It can be observed that the young artist turned towards portraiture, attracted – as his early works demonstrate – by the realistic representation of genre motifs. The grandeur of his style already marked him out from his contemporaries. On examination of the works of his masters, it can be supposed that it was the exhortations of Gaudenzio Ferrari and his Milanese successor Bernardino Lanini that encouraged him to imitate them.[15] The bright colours used by these two artists can also be found in Merisi’s early works, an aesthetic impression used to great and unusual effect in Caravaggio’s later works. However, Caravaggio demonstrated considerable skill in the modelling of the human form much earlier than the artists mentioned, and he revealed powers of observation only previously seen in another Lombard artist, Guido Mazzoni, who had displayed similar skill with his clay sculptures, notably those in the Church of Santa Anna dei Lombardi.[16] The head of Nicodemus in The Entombment in the Vatican Gallery indicates that he studied the sculptor’s work, which was striking in its naturalism. Likewise, it was probably Lanini who spoke to Caravaggio of Venice, where, after five or six years in Milan, the artist spent some time.
Venice
After such preparation, it was logical that Caravaggio would be fascinated by the Venetian artists. The glory of Giorgione and Titian, who had only recently died, was still radiant; Veronese’s modelling and the vibrant colours of Paris Bordone certainly attracted Caravaggio, but it was above all Tintoretto, with his striking artistic talent, who fascinated the young artist. Unger described the great Venetian artist, with respect to Caravaggio, in the following way: “Tintoretto, faced with the nature of man and his natural tendency to violence, depicts this characteristic somewhat simplistically without giving the opportunity to analyse the origin of these violent impulses”.[17]
Eerie, threatening nights, where lightning streaks the sky and the smoky flames of blazing bonfires leap up to the sky, create a strong contrast to whole parts of his paintings which are in the dark, whereas others are spookily illuminated by greenish, glaring lights.[18]
The intense colouring, which had attracted Caravaggio so much to the work of Gaudenzio Ferrari and his successors, dazzled him in Tintoretto’s œuvre. He applied what he found there in a decided manner to the cycle of paintings of Saint Matthew for the Church of San Luigi dei Francesi, producing an even more striking effect.
Boy Bitten by a Lizard, 1593.
Oil on canvas, 65.8 × 52.3 cm.
Longhi Collection, Florence.
Boy Peeling Fruit (copy), c. 1592–1593.
Oil on canvas, 75.5 × 64.4 cm.
Private collection, Rome.
But it was Tintoretto’s ability to synthesise multiple expressions within a single painting, thus bringing out the innermost feelings of the characters, which was very much the unifying element in his work that Caravaggio admiringly sought to adopt. The Milanese artist’s talent for three-dimensional modelling never tempted him, however, into the exciting narrative elements that the Venetian artist had so remarkably mastered.
We may assume that, after leaving the Lombard capital, Caravaggio was in Venice around 1585. Although we cannot know for certain when he arrived in the city, there is no doubt that the death of his mother around that time would have strengthened his resolve to leave Milan. The artistic influence that Milan had on him was later assessed as central to his subsequent artistic development.[19] According to Baglione, Federigo Zucchero made a comment about Caravaggio’s work to which we owe the certain indication that, in reality, it was Giorgio Barbarelli, known as Giorgione, under whose spell the young artist fell. “I cannot look at them without seeing the influence of Giorgione”, commented the well-known mannerist of the Roman School about Caravaggio’s paintings in San Luigi dei Francesi,[20] a judgement that did not really fit the works criticised, as they had already overcome the Venetian influence and displayed Caravaggio’s own characteristic style. In Roman artists’ circles at that time it was believed that Caravaggio had close links to Venice. From this period, the young and susceptible artist indulged in the magic of Venetian painting, which was then at its peak. The painters of the time most admired by Caravaggio were attempting to characterise their subjects better by creating works of large dimensions on a restrained background. One thinks particularly of Giorgione’s portraits of men in Berlin and Brunswick,[21] and of the portrait of a young man by Torbido at the Pinakothek in Munich.[22] Caravaggio’s own canvases reached almost gigantic proportions, beyond the works of Torbido and Giorgione. The idea of pure contemplation of the subject, which the Venetian artists preferred, was in this way surpassed by Caravaggio.
According to Eisenmann, there is a painting of the biblical Judith from Caravaggio’s Venetian period, formerly in the La Motta Collection in the Treviso region, which is now said to be in English private possession. Waagen, who otherwise conveys a precise knowledge of these collections, does not mention the painting. There is one work depicting Judith and Holofernes, painted around 1598–1599, that can be found today in the Palazzo Barberini in Rome. According to Baglione, Caravaggio may have painted another of the same subject for the Signori Costi in Rome. It is difficult to judge whether he is referring to the same work, but there is nevertheless another depiction of Judith, painted several years later in 1607, that is currently in Naples. It seems likely that Baglione was referring to a copy.
Departure for Rome
Some years later, aged twenty-one, Caravaggio went to Rome where, undoubtedly helped by his uncle who already lived in the city, he lodged with a landlord who lived a modest life, Fr Pandolfo Pucci di Recanati, an acquaintance of Monsignor Pucci, beneficiary of St Peter’s Basilica in Rome. A document left by the historian W. Kallab indicates that the artist lived in comfortable conditions, but complained about certain aspects of domestic life, in particular about the meals which were composed entirely of salad and chicory. This is partly why after some months he left the home of Pandolfo Pucci, to whom he gave the nickname “Monsignor Insalata”. This same document indicates that the host commissioned from the young painter several works with religious subjects which were intended for his home town. It was at this time that Caravaggio fell ill and, having no money, he was admitted to the hospital of Santa Maria della Consolazione, where, during his convalescence, he painted numerous canvases for the Prior.
Caravaggio’s experiences in Venice were still strongly influencing him whilst in Rome, and he continued to concentrate on acquiring his own majestic style. That was the aim behind, and the result of, his apprenticeship in the studio of the Cavalier d’Arpino. In 1593, Caravaggio entered the studio of the successful painter Giuseppe Cesari d’Arpino, also known as the Cavalier d’Arpino. Baglione tells us that “he stayed with the Cavalier Giuseppe Cesari d’Arpino for several months”.[23] Caravaggio turned to him in order to find connections to artistic circles in the Eternal City. Guiseppe Cesari has left frescos in the Trinità de’ Monti, in the chapel of the Palazzo di Monte Cavallo, and – his best work – in the Capella Olgiati in San Prassede. In the Capella Contarelli in San Luigi de’ Francesi, where he started the frescos, Caravaggio was to become his successor.