Ruth Leon recommends…. Caravaggio – the ‘bad boy’  of Italian art?

Caravaggio at the National Gallery

Letizia Treves, then Curator of Later Italian, Spanish, and French 17th-century Paintings at the National Gallery, guides us through the tumultuous life of Caravaggio.

Caravaggio was a bad boy, the epitome of the adage that genius doesn’t carry its own virtue. He killed a man in a brawl, which led to a death sentence for murder and forced him to flee to Naples where he was involved in a violent clash; his face was disfigured, and it was reported that he had died, but he hadn’t. His erratic and bizarre behaviour gave rise to questions about his mental state. He died in mysterious circumstances and rumours continue to circulate that he was murdered.

But, despite his violent lifestyle, he was one of the greatest painters in history. Treves looks at how his innovative style developed from a focus on nature and expression in his early works to the sophistication of his mature works.

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