Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio (1571–1610). Basket of Fruit (1596)

B orn Michelangelo Merisi, Caravaggio was later renamed after his hometown in northern Italy, a practice not unusual in his day. His father, an architect and majordomo to the Marquis of Caravaggio, died of the plague when the artist was still young, leaving him under the protection of the art-loving marquis. Like many children of his day, he learned early how to grind pigments for painting, and soon he was apprenticed to a good studio in Milan. At 21, he moved to Rome, anxious, if not fully qualified, to compete in the capital's bustling art world. This move to Rome began the tumultuous life journey of a man who changed the art of his day, had many followers (the Caravaggisti), and influenced future masters, from Rembrandt to Velázquez (1). In Rome's cosmopolitan art scene, the young Caravaggio found scant opportunity and slow recognition. Handicapped by his exuberance, fiery temper, and heightened artistic sensitivity, he was unable to cope with restrictions and authority. Brash, overbearing, and irascible, he became entangled in riotous brawls and walked the disorderly side of the capital. All the while, he painted mellow canvases overflowing with empathy, humanity, and compassion. Inventing a new, radical kind of realism, he populated his pictures with ordinary people, embracing their imperfections and weaknesses with a candor that many of his contemporaries mistook for vulgarity (2). As if to decipher the contradictions and paradoxes of his own shadowy character, Caravaggio explored the interplay of light and dark, known in Italian as chiaroscuro. In an exaggerated theatrical style, he cast light selectively, adding drama to scenes, illuminating figures, and creating a poetic reality that was both earthy and mystical (3). With remarkable immediacy, he painted potent images of beheadings and executions, perhaps anticipating the horror of his own punishment for unsavory behavior, not the least of which was killing his opponent during a tennis game. Arrested, imprisoned, pardoned, and constantly on the edge, Caravaggio continued to paint while living in exile for 4 years. The disregard for limits that distinguished his work dominated his life and in the end overcame his artistic promise. Injured during one final, ironically mistaken, arrest, and feverish with malaria, he died before age 40 (4). During the early days of his tenure in Rome, unknown, unemployed, and unappreciated, Caravaggio painted religious images and baskets of fruit and flowers. Still-life painting, the domain of beginners since antiquity, ranked low …