Caravaggio the confessor

Caravaggio’s paintings were inextricably bound up with his life and provide a virtual narrative of his turbulent development, a story fraught with ambiguities and alternative readings.

Caravaggio’s paintings were inextricably bound up with his life and provide a virtual narrative of his turbulent development, a story fraught with ambiguities and alternative readings. This almost confessional aspect of his works, along with the immediacy and extraordinary power of their emotional impact, have surely contributed to his current popularity.

His documented career spanned only about 15 years, ending with his lonely death on the seacoast at Porto Ercole on 18 July 1610. He was making a desperate attempt to reach Rome to seek a papal pardon for the killing (most likely accidental) of an opponent in a brawl, which had led to his flight and an in absentia death sentence four years earlier. A letter with the news of his demise which arrived at the Vatican described him as that ‘famous and most excellent painter’. During the 20th century, he became widely recognised as one of the greatest artists of all time.

The 400th anniversary of his death is now the occasion for a number of exhibitions and events in Italy, the most ambitious of which is Caravaggio, a show of 24 paintings universally accepted as being by his hand at the Scuderie del Quirinale (until 13 June). Some 16 other works remain in churches and galleries around the city, so around 40 of his paintings (not all the pictures at the Scuderie can be displayed for the entire duration of the show) will be on view in Rome — nearly two thirds of all pieces generally ascribed to him.