Caravaggio’s Legacy Pt I

 

Even before Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio fled from Rome in 1606 with a price on his head, some of his contemporaries were not only painting in a similar Naturalistic style, but also imitating his narratives. However, this was only the beginning of a period, in which it was not only Italian painters who adopted the Caravaggesque manner, but painters from all over Europe- Spain, France and the Netherlands, who came to Rome and were inspired by the monumental Church altarpieces of the Contarelli and Cerasi Chapels etc. In Part I, we will witness the influence on his Italian contemporaries and then consider the Spanish Baroque masters, Ribera, Cotan, Zurbaran,Velasquez and Murillo.