If the painter Michaelangelo Merisi il Caravaggio was alive today, he would probably be seen as the darling of the media and he would probably have a page on Facebook and his image would be everywhere. But in his lifetime it was a different story, artists ranked at the same level as actors and prostitutes. Even when they became popular and had powerful patrons, they ranked below the merchant class, the bourgeois and other non nobles. Their success and prosperity depended very much on attracting the favors of the Nobility and keeping them. Caravaggio was a genius, but a disturbed one, if you look at the Papal Police blotter in Rome. All the streets and Piazza mentioned below still exist and I walk them regularly so that part of Rome has not changed in 500 years.
He was a bad boy with a nasty temper but such a great painter.
4 May 1598: Arrested at 2- 3am near Piazza Navona, for carrying a sword without a permit
19 November 1600: Sued for beating a man with a stick and tearing his cape with a sword at 3am on Via della Scrofa
2 October 1601: A man accuses Caravaggio and friends of insulting him and attacking him with a sword near the Piazza Campo Marzio
24 April 1604: Waiter complains of assault after serving artichokes at an inn on the Via Maddalena
19 October 1604: Arrested for throwing stones at policemen near Via dei Greci and Via del Babuino
28 May 1605: Arrested for carrying a sword and dagger without a permit on Via del Corso
29 July 1605: Vatican notary accuses Caravaggio of striking him from behind with a weapon
28 May 1606: Caravaggio kills a man during a pitched battle in the Campo Marzio area
No comments:
Post a Comment