Skip to main content
Full access
Images in Neuroscience
Published Online: 1 February 2008

Caravaggio (1571–1610)

Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio transformed European painting. He introduced a new visual dynamism that he combined with a highly developed naturalism. Unlike most painters of his time, he used real models drawn from the streets, a practice that enhanced his naturalism. His paintings captured people in moments of intense psychological tension, and his use of raking light and deep shadow was dramatic and original. Caravaggio’s innovative paintings influenced the later work of Velazquez and Rembrandt.
Figure 1.
Caravaggio was probably born in Milan (1) . The Merisi family had lived for several generations in the small Lombard town of Caravaggio, hence the name he adopted. He was the oldest of four children. His father was a builder and architect who died of the plague when Caravaggio was six. He received some formal education and was apprenticed to a Milanese painter at 13. His mother died in 1590, and he took his inheritance and left for Rome. Initially he lived in bohemian circumstances, selling his paintings on the streets. His genius soon brought him to the attention of Cardinal Francesco Del Monte, a wealthy and cultivated patron of the arts. Under Del Monte’s patronage his reputation soared and he obtained major Church commissions. He never married, and his sexual orientation is unknown.
In the 16th century, Rome was violent and dangerous. Many of Caravaggio’s paintings depict violent and bloody acts. In the only painting he ever signed, The Martyrdom of Saint John, his signature is made up of the blood issuing from the mortal wound that has just been inflicted on the Baptist. Caravaggio’s personal history is redolent with episodes of violence, culminating in the murder of a local ward boss, whom he killed in a sword fight in a dispute over a tennis match. His powerful patrons had extricated him from prison after previous street brawls. On this occasion they were unable to prevent a papal death sentence but facilitated his escape from the Papal States to Spanish-ruled Naples, where he received major commissions. He then journeyed to Malta, where the Grand Master of the Knights of Saint John was eager to employ a great painter. In order to retain him, the Grand Master invested him as a knight. This required a papal dispensation since Caravaggio was a convicted murderer. It was not long before he found himself in prison, following a bloody fight in which he was identified as the ringleader. Again, with the connivance of patrons, he escaped to Sicily, where he continued to produce masterpieces. Knowing that Cardinal Scipione Borghese, the nephew of the Pope, was an admirer and collector of his work, he set out for Rome by ship in the hope of obtaining a papal pardon. He took with him recent paintings, including David With the Head of Goliath (preceding page), where the severed head of Goliath is a self-portrait. Separated from his vessel by a misidentification and brief imprisonment at a port near Rome, he impulsively set out on foot along the malarial coast, attempting to catch up with his boat and paintings. He succumbed to fever and died in a small hospital near the beach.
Early biographers of Caravaggio cite those who knew him personally as calling him “turbulent and quarrelsome,” “a madman,” and “dragged down by his own temperament.” While his volcanic rages and violent behavior are consistent with a severe personality disorder, his self-portrayal as the severed head of Goliath suggests that Caravaggio possessed some degree of insight into a central element of his psychopathology—pitilessly self-destructive and ultimately fatal masochism.

Footnotes

Address correspondence and reprint requests to Dr. Buckley, Apt. 5A, 336 Central Park West, New York, NY 10025; [email protected] (e-mail). Image from The Bridgeman Art Library (David with the Head of Goliath, 1606, oil on canvas, Galleria Borghese, Rome). Image accepted for publication September 2007 (doi: 10.1176/appi.ajp.2007.07091476).
Dr. Buckley reports no competing interests.

Reference

1.
Puglisi C: Caravaggio. London, Phaidon Press, 1998

Information & Authors

Information

Published In

Go to American Journal of Psychiatry
Go to American Journal of Psychiatry
American Journal of Psychiatry
Pages: 201 - 202
PubMed: 18245190

History

Published online: 1 February 2008
Published in print: February, 2008

Authors

Details

Peter J. Buckley, M.D.

Metrics & Citations

Metrics

Citations

Export Citations

If you have the appropriate software installed, you can download article citation data to the citation manager of your choice. Simply select your manager software from the list below and click Download.

For more information or tips please see 'Downloading to a citation manager' in the Help menu.

Format
Citation style
Style
Copy to clipboard

View Options

View options

PDF/EPUB

View PDF/EPUB

Get Access

Login options

Already a subscriber? Access your subscription through your login credentials or your institution for full access to this article.

Personal login Institutional Login Open Athens login
Purchase Options

Purchase this article to access the full text.

PPV Articles - American Journal of Psychiatry

PPV Articles - American Journal of Psychiatry

Not a subscriber?

Subscribe Now / Learn More

PsychiatryOnline subscription options offer access to the DSM-5-TR® library, books, journals, CME, and patient resources. This all-in-one virtual library provides psychiatrists and mental health professionals with key resources for diagnosis, treatment, research, and professional development.

Need more help? PsychiatryOnline Customer Service may be reached by emailing [email protected] or by calling 800-368-5777 (in the U.S.) or 703-907-7322 (outside the U.S.).

Media

Figures

Other

Tables

Share

Share

Share article link

Share