Caravaggio and the Realism of Baroque Art

Michelangelo da Caravaggio, the wayward artist from Lombardy who came to Rome for the opening of the era we call the “Baroque,” introduced a new awareness of the natural world into the visual arts, influencing nearly every artist who came after him in one way or another. This class investigates the life and career of the fascinating unstable character known as Caravaggio and will look at both his private works, meant to remain hidden, and his great public works whose effects were felt by contemporaries like Artemisia Gentileschi and foreigners in Rome such as Georges de la Tour and Diego Velázquez, and even extended to great Italian masters including Bernini and artists who had never visited Rome, such as the incomparable Rembrandt van Rijn.