The Crimes of Caravaggio
You might know Caravaggio from his masterful use of light in his paintings or from another article here where I talked about the theft of his Nativity with St. Frances and St. Lawrence. But what I bet you didn’t know is that he was actually not a good guy and committed a number of crimes in his lifetime.
Early Life
Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio was born on September 29, 1571. Not a lot has been recorded about his childhood but sadly his father and grandfather died on the same day in 1577 due to a plague that was ravaging the area. His mother died in 1584, the same year that he began a four-year apprenticeship with painter Simone Peterzano (a pupil of Titian). As a side note, this would have made Caravaggio 13 years old when he started this apprenticeship so he definitely grew up with art and had a natural gift.
Artistic Career
As his artistic career grew so did his criminal record and reputation. In 1592 Caravaggio left his hometown for Rome and honestly things didn't start out that well for him because apparently due to a fight with a police officer he had to run away from his hometown and that’s actually why he ended up in Rome. Because of the circumstances of his departure, he arrived with no money, clothing, or a place to live.
He developed his signature style, during these early days in Rome, naturalism using dramatic chiaroscuro (the shift from light to dark with few transitional shades). During this period he painted some iconic works such as Boy with a Basket of Fruit and Young Sick Bacchus.
After a heated argument (seeing a trend yet?) with his employer, he left to make his own way in the art world and paint what he wanted. He formed a little squad of friends that ended up shaping his career but also his life outside of painting. The boys included painter Prospero Orsi, architect Oronio Longhi, and sixteen-year-old artist Mario Minniti. Orsi, an established artist, introduced him to influential collectors in Rome; Longhi, unfortunately, introduced him to the world of Roman street-brawls. Minniti was Caravaggio’s model and later would help him get some very important contracts in Sicily.
As I said, he developed a bit of a reputation and a published notice about him in 1604 described his lifestyle and personality, it said that “after a fortnight’s work he will swagger about for a month or two with a sword at his side and a servant following him, from one ball-court to the next, ever ready to engage in a fight or an argument, so that it is most awkward to get along with him” (Gash, 1980). This was his attitude most of the time, he felt that no one could touch him, he was angry and violent, and it seemed like he was always spoiling for a fight.
Between 1600 and 1606 Caravaggio appeared in police records 14 different times. More than once he was stopped in the street for carrying either a dagger or a sword without a permit but because he had made so many connections with important people in Rome he was able to avoid a lot of jail time by dropping their names.
In the Fall of 1603, he was arrested for circulating a pamphlet in which he had written rude poems about another artist and his wife. I won’t go into detail but basically, he told the artist where he could shove his terrible work. He was sued by the artist for libel and lost, so this time Caravaggio actually spent 2 weeks in jail.
It seems that he didn’t learn his lesson though because in the next year, 1604, Caravaggio got into trouble with the police again. He and two friends were dining at a restaurant and he ordered a plate of artichokes. They came to the table and he asked the server if they were cooked in oil or butter, the server suggested that Caravaggio could smell them and find out, not wanting to do this, Caravaggio picked up the entire platter and threw it into the server’s face. The server just turned around, walked out of the restaurant and straight to the police station where he filed a complaint. Can’t find out whether or not he went to jail after this incident.
1605 wasn’t a great year either, Caravaggio was arrested again for carrying a sword without a permit and for throwing stones at (and breaking) the shutters of the room he was renting. He also went to jail for throwing stones at a policeman, cursing at another officer, and offending a woman and her daughter.
In 1606 things turned very bad for Caravaggio. He wound up in a very serious fight with a man named Ranuccio Tomassoni. Historians thought for a long time that they were fighting over a tennis match but more recently people think that they actually may have been fighting over a female prostitute. Caravaggio ended up killing Tomassoni who bled out due to a cut to his femoral artery in his groin. This tells historians that they were fighting over a woman because in the 1600s if a man insulted another man’s reputation he would get his face cut but if he came after another man’s woman then he would get his penis cut off. It is thought that Caravaggio accidentally killed him while trying to castrate him. The Pope gave him a death sentence that Caravaggio was not prepared to serve so he fled Rome for Malta.
You’d think that SURELY now he knows that he has to lay low and stay out of trouble but apparently not. While in Malta, in 1608, he attacked one of the most senior knights in the Order of St. John. He went to jail for this assault but managed somehow to escape and flee to Naples. However, the knight that he attacked eventually caught up to him and cut his face (since Caravaggio had only damaged his reputation).
In 1610 Caravaggio wanted to go back to Rome but he knew he had to deal with his death sentence first so he came up with a plan to try and secure a Papal pardon. He sent paintings, including David with the Head of Goliath and Salome with the Head of John the Baptist to his powerful friends who had the ear of the Pope to try and persuade him to pardon him.
Death
Unfortunately, he died before the pardon could ever reach him, in July 1610 at 36 years old. There is significant controversy surrounding his death and historically there has been some debate between scholars and historians as to the cause. Some said he died of a disease like syphilis or malaria and some thought he was murdered in retribution for Tomassoni.
In 2010, human remains were found in a church in the area where it is thought that he died. These remains almost certainly belong to Caravaggio and they underwent significant DNA testing to confirm this assumption but also to see if they could find any new information about his death. Initial results showed that Caravaggio may have died as a result of lead poisoning, paints at the time had very high amounts of lead salts and violent behaviour is now known to be a side effect of lead poisoning so this really makes a lot of sense. However, later research showed that although he probably did have lead poisoning, what most likely happened is he got a wound from a brawl in Naples, after which he developed a staph infection that killed him. Pretty straightforward actually.
All in all, beautiful, brutal paintings but not a good dude.
Works Cited
“Caravaggio’s Criminal Record”. Caravaggio Gallery. 2016. https://www.caravaggiogallery.com/criminal-record.aspx
Gash, John. “Caravaggio”. 1980. Random House Incorporated.
Little, Becky. “Caravaggio: The Italian Painter was also a Notorious Criminal and Murderer”. Biography. 2019. https://www.biography.com/news/caravaggio-italian-painter-criminal-murderer#:~:text=In%20the%20early%2017th%20century,in%20exile%20under%20mysterious%20circumstances.