Although Baglione suggests that Caravaggio only began to focus upon his profession in earnest in Milan, we can nevertheless assume that he had previously been stimulated by art in Bergamo, close to his place of birth. Cariani’s style, inspired by Sebastiano del Piombo and Giorgione, his mastery of portraiture, as well as his occasional tendency to paint genre-like portrayals may have had a significant influence on the young artist[78], and he would have found personal guidance in Bernardino Licinio’s similar work, which remained decisive in his future development[79]. Many people like to establish a relationship between the spirit of Caravaggio’s work and his life[80]. One is tempted to assume that his tragic destiny was the result of an accumulation of experiences he had sought himself, which he thought necessary for his artistic nature and which he exploited. From this point on he could indulge his tendency to prove to the observer that, as already mentioned, “in spite of all the holy events of former times, everything was as ordinary as in the streets of Italy towards the end of the 17th century”[81], and to represent those gypsies, beggars, and gamblers that people said were the debauched descendants of giants, sculpted in a majestic fashion after Michelangelo[82]. In contrast to this, it has been suggested from a more understanding point of view that the important artistic influence that was Caravaggio’s pathos arose from the honesty of his characters, and the fact that he could only imagine the divine in human form, whether in a sombre, festive, or turbulent atmosphere[83]. This contrasted with the Mannerists, who only conceived of forms behind which there seemed to be no personality to offer an individual representation. Bellori wrote that “as long as the model was out of his sight, his hands and mind remained idle”[84]. In the same way as the representatives of the Bolognese School, chiefly the Carracci, concentrated on the construction of complex forms and the arrangement of beautiful drapery, Caravaggio depended on the “natural example”, which was vital in meaning for his art, as his patron the Marchese Vincenzo Giustiniani noted[85].
In Rome the style of the masters from northern Italy developed first towards representation in the manner of bas-reliefs, which of Caravaggio’s works, The Cardsharps is the most marked example. In the monumental creations for San Luigi dei Francesi and Santa Maria del Popolo, the first signs of research into a greater depth can be seen, which is apparent in The Death of the Virgin, and which developed into the perspective effect found in the Madonna of the Rosary.
In the same sense, he also lent his paintings an appealing poetic reality through his use of lighting, with which he had already aroused the interest of his contemporaries. Baglione describes in detail the reflections of light in a glass vase which creates a delightful ambience around the flute player[86]. Caravaggio went beyond artistic miracles of imitation through his grandiose style, the detailed playing of stark and gentle light, with areas of chiaroscuro and illuminated shadows, which he accentuated within the image in order to balance the areas of realistic representation, and to achieve an impact that would go hand in hand with his carefully calculated colouring. It is this contrapposto treatment of light that, with its movement across the image, gives his works the great charm that many like to describe as the principal dimension of Caravaggio’s art[87]. Caravaggio has been criticised for this lighting effect, similar to the lighting of an underground room, which excludes the rich variety of tones and colours that come with daylight[88]. Despite the lack of sympathetic and intimate accord found in Rembrandt’s works, the golden tones of the reflections illuminate the space and render it habitable, and it must be recognised that Caravaggio had his own artistic laws[89].
Caravaggio achieved the effects in his paintings by means of a technique that astonished his contemporaries. Bellori remarked that the artist concentrated solely on the complexion, skin, blood, and the natural surface, and left all other artistic considerations aside[90]. Carracci added to this exaggerated comment by claiming that Caravaggio probably mixed real flesh into his colours in order to achieve the skin tones. Without question, Caravaggio needed an abundance of technical means to depict the esempio naturale in such an impressive way, means which he developed to perfection in the various studios of his apprenticeship, in the tradition initiated by Leonardo da Vinci in Milan, and through his own inventive talent. Uninterested in fresco painting, Caravaggio concentrated entirely on oil-on-canvas techniques. “He didn’t work in any other way”, reports Baglione, which allowed him to focus his strength on perfectly mastering this medium. Unlike the representatives of the Bolognese School, Caravaggio never tried to disguise the brush-stroke as such. The fluidity of the painting that fills his works goes hand in hand with great visibility of his working techniques.
The scope of Caravaggio’s work is immense both because of the amount of paintings he undertook during his brief life and the creativity he showed. But his art, as innovative as it may have been, remained unrecognised for almost three centuries and it was only at the beginning of the 20th century that the impact of his influence throughout various later eras was finally acknowledged. His subversive work, whose genius and destiny have inspired numerous painters beyond frontiers and over centuries, such as Georges de La Tour, Rembrandt van Rijn, Francesco Solimena, Diego Velázquez and Peter Paul Rubens, still fascinates us today.