Caravaggio: A Passionate Life (20 page)

EPILOGUE

C
aravaggio’s reputation continued to grow steadily, and so many painters tried to copy his style that art historians speak of “Caravaggists.” It was only to be expected that his pictures found a place in the collections of Charles I of England and Louis XIV of France. In 1750, Pope Clement XIV presented a
St. John
to the new Capitoline Museum at Rome. In 1780, during the dissolution of the Flemish monasteries, Emperor Joseph II confiscated the
Madonna of the Rosary
from the Dominicans and added it to the imperial collection in Vienna.

Many people have always been of two minds about Caravaggio. Berenson may seem eccentric in arguing that he was not a Baroque artist, yet at the height of the Baroque there were reservations about Caravaggio. Mancini criticized his “school” for a frequent “lack of movement, expression and elegance.” Baglione admitted that his style was beautiful, but thought he had “poor judgement in selecting what was good and leaving out what was bad.” Bellori admired many of his pictures, particularly those in his early style, but was horrified by what he regarded as his coarse naturalism, his concentration on “common, vulgar things.” Poussin went even further, saying that Caravaggio “had come into the world to destroy painting.” However, for many
years hostile critics like this were in a minority, and he remained among Europe’s acknowledged great masters.

In 1764, in an
Essay on Painting
, the Venetian savant Francesco Algarotti could still call Caravaggio “The Rembrandt of Italy,” alluding to “the magic of his chiaroscuro.” But, in the age of the rococo and then of the neoclassical, he was going out of favor. At about the time Algarotti wrote, the German artist Anton Rafael Mengs claimed, “Caravaggio possessed neither variety nor moderation, so that in consequence his draftmanship was very inferior.” It was an amazing statement, but the fact that Mengs, the king of Spain’s court painter, was able to make it shows just how much popular taste had turned against Caravaggio. In 1789 a highly respected historian of Italian art, Luigi Lanzi, sneered that Caravaggio’s men and women were “memorable only for their vulgarity … and lived in dungeons.”

Writing during the 1850s, the great Swiss historian Jacob Burckhardt could refer dismissively to “the crude style of Caravaggio.” In England, the Victorians were especially hostile. John Ruskin, for example, found Caravaggio neither great nor sincere, solemnly placing him “among worshippers of the depraved.” John Addington Symonds compared Caravaggio’s paintings with the novels of Zola, blaming him not only for “vulgarity” but for “a crude realism,” grumbling, “it seems difficult for realism, either in literature or art, not to fasten upon ugliness, vice, pain and disease, as though these imperfections of our nature were more real than beauty, goodness, pleasure and health.”

By the early years of the twentieth century, however, the cultivated were once more beginning to appreciate Caravaggio. In 1905, Roger Fry declared that he was “in many senses the first modern artist… the first to rely entirely on his own temperamental aptitude and to defy tradition and authority.” Dedicated scholars, notably Roberto Longhi, started looking for his paintings and, in consequence, the number of works attributed to him has more than doubled, even if several attributions may not be universally accepted. Some have been tracked down after disappearing during the long years of disfavor,
while others previously thought to be copies have been recognized as originals. The
Bacchino Malato
and even the
Judith and Holofernes
were found only during the late 1940s. Since then, Mina Gregori has discovered the portrait of a Knight of Malta, recently identified as Fra’ Antonio Martelli. More exciting still has been the finding of
The Cardsharps
and
The Taking of Christ
. It is far from impossible that other paintings still await rediscovery. One reason for their disappearance may be that, when his white or cream tones go yellow with age, all the light leaves his canvases, though this returns miraculously with modern techniques of restoration.

There have also been some tragic losses, such as the pictures that perished during the Russian army’s capture of Berlin in 1945, the portrait of
The Courtesan Fillide
, and the first version of the
Inspiration of St. Matthew
. The
Nativity with St. Francis and St. Lawrence
, stolen in 1969, may never be recovered. In 1984, the
St. Jerome
was stolen from St. John’s church at Valletta. Thanks, however, to the patient negotiations of the Maltese Director of Museums, Marius Zerafa, and his advice to the police, it was recovered in 1987. Some suspect that, as in the case of the Palermo
Nativity
, the Mafia were involved in the theft.

So much attention is devoted by scholars to Caravaggio’s art and to his mysterious life that it has been called the Caravaggio industry. It is, undeniably, a very productive industry. If it is not quite true to say that new discoveries are made every year, we certainly know more about him than we did two decades ago. For example, during the 1970s Mia Cinotti published the Roman police reports with the details of his nightlife, while during the 1980s other historians revealed the Marchesa di Caravaggio’s unsuspected role, the unsavory reputation of Captain Ranuccio Tommasoni, and the papal dispensation that enabled Caravaggio to become a Knight of Malta. One day they may even be able to tell us the identity of his enemy, the unknown knight, and the real reason he was put in the Birdcage.

Caravaggio fascinates, and not only because of his wonderful pictures. It is thirty years since Kenneth Clark described him as “like the hero of a
modern play,” meaning, of course, an antihero. He had all the qualities needed for the part. A portrait drawing of him by Ottavio Leoni looks very like the face of a certain type of modern antihero, sulky and resentful, with puzzled, unreliable eyes and a sneering mouth. However anachronistic, this resemblance to an antihero may perhaps explain why he casts so powerful a spell at the end of the twentieth century.

APPENDIX:

WHERE TO SEE CARAVAGGIO’S PICTURES

Caravaggio is exceptional among great artists of his period in that so many of his works can be seen in the churches or palaces for which he painted them. A comprehensive list of his pictures, and of others attributed to him with varying degrees of plausibility, is A. O. della Chiesa
, L’Opera completa del Caravaggio
(Milan, 1981), but for obvious reasons it needs updating. The following are Caravaggio’s most important paintings. It should be remembered that they are sometimes removed for restoration or on loan to exhibitions
.

Italy

ROME

San Luigi dei Francesi (Contarelli Chapel):
Calling of St. Matthew, Martyrdom of St. Matthew
, and
Inspiration of St. Matthew (St. Matthew and the Angel
)

Santa Maria del Popolo (Cerasi Chapel):
Conversion of St. Paul
and
Crucifixion of St. Peter

Sant’ Agostino:
Madonna di Loreto

Palazzo Barberini:
Judith and Holofernes
and
St. John the Baptist

Galleria Borghese:
David and Goliath, Madonna dei Palafrenieri, St. Jerome, St. John the Baptist, Boy with a Basket of Fruit
, and
Bacchino Malato

Galleria Doria Pamphili:
Rest on the Flight into Egypt, Mary Magdalene
, and
St. John the Baptist

Odescalchi Collection:
Conversion of St. Paul

Palazzo Corsini:
Narcissus

Pinacoteca Capitolina:
Il Pastor Friso

Vatican Gallery:
Entombment of Christ

FLORENCE

Uffizi:
Bacchus, Head of Medusa
, and
Sacrifice of Isaac

Palazzo Pitti:
Sleeping Cupid
and
Portrait of a Knight of Malta

MILAN

Pinacoteca di Brera:
Supper at Emmaus

Pinacoteca Ambrosiana:
Basket of Fruit

NAPLES

Palace of Capodimonte:
Seven Works of Mercy
and
Flagellation

Banco Commerciale:
Martyrdom of St. Ursula

Sicily

MESSINA

Museo Nazionale:
Resurrection of Lazarus
and
Adoration of the Shepherds

SYRACUSE

Church of Santa Lucia:
Burial of St. Lucy

Austria

VIENNA

Kunsthistorisches Museum:
Madonna of the Rosary

Britain

LONDON

National Gallery:
Supper at Emmaus, Salome with the Head of St. John Baptist
, and
Boy Bitten by a Lizard

France

PARIS

Louvre:
Death of the Virgin
and
Grand Master Alof de Wignancourt

Germany

BERLIN

Gemäldegalerie:
Amor Vincit Omnia

Ireland

DUBLIN

National Gallery of Ireland:
Talking of Christ

Malta

VALLETTA

Church of St. John:
Beheading of St. John the Baptist
and
St. Jerome

Spain

MADRID

Prado:
Salome with the Head of St. John the Baptist

Thyssen-Bornemisza Collection:
St. Catherine

United States

NEW YORK

Metropolitan Museum:
Concert of Musicians
and
Denial of St. Peter

CLEVELAND

Cleveland Museum of Art:
Crucifixion of St. Andrew

DETROIT

Detroit Institute of Arts:
Conversion of the Magdalene

FORT WORTH

Kimball Arts Museum:
Cardsharps

HARTFORD

Wadsworth Atheneum:
Ecstasy of St. Francis

KANSAS CITY

Nelson Gallery:
St. John the Baptist

Throughout Europe and the United States there are other paintings said to be Caravaggios. Some may be genuine.

SOURCES

The main contemporary, or near contemporary, sources are:

Baglione, G.
Le vite de’ pittori, scultori et architetti
… Rome, 1642. Facsimile, ed. V. Mariani, Rome, 1935.

Bellori, P.
Le vite de’ pittori, scultori e architetti moderni
. Rome, 1672. Ed. E. Borea, Turin, 1976.

Mancini, G.
Considerazioni sulla pittura
… Rome, c. 1617—1630. Ed. A. Marucchi & L. Salerno, Rome, 1956—1957.

Mander, K. van.
Het Schilder-boek
. Haarlem, 1604.

Sandrart, J. von.
Academie der Bau, Bild, und Mahlerey-Künste von 1675
. Ed. A. R. Peltzer, Munich, 1925.

Susinno, F.
Le vite di’ pittori messinesi
… Ed. V. Martinelli, Florence, 1960.

No satisfactory English translations exist of any of these works, while, although useful, the English versions of key extracts given in Howard Hibbard’s
Caravaggio
(New York, 1983) are not invariably reliable.

The following notes refer to material other than the main sources
.

PAGES

 
ix
        “
with none for decent living
.” Bernard Berenson,
Del Caravaggio: delle sue incongruenze e della sua fama
. Florence, 1951 (translated as
Caravaggio: His Incongruity and His Fame
, New York, 1953).

  
1
        
his brother Giovan Battista
. M. Calvesi,
La realtà del Caravaggio
. Turin, 1990.

  
1
        Mancini,
Considerazioni sulla pittura
.

  
2
        
Just over forty kilometers
. R. Ziglioli,
Il Caravaggio … a Caravaggio, in Roma
, in
Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio: La vita e le opere attraverso i documenti
(ed. S. Macioce), Rome [1997].

  
3
        “
the garden of Italy
.” Thomas Coryate,
Coryate’s Crudités
. London, 1611.

  
3
        “
level Lombardy
.” Henry James,
Italian Hours
. London, 1909.

  
3
        
Fermo’s duties
. F. Liberati,
Il Perfetto Maestro di Casa
. Rome, 1658.

  
4
        
his wife, Donna Costanza Colonna
. Calvesi,
La realtà del Caravaggio
.

  
4
        “
Milan is a sweet place.” Diary of John Evelyn
. London, 1955.

  
6
        
Borromeo
. E. Ginex Palmieri,
San Carlo. L’uomo e la sua epoca
. Milan, 1984.

 
10
       
His master
. E. Baccheschi, “
Simone Peterzano
,” in
I Pittori bergameschi dal XIII al XIX secolo. Il Cinquecento
. Bergamo, 1978.

 
11
       
Brescia, Cremona, Lodi, and Bergamo
. M. Cinotti, “
La Giovinezza del Caravaggio. Ricerche e scoperte
,” in
Novità sul Caravaggio
. Milan, 1975.

 
13
       “
The black mummified corpse
.” Henry James,
Italian Hours
.

 
14
       
The fathers of the council
. E. Male,
L’Art réligieux après le Concile du Trente
. Paris, 1932.

 
15
       
What gave the council’s decrees such force
. H. O. Evenett,
The Spirit of the Counter Reformation
. Cambridge, 1968.

 
17
       
why Caravaggio left Milan
. Calvesi,
La realtà del Caravaggio
.

 
18
       
Milanese rapiers were famous
. E. Valentine,
Rapiers
. London, 1968. 18
botta lunga
. E. Castle,
Schools and Masters of Fencing
. London, 1892.

 
20
       “
nothing but a sepulchre
.” M. de Montaigne,
Journal de Voyage
. Paris, 1906.

 
21
       “
shewed us all the monuments
.” Thomas Nashe,
The Unfortunate Traveller
. London, 1594.

 
25
       
only recently elected
. L. von Pastor,
The History of the Popes
, vol. 23,
Clement VIII (1592–1605)
, London, 1933.

 
27
       
The Oratorians
. C. Ponelle and L. Bordet,
Saint Philippe Neri et la société romaine de son temps
. Paris, 1929.

 
32
       
a French picture dealer
. The dealer may not have been Valentin but Costantino Spata, whose shop was next door. S. Corradino and M. Marini, “The Earliest Account of Caravaggio in Rome,”
The Burlington Magazine
, January 1998.

 
34
       
something of an enigma
. Z. Waźbiński,
Il cardinale Francesco Maria del Monte (1549–1626). Mecenate di artistici, consigliere di politici e di sovrani
. Florence, 1994.

 
34
       
Chacon’s massive history
. A. Chacon, A. Oidoino et al.,
Vitae et res gestis pontificum et SRE cardinalium
. Rome, 1677.

 
36
       
his complex, subtle patron
. F. Haskell,
Patrons and Painters
. London, 1980.

 
36
       
Examination of Ameyden’s
avvisi. C. Gilbert,
Caravaggio and His Two Cardinals
. University Park, Pa., 1995.

 
37
       
a taste for girls
. L. Spezzaferro, “
La cultura del cardinale del Monte e il primo tempo del Caravaggio
,”
Storia dell’arte
9, 10, 1971.

 
38
       “
halls, withdrawing rooms, chambers and antechambers
.” F. Borsi,
Palazzo Madama
. Rome, 1960.

 
39
       “
the easy sybaritic existence
.” Hibbard,
Caravaggio
.

 
40
       
The earliest Known description
. Corradino and Marini, “The Earliest Account of Caravaggio in Rome.”

 
42
       “
the last sodomite
.” D. Jarman,
Caravaggio
(film script and commentaries). London, 1986.

 
43
       
The cardinal would have regarded them as images of platonic love
. M. Marini,
Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio, “pictor praestantissimus
.” Rome, 1987.

 
44
       
girlish, Adonis-like looks
. Gilbert,
Caravaggio and His Two Cardinals
.

 
44
       “
his owne boy or servant that laid with him
.” M. Beal,
A Study of Richard Symonds
. London, 1984.

 
51
       
bringing back its luminous quality
. R. Vodret, “
Il restauro del ‘Narciso
,’ ” in
Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio
(ed. Macioce), Rome, 1997.

 
52
       
beginning to be recognized all over Rome
. “The Roman World of Caravaggio,” in
The Age of Caravaggio
(exhibition catalogue). New York, 1985.

 
53
       
This painting, rediscovered in 1969
. Calvesi,
La realtà del Caravaggio
.

 
54
       
The killing of Count Cenci
. C. Ricci,
Beatrice Cenci
. Rome, 1923.

 
60
       
He shaves the monster’s skull
. Ariosto,
Orlando Furioso
, Canto XV.

 
61
       “
it is too natural
.” C. C. Malvasia,
Felsina pittrice. Vite de’ pittori bolognesi
. Bologna, 1841.

 
62
       “
Beheading is significant
.” C. G. Jung,
Mysterium Coniunctionis
. London, 1963.

 
64
       
still at San Luigi dei Francesi
. G. A. Dell’ Acqua and M. Cinotti,
Il Caravaggio e le sue grandi opere da San Luigi dei Francesi
. Milan, 1971.

 
65
       
King Hyrcanus of Ethiopia
. Jacobus de Voragine,
Legenda Aurea
. Dresden, 1846.

 
65
       “
savage blood-lust
.” J. A. Symonds,
The Renaissance in Italy: The Catholic Reaction
. London, 1886.

 
66
       
the Neoplatonist heretic
. F. A. Yates,
Giordano Bruno and the Hermetic Tradition
. London, 1964.

 
68
       
the brothers Cardinal Girolamo Mattei and Marchese Ciriaco Mattei
. Gilbert,
Caravaggio and His Two Cardinals
.

 
69
       
the brothers shared a palace
. S. Danesi Squarzina,
Caravaggio e i Giustiniani
, in
Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio
(ed. Macioce).

 
71
       
to signify inspiration
. R. Serracino-Inglott,
Caravaggio: The Symbolism of a Realist
, in
Caravaggio in Malta
(ed. P. Farrrugia Randon). Malta, 1989.

 
71
       “
death as illumination
.” P. Askew,
Caravaggio’s Death of the Virgin
. Princeton, 1990.

 
73
       
he seems to have read Baronius’s
Roman Martyrology. A. Zuccari,
Storia e tradizione nell’ iconographia religiosa del Caravaggio
, in
Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio
(ed. Macioce).

 
74
       
If he really did paint Baronius
. J. T. Spike, “
Un ritratto del Cardinale Baronio agli Uffizi di Firenza
,” in
La regola
, 1995.

 
74
       
the Cupid’s homoerotic quality
. “a boy of the streets and an object of pederastic interest,” Hibbard,
Caravaggio
.

 
76
       
the sinister robber gangs
. R. Bassani and F. Bellini,
Caravaggio assassino. La carriera di un ‘valenthuomo’ fazioso nella Roma della Controriforma
. Rome, 1994.

 
77
       
rooms in the Campo Marzio
. R. Bassani and F. Bellini, “La
casa, le ‘robbe,’ lo studio del Caravaggio a Roma. Due documenti inediti del 1603 e del 1605,” Prospettiva
71 (1993).

 
78
       
a disorderly private life
. Dell’ Acqua and Cinotti,
Il Caravaggio e le sui grandi opere da San Luigi dei Francesi
.

 
80
       
A Florentine Knight of Malta
. As a Tuscan, Fra’ Ainolfo may have been acting on Grand Duke Ferdinand’s instructions. S. Corradini, “
Nuove e false notizie sulla presenza del Caravaggio in Roma
,” in
Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio
, ed. Macioce.

 
82
       
Passignano’s picture was “terrible
.” F. Baldinucci,
Notizie dei professori del disegno da Cimabue
, vol 3. Florence, 1847.

 
83
       
a prostitute
. Piazza Navona was where prostitutes plied for hire.

 
83
       “
had had commerce with her
.” Hibbard,
Caravaggio
.

 
83
       
brought before the magistrates not less than eleven times
. S. Corradini,
Caravaggio. Materiali per un processo
. Rome, 1993.

 
85
       
a tiny brick building
. The latest research indicates that the masonry is Galilean, even if this does not prove the house arrived supernaturally. N. Monelli,
La Santa Casa a Loreto
—
La Santa Casa a Nazareth
. Loreto, 1992.

 
91
       
the mild-mannered, gentle-seeming Cardinal Borghese
. L. von Pastor,
History of the Popes
, vol. 25,
Paul V (1605–1621)
. London, 1934.

 
91
       “
a peculiarly rugged disposition
.” L. von Ranke,
History of the Popes
(trans. G. R. Dennis), vol 2. London, 1908.

 
94
       
the kind of lighting fashionable in films of the 1920s
. K. Clark,
Civilisation
. London, 1968.

 
96
       
a mixture of rage and fear
. Tasso,
Gerusalemme liberata
, canto XII, stanza 55—“
Non schivar, non parar, non ritirarsi
….”

 
97
       
the reverse was true
. S. Macioce, “
Attorno a Caravaggio. Notizie d’ archivio,” Storia dell’Arte
55 (1987).

 
98
       “
under guard
.” Corradini.
Caravaggio. Materiali per un processo
.

101
      
the summer of 1606
. A. Banti (ed.),
Europa mille seicentosei. Diario di viaggio di Bernardo Bizoni
. Rome, 1942.

101
      
she had often been in Rome
. Calvesi,
La realtà del Caravaggio
.

102
      “
till near sunset
.” Augustus Hare,
Days Near Rome
. London, 1875.

103
      
Fra’ Orazio Giustiniani
. F. Ashford, “Caravaggio’s Stay in Malta,”
The Burlington Magazine
, June 1935.

106
      
he was paid two hundred ducats at Naples
. V. Pacelli, “New Documents Concerning Caravaggio in Naples,
The Burlington Magazine
, December 1977.

106
      
Fabrizio Sforza Colonna
. B. Dal Pozzo,
Historia della Sacra Religione Militare di San Giovanni Gerosolomitano
, vol. 2, Verona, 1716.

107
      
it seems likely that Caravaggio called on the cardinal
. Z. Wazbinski, “
Il Viaggio del Cardinale Francesco Maria Del Monte a Napoli negli anni 1607–1608
,” in
Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio
, ed. Macioce.