Caravaggio: Master and Murderer

3 units

Michelangelo Merisi (Michael Angelo Merigi or Amerighi) da Caravaggio (29 September 1571 - 18 July 1610) was one of the most important and influential painters of the Seventeenth Century, in Italy and throughout Europe. He was active in Rome, Naples, Malta, and Sicily between ~1592 and 1610. But who was Caravaggio? What do we really know about his tempestuous life, and how it factors in the art he created? Caravaggio was a powerful, brilliant, brutish, and hugely influential artist; a belligerent personality, brawler, and murderer. He was a man of contradictions: a devout Christian and bi-sexual sodomite; a Knight of Malta and a fugitive from the law. This seminar explores the reality and fiction of this fascinating and influential genius, and places him in his historical, social and artistic contexts -- from Baroque Italy to the modern imagination. Prerequisites: L01 113; one 300-level course in Art History; and permission of instructor.