Paintings

Thirty-five major paintings by Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio, arranged chronologically from the early Roman genre scenes to the dark masterpieces of his fugitive years. Caravaggio invented modern painting. His dramatic use of light and shadow — theatrical spotlights cutting through deep darkness — influenced every painter who came after him, from Rembrandt and Velázquez to the cinematographers of film noir. He painted directly from life, without preliminary drawings, using real people as models for saints and Madonnas. His work was rejected by churches for being too vulgar, too real, too human — and immediately bought by cardinals who recognized genius. In 1606 he killed a man and fled Rome. He spent his last four years as a fugitive, painting masterpiece after masterpiece while running for his life. He died on a beach at Porto Ercole in 1610, aged thirty-eight.