early life and the circumstances of his birth. The most accredited hypothesis proposes 1571 as his birth year and it is based on calculations from two documents: the marriage contract dated 14 January 1571 in Caravaggio between his father Fermo and Lucia Aratori (she was Fermo’s second wife) and the baptismal certificate of their second son, Giovanni Battista, recorded in Milan on 21 November 1572. Therefore, their first child, Michelangelo could only have been born between September and November 1571. And then, there are two hypotheses about the place of birth: Milan or Caravaggio, and the latter is more consistent with the name he was known by once he arrived in Rome
A childhood between Caravaggio and Milan
13
Simone Peterzano, Angelica and Medoro (c. 1570).
and that was also used in official documents such as his induction into to the Sovereign Order of the Knights of Malta (1608): ‘Michael Angelus Carraca oppido vulgo de Caravaggio in Longobardis natus’. There is no documentation concerning his baptism: neither in the parish of Caravaggio since the records for the years from 1564 to 1585 have been lost, nor in the parish of Santa Maria in Passerella in Milan
where the family lived from at least 1563, as the parish books start as of 21 October 1571. The young Michelangelo certainly spent the first years of his life between Milan and Caravaggio since his father, who was steward to Francesco I Sforza of Caravaggio worked in Milan. Then, in 1576 to escape from the plague Fermo moved the marchese’s small court – and his own family – to the fief of Caravaggio.
14
The background
Giovanni da Monte, The Crowning with Thorns (1568), Monza (Milan), Collegio della Guastalla.
