Rome in the Footsteps of an XVIIIth Century Traveller

In April 2025 a temporary exhibition of 24 paintings by Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio (usually referred to as il Caravaggio) opened at Palazzo Barberini. Many of the exhibits came from Roman museums, chiefly Galleria Borghese and Galleria Nazionale d'Arte Antica di Palazzo Barberini. The majority of the other exhibits were painted in Rome, but are in Italian museums outside Rome (e.g. Galleria degli Uffizi in Florence) or abroad. This page illustrates some of the works which cannot normally be seen in Rome.

Palazzo Barberini: ground floor apartment next to Borromini's spiral stairs: (left) Trial of Barbarian prisoners by Polidoro da Caravaggio and Maturino da Firenze (see similar paintings at Castel Sant'Angelo and a relief of Colonna Traiana): (right) stucco decoration of the ceiling of a hall with the sun of the Barberini

Next Room. Four Roman Triumphs; Clair Obscure; taken out of a Wall, perfectly well preserv'd: figures bigger than the Life by Polydore.
J. and J. Richardson's Account of Some of the Statues, etc. in Italy in 1722
The exhibition is housed in a section of the palace which is not usually open to the public. It retains elements of its historical decoration, including some monochrome Renaissance frescoes which were painted by another artist from Caravaggio, a town which was part of the Duchy of Milan.

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St. Augustin by Guercino; Altar-piece, Dark Manner, very Disagreeable, and Spoil'd. The Sancta Petronella of St. Peters, the Dido of Spada, and others are in this Dark Manner, which the Italians like best. For my own part his Gay Manner is more to my Taste; the other is not only Unpleasant, but Unnatural; 'tis impossible that the Lights can appear so very Bright, and the Shadows so Black, and Dark. (..) The Painter May, and Ought to avoid that Black, Hard, Cutting Manner, which Guercino, Caravaggio, and some others have fallen into.
Richardson
No wonder that we have given over Giulio Romano, Pierino del Vaga, Giovan Franceschi Penni, Michelangelo Caravaggio, and their ignoble fellows to oblivion. It is all they deserve.
Bernard Berenson - The Central Italian Painters of the Renaissance - 1909
Caravaggio had a great influence on the painters of his time, although he did not have pupils, exception made for Mario Minniti. By the end of the XVIIth century however his forceful manner of depicting religious subjects lost the favour of the public and until the beginning of the XXth century he was in the list of the bad who had abandoned the path of the Renaissance masters. In the 1920s Roberto Longhi, an Italian art historian, promoted a reappraisal of Caravaggio's painting and of its influence on a number of other artists. In 1951 Longhi curated a ground-breaking exhibition on Caravaggio at the Royal Palace in Milan. Since then a great number of studies and biographies on Caravaggio have been published and other paintings have been attributed to him. The text of this page is based on Rudolf Wittkower's Art and Architecture in Italy, 1600-1750 which in 1958 confirmed the importance of Caravaggio. Some data he mentioned have been rectified by other art historians, but overall his work stands the test of time.
The image used as background for this page is based on a sketch portrait of the painter by Orazio Leoni at Biblioteca Marucelliana, Florence

The Concert 1595 ca. - The Metropolitan Museum of Art (the young musician with dark hair in the background is thought to be a self-portrait of Caravaggio and the lute player a portrait of Mario Minniti)

Michelangelo Merisi, called Caravaggio, was born on 28 September 1573 in the small town of Caravaggio, south of Bergamo. Before the age of eleven he was apprenticed in Milan to the mediocre painter Simone Peterzano and stayed with him for about four years. Peterzano called himself a pupil of Titian, a relationship not easily revealed by the evidence of his Late Mannerist work. One has no reason to doubt that in this studio Caravaggio received the 'correct' training of a Mannerist painter. Equipped with the current knowledge of his profession, he reached Rome about 1590 and certainly not later than 1592. His life there was far from uneventful. Perhaps the first consistent bohemian, he was in permanent revolt against authority, and his wild and anarchic character brought him into more than one conflict with the police. In 1606 he had to flee from Rome because of a charge of manslaughter. During the next four restless years he spent some time at Naples, Malta, Syracuse, and Messina. On his way back to Rome he died of malaria in July 1610, not yet thirty-seven years old (at Porto Ercole).
When he first reached Rome, he had had to earn his living in a variety of ways. But hack-work for other painters left a youth of his temperament and genius thoroughly dissatisfied. For a short time he also worked for Giuseppe Cesari (later the Cavaliere d'Arpino) as a studio hand, but soon started on his own. At first unsuccessful, his fortunes began to change when Cardinal Francesco del Monte bought some of his pictures. It seems that through the agency of this same prince of the Church he was given, probably in 1597, his first commission for a monumental work, the paintings in the Contarelli chapel of S. Luigi de' Francesi. (..) Looking at his early work in particular, one may be inclined, as generations have been, to regard Caravaggio as an artist who renders what he sees with meticulous care, capturing the idiosyncrasies of his models. Caravaggio himself seems to have created this legend, but we have already seen how little it corresponds to the facts. Moreover, apart from his recognizably autograph style, he developed what can only be called his own repertory of idiomatic formulas for attitudes and poses, the recurrent use of which was surely independent of any life model. In addition, he sacrificed by degrees the interest in a logical disposition and rational subordination of the figures in favour of the emotional impact he wished to convey. This tendency is already noticeable in the early Musical Party, and is much more in evidence in the works after 1600. Wittkower

Ecstasy of St. Francis - Wadsworth Atheneum, Hartford, Connecticut

From the very beginning of Christian imagery light has been charged with symbolism. God's presence in the Old Testament or Christ's in the New is associated with light, and so is Divine Revelation throughout the Middle Ages, whether one turns to Dante, Abbot Suger, or St Bonaventura. Although from the fifteenth century onwards light is rendered naturalistically and even atmospherically, particularly in Venice, it never loses its supernatural connotation, and the Baroque age did not break with this tradition. Nevertheless, painters of religious imagery were always faced with the seemingly insoluble problem of translating visions into pictorial language. (..) Giotto was quite incapable of translating the essence of these words into pictorial language. He and many after him had to express the human experience of mystical union with God by a descriptive, narrative method. Language was far in advance of the visual arts. Seventeenth-century painters caught up with it. (..) It must be remembered that the ecstasy of vision is a state of mind to which no outsider is admitted; it is perception and revelation inside one man's soul. This was the way Caravaggio interpreted visions from the very beginning. In his Ecstasy of St Francis of about 1595 he showed the saint in a carefully observed state of trance. (..) Mystery is suggested by the glimmer of light breaking through the dark evening sky. The invisible is not made visible, but we are allowed to wonder and to share; a wide scope is left for the imagination. It is the light alone that reveals the mystery, not light streaming down from the sky or radiating from the figure of Christ. The mature Caravaggio drew the last consequences. In his Conversion of St Paul at S. Maria del Popolo he rendered vision solely on the level of inner illumination. Light, without heavenly assistance, has the power to strike Saul down and transform him into Paul, in accordance with the words of the Bible. (..) Paul, eyes dosed, mouth open, lies completely absorbed in the event, the importance of which is mirrored in the moving expression of the enormous horse. Wittkower

Two portraits of Maffeo Barberini (future Pope Urban VIII ca 1598) when he was a protonotary apostolic, a step in his career to be created Cardinal - Private collections - Florence

If Caravaggio found devoted patrons among the nobility and higher clergy, it would yet be incorrect to talk of a distinct faction in his favour. The men who sided with him seem to have been enterprising, enthusiastic, and liberal in their outlook. This is certainly true not only of Scipione Borghese and Vincenzo Giustiniani, but also of Cardinal Francesco Maria del Monte, Caravaggio's earliest patron, who has been described as "a kind of ecclesiastical minister of the arts in Rome". (..) Caravaggio's and Annibale Carracci's revolts broke at the end of the nineties. But it must be emphasized that there was no immediate repercussion on papal art policy. Nor did the art of these masters appreciably influence the development of the older artists. (..) Moreover while Annibale's Bolognese followers entrenched themselves firmly in Rome during the first two decades of the seventeenth century and public taste shifted decisively in their favour away from the older Mannerists, Caravaggism remained almost entirely an affair for eccentrics, connoisseurs, and artists and had run its course - as far as Rome was concerned by the time Paul V died. Wittkower
You may wish to compare the portraits by Caravaggio with those by Carracci's Bolognese followers, e.g. il Domenichino and Guido Reni.

Card-Sharpers (ca 1594) - Kimbell Art Foundation, Fort Worth, Texas

There is in this Palace a Picture excellent for the Expression. A young Fellow is cheated of his Money by sharping Gamesters; in Them there is so much Roguery, and Craft, and in Him so much Stupidity, and Fright, that 'tis deservedly very Famous. Richardson
Contrary to what is often believed, genre scenes play a very subordinate part in Caravaggio's production. They seem even more marginal than mythological and allegorical themes and, may it be noted, almost all the non-religious pictures belong in the first Roman years. In contrast to genre painting, mythologies and allegories clearly indicate an artist's acceptance of a learned tradition; and it cannot be sufficiently emphasized that we find the young Caravaggio working within this tradition, of his own accord. (..) Caravaggio's few genre pieces can hardly be called realistic. Like other Italian artists of the period, he was indebted to Northerners who had long practised this branch of art and had begun to invade the Italian market in the later sixteenth century. But if their genre painting, true to the meaning of the word, shows anonymous people following their everyday occupations, it must be said that neither Caravaggio's Card-Sharpers nor his Fortune-Teller (Musei Capitolini) reflect fresh observations of popular contemporary life. Such slick and overdressed people were not to be found walking about; and the spaceless settings convey a feeling of the tableau vivant rather than of 'snapshots' of actual life. One looks at these pictures as one reads a romantic narrative the special attraction of which consists in its air of unreality. Wittkower

St. Martha and St. Mary Magdalene (ca 1598) - Detroit Institute of Arts

The Contarelli Chapel appears in retrospect as the most important caesura in Caravaggio's career. From then on he produced almost exclusively religious paintings in the grand manner, beginning in 1597 and ending with his flight from Rome in 1606. (..) In the works of the middle period Caravaggio takes great pains to emphasize the volume and corporeal solidity of the figures, and sometimes packs them so tightly within the limits imposed by the canvas that they seem almost to burst the frame. In other paintings of this period, however, a tendency is stressed that was already noticeable in a few of the early pictures, namely the creation of a large spaceless area above the figures, an emptiness which Caravaggio exploited with tremendous psychological effect. Not only is the physical presence of the figures more vigorously felt by contrast with the unrelieved continuum, but the latter may even assume symbolic significance. Wittkower

(left) St. Catherine of the Wheel (1599) - Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum of Madrid; (right) detail of Judith at Palazzo Barberini (1602) (it opens in another window)

Caravaggio progressively abandoned working from life models and his post-Roman pictures, above all, were to a large extent painted from memory. This is also supported by the fact that no drawings by Caravaggio survive. (..) In fact it is well known that he worked alla prima, straight on to the canvas, and this is the reason why his pictures abound in pentimenti, which can often be discovered with the naked eye. This procedure, admirably suited to his mercurial temperament, makes for directness and immediacy of contact between the beholder and the picture, whereas distance and reserve are the obvious concomitants of the 'classical' method of arriving at the finished work by slow stages. (..) But when all is said and done, his types chosen from the common people, his magic realism and light reveal his passionate belief that it was the simple in spirit, the humble and the poor who held the mysteries of faith fast within their souls. Wittkower
Caravaggio portrayed the same young woman as St. Mary Magdalene, St. Catherine and Judith. Most likely she was Fillide Melandroni, a courtesan who was arrested for prostitution in 1594 at the age of 13 and in 1599 was named "corteggiana scandalosa" by the Roman Vicariate because of her conduct.

Supper at Emmaus - Pinacoteca di Brera, Milan

It has been mentioned before that from 1597 onwards by far the greater part of Caravaggio's activity was devoted to religious painting, and henceforth very considerable changes in his approach to his art are noticeable. These changes may be observed in a cabinet picture, the National Gallery Supper at Emmaus. Only the rich still life on the table links the picture to his early Roman period. But, as if his youthful escapades were forgotten and eradicated, suddenly and unexpectedly Caravaggio reveals him as a great painter of religious imagery. The change is marked not only by a revision of his palette, which now turns dark, but also by a regression to Renaissance exemplars. (..) Christ is deeply absorbed and communicates the mystery through the slight bending of His head and His downcast eyes, both accompanied by the powerful language of the blessing hands. (..) Towards the end of his Roman period Caravaggio painted a second Supper at Emmaus (Milan, Brera). Here he dispensed with the still life accessories on the table. (..) The picture is rendered in a much less dramatic key and the silence which pervades it foreshadows a trend in his post-Roman work. Wittkower

The Martyrdom of St. Ursula (1610), most likely the last painting by Caravaggio - Private Collection - Naples

The work of the last four years, mainly for churches, was done in a fury of creative activity, while he moved from place to place. (..) The post-Roman paintings are even more austere, and their compositions are reduced to a seemingly artless simplicity. Reference may be made to the solid triangle of figures in the Messina Nativity. (..) The most conspicuous and at the same time the most revolutionary element of Caravaggio's art is his tenebroso (darkness). With his first monumental commissions he changed from the light and clear early Roman style to a new manner which seemed particularly suitable to religious imagery, the main concern during the rest of his life. Figures are now cast in semi-darkness, but strong light falls on them, models them, and gives them a robust three-dimensional quality. At first one may be inclined to agree with the traditional view that his lighting is powerfully realistic; it seems to come from a definable source, and it has even been suggested that he experimented with a camera obscura. Further analysis, however, shows that his light is in fact less realistic than Titian's or Tintoretto's. (..) With Caravaggio light isolates; it creates neither space nor atmosphere. Darkness in his pictures is something negative; darkness is where light is not, and it is for this reason that light strikes upon his figures and objects as upon solid, impenetrable forms and does not dissolve them. The setting of Caravaggio's pictures is usually outside the realm of daily life. His figures occupy a narrow foreground close to the beholder. Their attitudes and movements, their sudden foreshortenings into an undefined void heighten the beholder's suspense by giving a tense sensation of impenetrable space. But despite, or because of its irrationality, his light has power to reveal and to conceal.(..) In the late pictures darkness engulfs the figures; flashes and flickers of light play over the surface, heightening the mysterious quality of the event depicted. (..) A comparison between an early Roman and a post-Roman work gives the measure of Caravaggio's surprising development. His uninhibited genius advanced with terrific strides into uncharted territory. If we had only his earliest and his latest pictures, it would be almost absurd to maintain that they are by the same hand. To a certain extent, of course, this is true of the work of every great master; but in Caravaggio's case the entire development was telescoped into about eighteen years. Wittkower
At the time Wittkower wrote his book the Martyrdom of St. Ursula was attributed to Mattia Preti. In the 1980s written evidence was found that it was a work by Caravaggio. The scene depicts a Hun king letting fly his arrow, and Ursula looking down with an expression of mild surprise at the shaft sticking out of her chest.

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Two among the last paintings by Caravaggio in the Borghese Collection: (left) David and Goliath; (right) St. John the Baptist or the Good Shepherd

In other pages of this website you can see the following paintings by Caravaggio in Rome.
Madonna dei Pellegrini at S. Agostino
Crucifixion of St. Peter at S. Maria del Popolo
Boy with a basket of fruit (Galleria Borghese)
Young St. John the Baptist (Musei Capitolini)
The Flight to Egypt (Galleria Doria Pamphilj)
You may wish to see a painting by Gherardo delle Notti (Gerard von Honthorst), a Flemish painter who was influenced by Caravaggio at Chiesa dei Cappuccini.