Caravage (1571-1610)

Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio is an Italian painter, known in particular for his innovative use of chiaroscuro, creating powerful and highly contrasted works. Associated with the Baroque movement, Caravaggio produced many religious works, in fact, commissions from the Church were frequent and numerous at the time. The artist then proposed an innovative art by humanising the divine and depicting the saints with realism. Parallel to his career as a painter of religious subjects, Caravaggio's life was far from that of a saint. Sulphurous the painter was known for his debauchery and didn't achieve unanimity, Nicolas Poussin even hated Caravaggio and have said "he had come to destroy painting. » Today Caravaggio is internationally admired and recognised for his paintings and his visionary work on the psychology of his subjects. An artistic movement even followed his work: Caravaggism.