Caravaggio and the Art of Subversion

The life and work of the Baroque painter Caravaggio (born 1571) stand in stark contrast. This painter of moving religious scenes was a brawler, swaggerer and murderer, dubbed by John Berger 'the painter of the underworld'.

A decade after moving to Rome to further his career, he was a celebrated painter, with cardinals and powerful aristocrats as patrons and protectors. Records from1600 onward illuminate his complex personality. Contemporaries described him as a 'dark spirit...far from God', with a 'disturbed brain' ('cervello stravagantissimo').

Caravaggio's offences included assaults, alleged slander, harassment, stone-throwing, carrying weapons without a licence and threatening with a sword. A teacher allegedly objected to Caravaggio's interest in his pupils. In a small but telling incident, he was arrested for throwing a plate of artichokes at a waiter in a rage. In 1606, after a gambling dispute, Caravaggio fatally stabbed a man named Ranuccio Tomassoni in the thigh. He fled to Naples, then Malta. After yet another violent altercation, he absconded to Sicily, where a brawl left him disfigured. Violence, deceit and life's underbelly loom large also in his art.

A reputation redeemed?

In his lifetime and since, Caravaggio's paintings have caused controversy. Several were rejected for offending religious sensibilities. Modern viewers have cited paintings such as his 'Love Conquers All' and 'St. John the Baptist' as betraying an interest in young boys.

At worst, Caravaggio has been seen as a sociopathic paedophile but, according to art writer Jonathan Jones, "Scholars now seem more or less to agree in the perverse and counterintuitive assertion that first, there is no evidence that Caravaggio was homosexual, and second, he is primarily a spiritual Catholic artist".

Even Tomassoni's murder is downplayed. Some have argued that it was an attempt to castrate a rival that went wrong; that "he was avenging his honour in a way that was utterly in keeping with the culture of the Rome of his day". Art historians argue that to understand his art, we must also recognise that he painted what patrons commissioned. Yet many do not recognise what Jones calls this "altar boy Caravaggio".

The divided self

The church required artists to paint instructive, pious pictures, accessible to the masses. Caravaggio knew that his career, reputation and lucrative commissions required compliance, but his inclinations lay elsewhere. Some paintings seem to serve two masters. Others suggest inner turmoil, perhaps due to his divided loyalties. The severed head in his 'David with the Head of Goliath' may be a self-portrait, depicting anguish and self-loathing.

Caravaggio's subversiveness lies in his art's ambiguity. Discouraged by the church from painting prostitutes, Caravaggio bent the rules to paint courtesans of his acquaintance. His 'Penitent Magdalene' depicts Mary Magdalene, who renounced prostitution for Christ. A remorseful woman, head bowed, sits amongst discarded pearls and perfume. The model was a courtesan, Anna Bianchini. At least one contemporary suspected this was a secular painting masquerading as a pious one.

Caravaggio's paintings downplayed religious symbols, instead depicting moments of psychological truth. The results met the Church's criteria: simple, accessible and apparently devout. His works balance fidelity to his own artistic vision with the constraints of the age. The results paved the way for modern art.

Other controversial works:

Death of the Virgin, c. 1601-3.
St John the Baptist, 1602.
St Matthew and the Angel, c. 1602 (first version)
Madonna di Loreto, c. 1603-6.

John Berger. Caravaggio: a contemporary view. 1983. www.studio-international.co.uk/archive/Caravaggio_1983_196_998.asp
John Gash. Caravaggio, Chaucer Press. 2004.
Jonathan Jones. 'He lived badly, brutally'. The Guardian. www.guardian.co.uk/culture /2005/feb/17/1