Aerial view of Michelangelo's birth place - the small town of Caravaggio, not far from Bergamo in northern Italy.

A chalk drawing of Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio (c.1621) by Ottavio Leoni (1578-1630). Photo: Wikipediacommons.com

On September 29, 1571, feast day of St Michael the Archangel, architect/decorator Fermo Merisi’s (b.1539) second wife, Lucia Oratori (b.1550), gave birth to their aptly named first son, Michelangelo, at Caravaggio (hence the name he became known with), a small town not far from Bergamo in northern Italy. Fermo died of the plague in 1577 and his wife passed away in 1590.

From an early age, one could discern Michelangelo’s talent for drawing, which was to make him world-famous, and for his quick temper, which was to plague him for the rest of his short life and to lead him to an early grave.

At a tender age, in 1584, he was apprenticed to the Bergamese painter Simone Peterzano (1535-99) at Milan. When he was in his 20s (probably 1592-95), he went to Rome where, after almost dying of hunger and want, he was introduced to Giuseppe Cesari’s (1568-1640) bottega d’Arpino where he could at least earn a living.

Self-portrait of Caravaggio’s first art teacher - Simone Peterzano - in 1589. Photo: Wikipedia.com

A portrait of Caravaggio's first patron - Cardinal Francesco Maria del Monte (1549-1626) by Ottavio Leoni. Photo: Wikipedia.com

It was through this job that one of his works found its way into the hands of Cardinal Francesco Maria del Monte (1549-1626), who became his patron. The cardinal, a connoisseur of the arts, felt that Caravaggio’s work was original and different from previous paintings. Previously, Caravaggio had refused to simply copy out past works of the masters and wanted to innovate. He did not like to idealise his subject/s but preferred to depict scenes as he actually saw them. And it was this streak of originality that left its mark on del Monte.

Caravaggio’s future was now somewhat secure. His works and patronage introduced him to the best members of Roman society, such as Marquis Vincenzo Giustiniani (1564-1637), Prince Filippo Colonna (1578-1639) and Cardinal Scipione Borghese (1577-1633), Pope Paul V’s nephew. He produced a number of important works, including The Musicians in 1595-6 and Judith Beheading Holofernes in c.1598-9.

Caravaggio’s Judith Beheading Holofernes (c.1598-9), exhibited at the National Gallery of Ancient Art, Rome. Photo: Wikimedia.com

Caravaggio’s The Musicians (1595-6), exhibited at The Metropolitan Museum of art, New York. Photo: Wikipedia.com

Other young artists now wanted to follow his new art: simple, natural and realistic but heightened by the use of light and darkness. Caravaggio’s new art was profoundly religious but his figures were reproductions of the people at large, a fact which would help bring people and religion closer.

But events did not all go Caravaggio’s way. He was bitterly opposed by many established painters who persisted in copying the old masters. Michelangelo’s temper and quick tongue did not help matters either.

The Contarelli Chapel in the Church of San Luigi dei Francesi at Rome. Photo: Wikipedia.com

On July 23, 1599, aged just 26, Caravaggio was awarded a rich commission by the Contarelli family to redecorate the family chapel in the church of San Luigi dei Francesi at Rome with three depictions on canvas from the life of St Matthew the Evangelist. The finished product, brought to a conclusion in 1601, was not acceptable to the Contarellis because it was too plebeian in character for this aristocratic family’s taste.

But Michelangelo persisted in his line of artistic production because he believed that the people’s mentality had to change with the times. His other many works executed in Rome also included The Taking of Christ (1602) and The Entombment of Christ (1602-3).

Caravaggio’s The Entombment of Christ (1602-3), now exhibited at the Pinacoteca Vaticana, Rome. Photo: Wikimedia.com

Caravaggio’s The Taking of Christ (1602), now exhibited at the National Gallery of Ireland, Dublin. Photo: Wikimedia.com

Thus life went on till 1606 when Carvaggio was involved in trouble which resulted in a fatality: the death of Ranuccio Tomassoni, a person just as turbulent as Michelangelo but hailing from a powerful aristocratic family. It has been suggested that his death was an accident when he was being forcibly castrated. Anyhow, with a capital sentence hanging over his head, this turbulent event necessitated Michelangelo’s flight to Naples while his patrons sought a papal pardon in Rome for him.

Michelangelo’s 15-month long stay in Malta is rather scantily recorded by just five documents

Caravaggio was well received in Naples and enjoyed the protection of the Colonna family. Here he painted a number of commissions including: The Seven Acts of Mercy, The Crucifixion of St Andrew, The Madonna of the Holy Rosary and The Scourging of Christ. This Neapolitan period was, however, quite short – October 1606 to June 1607 – albeit very prolific. But he probably did not feel secure enough in Naples and so he moved to Malta.

Michelangelo’s 15-month-long stay in Malta is rather scantily recorded by just five documents that refer to the artist. They concern his testimony before the Tribunal of the Inquisition, his reception in the Order of St John, his trial and his expulsion from the Order.

Caravaggio was made a Knight of Obedience just over one year after his arrival in Malta, in compliance with the statutory obligation of having lived in the convent (Malta in this case) for one complete calendar year. Two months later, he was an inmate of the dungeons of Fort St Angelo.

The real reason for his incarceration is not really known, though it has been strongly hinted that he had quarrelled with an influential member of the Order. It has been said that he escaped from St Angelo in an almost incredible daredevil way by scaling the walls of the fortress with a rope and, somehow, made his way to Sicily.

One would have expected Caravaggio to have gone into hiding in Sicily to escape the avenging agents of the Order but he actually travelled openly to a number of Sicilian cities, leaving masterpieces in his wake, a fact which makes one wonder whether his escape from Fort St Angelo was a contrived affair to which Grand Master Alof de Wignacourt was a party.

But appearances had to be kept and upheld; so Caravaggio was tried in Malta in absentia and expelled from the Order on December 1, 1608. His personal connection with the Order of St John and the Maltese islands was now seemingly irreparably severed. But this was not so.

Caravaggio’s St Jerome Writing, now housed ta the Caravaggio Wing of St John’s Co-Cathedral Museum, Valletta, Malta. Photo: The Rev. Chapter of St John’s Co-Cathedral and St John’s Museum

Malta is still the proud possessor of two outstanding works of art painted during Caravaggio’s brief sojourn in the island: The Beheading of St John the Baptist and St Jerome Writing. The latter was probably the earlier painting and includes the coat-of-arms of Fra Ippolito Malaspina who, very probably, was one of Michelangelo’s patrons in Malta.

It has been opined that St Jerome’s face is actually that of Grand Master Alof de Wignacourt but, although there is a marked resemblance to Caravaggio’s portrait of the grand master exhibited at the Louvre in Paris (France), the same face crops up in The Crucifixion of St Andrew. Perhaps, Caravaggio used the same model for both paintings.

The Beheading of St John the Baptist, accounted by many to be Caravaggio’s masterpiece, still adorns the Oratory of St John (in the Valletta Co-Cathedral bearing the same name) which has been changed a bit since the painting was executed for this same chapel. The painting is by far Caravaggio’s largest canvas and the only one he ever signed, in the blood oozing out of the Baptist’s severed head. The balance between the figures in this painting is outstanding and light is very effectively used to heighten the drama and spotlight the details which the artist wants the viewer to note.

One more point about the St Jerome Writing, set to be exhibited in the Caravaggio Wing of St John’s Co-Cathedral Museum. Its latest restoration – necessary after having been stolen in December 1984 and recovered, albeit damaged, in August 1987 – has further brought forth the inherent beauty of this painting. Some details which were not visible can now be seen clearly, including the drapery under the table and the letter ‘S’ being written by the saint.

A companion painting to St Jerome Writing, a half-figure of Mary Magdalen, is unfortunately ‘lost’, though a similar depiction at Wignacourt Museum in Rabat (Malta) may have been copied from it.

Caravaggio’s Grand Master Alof de Wignacourt and his Page (c.1607-8), painted at Malta but now exhibited at The Louvre, Paris. Photo: Wikimedia.com

Caravaggio also painted another St Jerome which was still in existence at the Magisterial Palace in 1672. The artist also executed several portraits of Grand Master Wignacourt, the best-known of which depicts him in ceremonial armour and his page, and is now at the Louvre in Paris. Other works carried out in Malta include another painting of Wignacourt and a Sleeping Cupid, both at Palazzo Pitti in Florence, Italy.

Caravaggio’s demise was destined to occur within a short time and to be rather tragic and pathetic. His friends in Rome obtained for him a papal pardon which, however, reached him too late. After he had travelled through Sicily, he was wounded in a brawl in Naples in 1609 and then left for Porto Ercole. Here he was arrested in a case of mistaken identity and spent two days in detention.

His ship had, by now, left harbour and, when he was released, he thought his belongings were still on board. He furiously paced the beach under a scorching sun and this brought about a severe bout of fever which resulted in his untimely demise on July 18, 1610.

It has been speculated, though never proved, that he was assassinated by the avenging agents of the Tomassoni family or the Knights of St John. Ironically, the much-desired papal pardon arrived a few days later. His last work may have been a canvas depicting St John the Baptist which he painted in Naples in the spring of 1610.