WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:03.120 Welcome back to the Deep Dive. Today we are immersing 00:00:03.120 --> 00:00:05.360 ourselves in the life of a figure whose biography 00:00:05.360 --> 00:00:09.400 is so, I mean, so fraught with genius, violence, 00:00:09.500 --> 00:00:11.900 and paradox that he remains one of the most compelling 00:00:11.900 --> 00:00:15.119 artists in history. Michelangelo Morisi de Caravaggio. 00:00:15.380 --> 00:00:18.420 It's a study in extremes, really. Here's a man 00:00:18.420 --> 00:00:21.539 who, in just over a decade, completely changed 00:00:21.539 --> 00:00:23.820 the course of Western art. Right. He brought 00:00:23.820 --> 00:00:27.899 this raw, unflinching realism and this, uh... 00:00:28.619 --> 00:00:31.039 unprecedented dramatic use of light to these 00:00:31.039 --> 00:00:33.219 sacred scenes. And yet at the same time, for 00:00:33.219 --> 00:00:35.820 nearly half his career, he was a volatile street 00:00:35.820 --> 00:00:38.780 fighter. An outlaw, a fugitive with a death sentence 00:00:38.780 --> 00:00:41.340 literally hanging over his head. He was by all 00:00:41.340 --> 00:00:43.759 accounts a canonical master, a deeply flawed 00:00:43.759 --> 00:00:46.000 sinner, and, you know, depending on who you ask, 00:00:46.060 --> 00:00:47.820 maybe the single most important influence on 00:00:47.820 --> 00:00:50.280 modern painting. He really did. He took the sublime 00:00:50.280 --> 00:00:52.100 and just dragged it down into the mud. Yeah, 00:00:52.119 --> 00:00:54.200 forcing you to confront holiness in the context 00:00:54.200 --> 00:00:57.929 of... well, of common, dirty, intensely human 00:00:57.929 --> 00:01:00.490 life. And that tension is exactly why we're still 00:01:00.490 --> 00:01:03.070 so fascinated by him. His work influenced the 00:01:03.070 --> 00:01:05.170 entire Baroque movement, not just in Italy but 00:01:05.170 --> 00:01:07.370 all across Europe. And it was all about that 00:01:07.370 --> 00:01:10.109 combination of hyper -realism with his signature 00:01:10.109 --> 00:01:13.030 style. Tenebrism. That dramatic psychological 00:01:13.030 --> 00:01:16.430 use of shadow. Okay, so let's unpack this. Our 00:01:16.430 --> 00:01:18.689 mission today is a deep dive into the sources 00:01:18.689 --> 00:01:21.810 that detail his revolutionary style. But, you 00:01:21.810 --> 00:01:23.670 know, more importantly, we're tracking the chronology 00:01:23.670 --> 00:01:27.049 of his short, wild, and incredibly violent journey. 00:01:27.290 --> 00:01:29.769 Right. We want to understand how a life of constant 00:01:29.769 --> 00:01:32.650 brawls, feuds, and narrow escapes shaped a body 00:01:32.650 --> 00:01:35.180 of work that redefined the sacred. Let's set 00:01:35.180 --> 00:01:37.939 the stage then. We're in northern Italy. Michelangelo 00:01:37.939 --> 00:01:41.219 Maurici, born in Milan, 1571. And he's known 00:01:41.219 --> 00:01:43.659 to history as Caravaggio, which wasn't his surname 00:01:43.659 --> 00:01:46.140 at all. No, it was the town. Exactly. The town 00:01:46.140 --> 00:01:48.519 about 35 kilometers away where his family had 00:01:48.519 --> 00:01:51.120 roots and where his father, Fermo, worked for 00:01:51.120 --> 00:01:53.900 the local Marquess. But his childhood was, I 00:01:53.900 --> 00:01:57.599 mean... brutally cut short. Brutally. In 1576, 00:01:57.799 --> 00:02:00.540 the family fled Milan to escape the plague. And 00:02:00.540 --> 00:02:03.659 then in 1577, tragedy just hits them like a truck. 00:02:03.780 --> 00:02:05.719 His father and his grandfather die on the very 00:02:05.719 --> 00:02:08.240 same day. The same day. It's unbelievable. And 00:02:08.240 --> 00:02:10.659 it left his mother struggling to raise five kids 00:02:10.659 --> 00:02:14.129 in, you know, real poverty. And you have to think 00:02:14.129 --> 00:02:17.569 that this early exposure to instability, to death, 00:02:17.750 --> 00:02:20.969 it has to color the raw emotionality you see 00:02:20.969 --> 00:02:23.569 in his work later on. Oh, absolutely. That poverty 00:02:23.569 --> 00:02:26.469 combined with his regional artistic heritage 00:02:26.469 --> 00:02:29.050 is what really shaped him before he ever even 00:02:29.050 --> 00:02:32.650 got to Rome. So at 13, he starts an apprenticeship. 00:02:33.159 --> 00:02:36.180 A four -year apprenticeship in Milan under Simone 00:02:36.180 --> 00:02:38.439 Peterzano. And Peterzano was a pretty big deal, 00:02:38.460 --> 00:02:40.580 right? He was. The contract actually describes 00:02:40.580 --> 00:02:43.020 him as having been a pupil of Titian, which gave 00:02:43.020 --> 00:02:45.580 him a lot of clout. So what did Caravaggio learn 00:02:45.580 --> 00:02:48.680 there? He was exposed to the local lumbar art 00:02:48.680 --> 00:02:51.300 tradition. And this is a really critical distinction. 00:02:51.580 --> 00:02:54.539 Right. Because Rome, at this time, was dominated 00:02:54.539 --> 00:02:57.319 by Mannerism, which was this very intellectual, 00:02:57.539 --> 00:03:00.159 stylized, almost artificial kind of art. Right. 00:03:00.199 --> 00:03:03.210 Very dramatic. Lots of poses. Exactly. Histrionic. 00:03:03.469 --> 00:03:05.469 Lombard art, on the other hand, was all about 00:03:05.469 --> 00:03:08.449 simplicity, clarity, and this really strong attention 00:03:08.449 --> 00:03:11.250 to naturalistic detail. They called it the art 00:03:11.250 --> 00:03:14.509 of reality. So he shows up in Rome already armed 00:03:14.509 --> 00:03:16.629 with a style that's basically the opposite of 00:03:16.629 --> 00:03:19.289 what the capital considered high art. And he 00:03:19.289 --> 00:03:21.650 doesn't exactly arrive as some promising young 00:03:21.650 --> 00:03:26.389 artist. He basically fled Milan in 1592. Fled. 00:03:26.550 --> 00:03:29.370 Why? The contemporary accounts are a little vague. 00:03:29.509 --> 00:03:33.710 They mention certain quarrels and wounding a 00:03:33.710 --> 00:03:35.770 police officer. So from the very beginning, he's 00:03:35.770 --> 00:03:37.430 in trouble with the law. From the very start. 00:03:37.509 --> 00:03:39.889 And when he got to Rome, the sources describe 00:03:39.889 --> 00:03:42.810 him as being in just dire straits. Naked and 00:03:42.810 --> 00:03:45.590 extremely needy. Naked and extremely needy. Without 00:03:45.590 --> 00:03:48.330 fixed address and without provision. Short of 00:03:48.330 --> 00:03:51.349 money. It's a dramatic entrance for sure. So 00:03:51.349 --> 00:03:53.650 how did he survive those first few years? They 00:03:53.650 --> 00:03:56.270 must have been brutal. He took the most meager 00:03:56.270 --> 00:03:58.610 lodging he could find, staying with this really 00:03:58.610 --> 00:04:01.750 stingy prelate named Pendolfo Pucci. Oh, this 00:04:01.750 --> 00:04:04.189 is the guy he called Monsignor Insalata. That's 00:04:04.189 --> 00:04:06.469 the one. Because Pucci apparently only ever fed 00:04:06.469 --> 00:04:08.810 him cold salad. That's incredible. To pay the 00:04:08.810 --> 00:04:11.509 bills, he joined the workshop of Giuseppe Cesari, 00:04:11.669 --> 00:04:14.110 who was the favorite artist of Pope Clement VIII. 00:04:14.129 --> 00:04:17.009 A real factory -like setup. So what was the job 00:04:17.009 --> 00:04:19.750 for the great future master Caravaggio in this 00:04:19.750 --> 00:04:22.589 prestigious workshop? Hack work. Total hack work. 00:04:22.850 --> 00:04:25.649 His specialty was painting flowers and fruit, 00:04:25.889 --> 00:04:28.910 just churning out decorative elements for Cesare's 00:04:28.910 --> 00:04:31.430 big commissions. Wow, so he's just painting filler. 00:04:31.649 --> 00:04:34.490 Pretty much. But that phase was short -lived. 00:04:34.949 --> 00:04:37.790 He got seriously ill, left Caesare's place to 00:04:37.790 --> 00:04:40.149 recover. But this hack work, the flowers and 00:04:40.149 --> 00:04:43.250 fruit, it leads directly to his first defining 00:04:43.250 --> 00:04:45.949 style, right? Absolutely. His earliest works 00:04:45.949 --> 00:04:48.610 we still recognize, like Boy Peeling a Fruit 00:04:48.610 --> 00:04:50.389 and the Young Sick Bacchus. Which is supposed 00:04:50.389 --> 00:04:52.089 to be a self -portrait from when he was sick. 00:04:52.250 --> 00:04:55.089 Many believe so. And in these early still lifes, 00:04:55.329 --> 00:04:58.410 his commitment to particularity, to specifics, 00:04:58.509 --> 00:05:01.209 just shocked the Roman elite. They were used 00:05:01.209 --> 00:05:04.329 to perfect idealized forms. Caravaggio gave... 00:05:04.329 --> 00:05:06.329 gave them flawed, intensely observed reality. 00:05:06.709 --> 00:05:08.750 And we have to talk about the detail in Boy with 00:05:08.750 --> 00:05:10.910 a Basket of Fruit. I read that a professor of 00:05:10.910 --> 00:05:13.029 horticulture actually analyzed the produce in 00:05:13.029 --> 00:05:15.170 that painting centuries later. That's right. 00:05:15.269 --> 00:05:17.829 And they identified specific cultivars of fruit, 00:05:17.930 --> 00:05:20.209 which is already amazing precision. But that's 00:05:20.209 --> 00:05:22.209 not the craziest part. Yeah. The most telling 00:05:22.209 --> 00:05:24.990 detail was the inclusion of fungal damage. A 00:05:24.990 --> 00:05:28.269 glomerulus cingulata lesion, basically, rot on 00:05:28.269 --> 00:05:32.410 a large fig leaf. Wait, so actual rot? On purpose? 00:05:32.649 --> 00:05:36.029 On purpose. This is extraordinary. Most painters 00:05:36.029 --> 00:05:38.709 idealize nature. They remove the imperfections. 00:05:39.230 --> 00:05:42.910 Caravaggio explicitly put them in. So why? Why 00:05:42.910 --> 00:05:44.910 do that? Is he just showing off his skill, or 00:05:44.910 --> 00:05:46.910 is there a bigger statement being made? It's 00:05:46.910 --> 00:05:49.589 both, but it's mainly philosophical. He was showing 00:05:49.589 --> 00:05:52.069 that beauty and reality are inseparable, even 00:05:52.069 --> 00:05:55.009 when reality includes decay. He's elevating the 00:05:55.009 --> 00:05:58.930 everyday. Exactly. By refusing to idealize, he's 00:05:58.930 --> 00:06:01.970 saying that the mundane, the imperfect, is worthy 00:06:01.970 --> 00:06:04.389 of serious art. It was a visual rejection of 00:06:04.389 --> 00:06:06.410 everything mannerism stood for. He basically 00:06:06.410 --> 00:06:09.350 said, I paint what I see down to the rot. And 00:06:09.350 --> 00:06:12.230 that refusal to idealize becomes the engine of 00:06:12.230 --> 00:06:14.709 his whole career. It really does. After he recovers, 00:06:14.709 --> 00:06:16.350 he starts building his network, which was this 00:06:16.350 --> 00:06:20.230 mix of the respectable and the distinctly not 00:06:20.230 --> 00:06:22.230 so respectable. So who was in his circle? He 00:06:22.230 --> 00:06:24.329 connects with Prospero Orsi, who gets him in 00:06:24.329 --> 00:06:26.850 front of collectors. The painter Onorio Longhi, 00:06:26.910 --> 00:06:28.870 who was his partner in street brawls. Of course. 00:06:28.910 --> 00:06:31.230 And critically, the young Sicilian artist Mario 00:06:31.230 --> 00:06:34.670 Minniti, who became his main model for so many 00:06:34.670 --> 00:06:37.069 of those beautiful early paintings. And these 00:06:37.069 --> 00:06:40.069 relationships helped him get his first real commercial 00:06:40.069 --> 00:06:42.649 success, didn't they? With multi -figure pieces. 00:06:43.029 --> 00:06:46.410 Yes, like the fortune teller and the hugely successful, 00:06:46.689 --> 00:06:48.949 the card sharps. The fortune teller was a totally 00:06:48.949 --> 00:06:52.240 new subject for Rome, right? A Romani girl reading 00:06:52.240 --> 00:06:54.300 a young man's palm. But while she's distracting 00:06:54.300 --> 00:06:57.379 him, she's stealthily slipping the ring off his 00:06:57.379 --> 00:07:00.100 finger. It's a snapshot of street life full of 00:07:00.100 --> 00:07:02.740 this quiet psychological drama. And the Carshars 00:07:02.740 --> 00:07:05.759 just amps that up. An innocent kid being cheated 00:07:05.759 --> 00:07:08.779 by these two pros. The detail on the boy's face, 00:07:08.860 --> 00:07:11.620 his vulnerability, is just heartbreaking. It 00:07:11.620 --> 00:07:14.019 was so popular that over 50 copies of it survived. 00:07:14.680 --> 00:07:16.540 But its greatest success was that it attracted 00:07:16.540 --> 00:07:18.879 the attention of Cardinal Francesco Maria Del 00:07:18.879 --> 00:07:21.019 Monte. And Del Monte was the key. He was the 00:07:21.019 --> 00:07:23.240 key. The leading connoisseur, a huge figure in 00:07:23.240 --> 00:07:26.360 Rome. His patronage was the rocket fuel Caravaggio 00:07:26.360 --> 00:07:29.079 needed. It instantly took him from a poor hack 00:07:29.079 --> 00:07:31.420 painter to a protected artist. And Del Monte 00:07:31.420 --> 00:07:33.470 gave him a place to live, right. And commission. 00:07:33.670 --> 00:07:36.490 Lodgings. And a steady flow of commissions for 00:07:36.490 --> 00:07:39.269 these intimate chamber pieces, often featuring 00:07:39.269 --> 00:07:41.750 Menetti and other handsome young models. This 00:07:41.750 --> 00:07:44.430 is when he paints the musicians and the lute 00:07:44.430 --> 00:07:47.370 player. This period also sees his first religious 00:07:47.370 --> 00:07:49.910 work, like the Penitent Magdalene. And here he 00:07:49.910 --> 00:07:53.910 applies that same Lombard realism to a sacred 00:07:53.910 --> 00:07:57.189 figure. It's a profound shift. At the time, depictions 00:07:57.189 --> 00:07:59.810 of Mary Magdalene were always these huge histrionic 00:07:59.810 --> 00:08:02.699 scenes of suffering or ecstasy. But he strips 00:08:02.699 --> 00:08:04.620 all that away. Completely. What you see is just 00:08:04.620 --> 00:08:06.899 a girl. She looks exhausted. She's sitting on 00:08:06.899 --> 00:08:09.500 the floor, weeping, drying her hair. Her discarded 00:08:09.500 --> 00:08:11.879 jewels are scattered next to her. And the critics 00:08:11.879 --> 00:08:14.050 complained that... It seemed not a religious 00:08:14.050 --> 00:08:16.050 painting at all. And that's the whole point. 00:08:16.149 --> 00:08:18.709 By showing her as a real person, caught in this 00:08:18.709 --> 00:08:21.829 moment of raw, observable grief, he humanized 00:08:21.829 --> 00:08:24.670 the spiritual story. He just rejected all the 00:08:24.670 --> 00:08:26.490 accepted formality and replaced it with what 00:08:26.490 --> 00:08:29.470 he saw. And that choice was about to ignite controversy 00:08:29.470 --> 00:08:32.110 all over Rome. So the moment Caravaggio steps 00:08:32.110 --> 00:08:34.590 out of Cardinal Del Monte's private chambers 00:08:34.590 --> 00:08:37.169 and onto the public stage, everything changes. 00:08:37.490 --> 00:08:41.279 Everything. In 1599, through Del Monte's influence, 00:08:41.559 --> 00:08:44.259 he lands the most important commission of his 00:08:44.259 --> 00:08:47.200 career. decorating the Contarelli Chapel. This 00:08:47.200 --> 00:08:49.399 was the big leagues. Absolutely. And when the 00:08:49.399 --> 00:08:52.220 two paintings, The Martyrdom of St. Matthew and 00:08:52.220 --> 00:08:54.080 The Calling of St. Matthew, were unveiled in 00:08:54.080 --> 00:08:57.940 1600, they caused an immediate sensation. Caravaggio 00:08:57.940 --> 00:09:00.460 became a superstar overnight. And what's so fascinating 00:09:00.460 --> 00:09:03.320 is how he made them. He worked incredibly fast, 00:09:03.539 --> 00:09:05.779 skipping the preparatory drawings, the cartoons. 00:09:05.940 --> 00:09:07.860 There were standard practice. He just worked 00:09:07.860 --> 00:09:10.500 directly from live models, scoring guides right 00:09:10.500 --> 00:09:12.419 onto the canvas with the handle of his brush. 00:09:12.600 --> 00:09:15.019 And that was controversial. Hugely. It was seen 00:09:15.019 --> 00:09:17.960 as almost vulgar by traditionalists. They thought 00:09:17.960 --> 00:09:20.139 the artist should idealize the human form in 00:09:20.139 --> 00:09:22.299 their mind first. The art world was completely 00:09:22.299 --> 00:09:24.720 polarized. So the younger painters loved him? 00:09:24.899 --> 00:09:27.019 They gathered around him, calling his work miracles. 00:09:27.360 --> 00:09:30.059 But the establishment, they denounced him for 00:09:30.059 --> 00:09:32.059 his refusal to draw, for just painting life, 00:09:32.179 --> 00:09:34.460 flaws, and all. Which brings us to the visual 00:09:34.460 --> 00:09:37.960 heart of his revolution. Tenebrism. Now we know 00:09:37.960 --> 00:09:40.460 Chiaroscuro is light and dark, but tenebrism 00:09:40.460 --> 00:09:43.759 is... What? Chiaroscuro on steroids. That's a 00:09:43.759 --> 00:09:45.759 good way to put it. It's heightened chiaroscuro. 00:09:46.580 --> 00:09:49.799 Tenorism, it literally means shadowism. Okay. 00:09:49.860 --> 00:09:52.120 It's not just about light and shadow. It's about 00:09:52.120 --> 00:09:55.379 dramatic, almost total darkness serving as a 00:09:55.379 --> 00:09:58.759 void. Caravaggio plunged his backgrounds into 00:09:58.759 --> 00:10:01.500 overwhelming shadow and then used these brilliant, 00:10:01.580 --> 00:10:05.259 focused shafts of light to just transfix his 00:10:05.259 --> 00:10:07.840 subjects. It makes the light itself feel supernatural. 00:10:08.200 --> 00:10:11.360 Precisely. Historically, that kind of dramatic 00:10:11.360 --> 00:10:14.769 shadow was for night scenes. Caravaggio used 00:10:14.769 --> 00:10:17.149 it for daytime scenes, for spiritual moments, 00:10:17.330 --> 00:10:19.909 making the light feel like the hand of God cutting 00:10:19.909 --> 00:10:22.570 through the darkness of the world. This became 00:10:22.570 --> 00:10:24.950 the visual engine for the entire Baroque movement. 00:10:25.190 --> 00:10:26.909 The Calling of St. Matthew is the perfect example. 00:10:27.149 --> 00:10:29.029 Jesus is off to the side. You can barely see 00:10:29.029 --> 00:10:30.929 him in this dark tavern, and he's pointing at 00:10:30.929 --> 00:10:33.149 Matthew, the tax collector. And look what's missing. 00:10:33.269 --> 00:10:35.450 There are no flying angels, no parting clouds, 00:10:35.649 --> 00:10:37.960 none of the usual signs of a divine moment. The 00:10:37.960 --> 00:10:40.139 conversion is shown only through that single 00:10:40.139 --> 00:10:43.139 beam of light slicing across the room, illuminating 00:10:43.139 --> 00:10:46.120 their faces. It forces you to focus on the psychological 00:10:46.120 --> 00:10:49.000 drama. Matthew's hand points to himself like, 00:10:49.080 --> 00:10:52.000 woo me, but his eyes are already starting to 00:10:52.000 --> 00:10:54.440 accept the call. It makes the spiritual experience 00:10:54.440 --> 00:10:57.159 feel immediate, like it could happen to anyone, 00:10:57.399 --> 00:11:01.460 anywhere. Exactly. But this radical choice, this 00:11:01.460 --> 00:11:04.779 refusal to idealize, it quickly became a huge 00:11:04.779 --> 00:11:06.779 problem for his religious commissioners. The 00:11:06.779 --> 00:11:09.279 rejections start piling up. Oh, constantly. His 00:11:09.279 --> 00:11:11.940 first version of St. Matthew and the angel for 00:11:11.940 --> 00:11:14.519 that same chapel was taken down almost immediately. 00:11:15.019 --> 00:11:18.360 Why? Because he painted the saint as a bald peasant 00:11:18.360 --> 00:11:21.279 with dirty legs, being sort of clumsily guided 00:11:21.279 --> 00:11:24.159 by an angel. He just looked too common, too earthy. 00:11:24.159 --> 00:11:26.159 They wanted someone more dignified. And then 00:11:26.159 --> 00:11:27.460 there's the famous story about the conversion 00:11:27.460 --> 00:11:30.259 on the way to Damascus. A classic. The painting 00:11:30.259 --> 00:11:32.500 is dominated by the horse's backside. I mean, 00:11:32.500 --> 00:11:34.620 it fills a huge part of the canvas while St. 00:11:34.720 --> 00:11:37.500 Paul is on the ground, visually secondary. And 00:11:37.500 --> 00:11:40.100 some official gets angry about it. An exasperated 00:11:40.100 --> 00:11:42.320 church official asked him, why have you put a 00:11:42.320 --> 00:11:44.620 horse in the middle and St. Paul on the ground? 00:11:44.840 --> 00:11:49.220 In Caravaggio's reply. Just because. When the 00:11:49.220 --> 00:11:52.220 official oppressed him as the horse god, Caravaggio's 00:11:52.220 --> 00:11:55.360 response was just brilliant defiance. He said, 00:11:55.460 --> 00:11:59.039 no, but he stands in God's light. Wow. So for 00:11:59.039 --> 00:12:02.000 him, the reality of the composition, the light, 00:12:02.159 --> 00:12:04.120 that was more important than the religious hierarchy. 00:12:04.379 --> 00:12:06.919 It trumped everything. But the most famous rejection, 00:12:07.120 --> 00:12:09.259 the one that really shows the conflict, was the 00:12:09.259 --> 00:12:11.639 death of the Virgin. Commissioned for a Carmelite 00:12:11.639 --> 00:12:14.779 church, delivered, and then almost instantly 00:12:14.779 --> 00:12:18.149 rejected in 1606. The rejection had a few layers. 00:12:18.450 --> 00:12:20.809 His rival, Baglioni, was quick to spread the 00:12:20.809 --> 00:12:23.289 rumor that Caravaggio had used a well -known 00:12:23.289 --> 00:12:25.409 local prostitute as the model for the Virgin 00:12:25.409 --> 00:12:27.750 Mary. Which was already a huge problem. A huge 00:12:27.750 --> 00:12:29.649 problem. And on top of that, Baglioni claimed 00:12:29.649 --> 00:12:32.190 Mary was detected as swollen with bare legs, 00:12:32.409 --> 00:12:35.330 a profound offense to decorum. It suggested real 00:12:35.330 --> 00:12:38.250 physical death. Decay. And there was a theological 00:12:38.250 --> 00:12:40.929 issue too, right? Yes. The sources suggest the 00:12:40.929 --> 00:12:43.169 Carmelites were worried the painting failed to 00:12:43.169 --> 00:12:45.570 assert the doctrine. of the assumption of Mary, 00:12:45.830 --> 00:12:49.049 the idea that she was taken, body and soul, into 00:12:49.049 --> 00:12:53.269 heaven. Caravaggio's Mary is just like, dead. 00:12:53.509 --> 00:12:56.990 A real corpse. It was too real, too unvarnished. 00:12:57.070 --> 00:12:59.450 It didn't offer that comforting idealism the 00:12:59.450 --> 00:13:01.710 church wanted. But here's the thing, that rejection 00:13:01.710 --> 00:13:04.110 paradoxically confirms his genius, doesn't it? 00:13:04.190 --> 00:13:06.230 Absolutely. The second it was taken down, it 00:13:06.230 --> 00:13:08.990 was bought by the Duke of Mantua. On whose advice? 00:13:09.250 --> 00:13:11.309 On the advice of none other than Peter Paul Rubens. 00:13:11.769 --> 00:13:14.389 Rubens recognized the profound emotional power 00:13:14.389 --> 00:13:16.850 of the work, even if the Carmelites couldn't 00:13:16.850 --> 00:13:19.409 handle its truth. So even as the church is rejecting 00:13:19.409 --> 00:13:21.809 him, the smartest artists are fighting to get 00:13:21.809 --> 00:13:23.889 his work. They're flammering for it. We should 00:13:23.889 --> 00:13:25.830 also touch on his secular work from this time, 00:13:25.909 --> 00:13:28.850 especially Armour, Vincit, Omnia Love Conquers 00:13:28.850 --> 00:13:32.120 All. Painted for Vincenzo Giustiniani, the model 00:13:32.120 --> 00:13:34.940 was a young man known at the time as Cecco. Probably 00:13:34.940 --> 00:13:37.159 Francesco Bonnery, who became an artist himself. 00:13:37.500 --> 00:13:40.179 Right. And he's painted as a nude Cupid, but 00:13:40.179 --> 00:13:43.179 he looks both like the Roman god and like a mischievous 00:13:43.179 --> 00:13:46.179 modern kid. He's grinning right at you, trampling 00:13:46.179 --> 00:13:48.980 all the symbols of human achievement, war, music, 00:13:49.100 --> 00:13:53.139 science. The reality of it is described as intense 00:13:53.139 --> 00:13:56.299 yet ambiguous. And that ambiguity is the point. 00:13:56.669 --> 00:13:58.889 It's hard to accept this, as one critic called 00:13:58.889 --> 00:14:01.389 him, grinning urchin as a god, just like it was 00:14:01.389 --> 00:14:04.070 hard to accept his peasants as saints. He was 00:14:04.070 --> 00:14:06.289 blurring the line between the ideal and the real, 00:14:06.409 --> 00:14:08.789 making the myth and the model inseparable. So 00:14:08.789 --> 00:14:11.350 as Caravaggio's fame is hitting its peak, his 00:14:11.350 --> 00:14:13.210 violent reputation is right there with it. Oh, 00:14:13.210 --> 00:14:15.529 absolutely. You can't separate the genius of 00:14:15.529 --> 00:14:18.309 the art from the chaos of the life that was fueling 00:14:18.309 --> 00:14:20.649 it. The police records fill many pages, as one 00:14:20.649 --> 00:14:23.730 source noted. He was a genuine outlaw. He really 00:14:23.730 --> 00:14:26.740 was. An early notice from 1604 describes him 00:14:26.740 --> 00:14:29.019 perfectly. It says, after a fortnight's work, 00:14:29.159 --> 00:14:31.200 he will swagger about for a month or two with 00:14:31.200 --> 00:14:33.639 a sword at his side, ever ready to engage in 00:14:33.639 --> 00:14:35.899 a fight or an argument. So he lived as aggressively 00:14:35.899 --> 00:14:38.399 as his paintings looked. He cultivated that image. 00:14:38.580 --> 00:14:40.940 And we should trace this chronology of conflict 00:14:40.940 --> 00:14:43.440 because you see this clear escalation of rage 00:14:43.440 --> 00:14:46.700 and impunity. It starts with feuds, right? In 00:14:46.700 --> 00:14:50.159 1603, he's arrested for defaming his rival, Giovanni 00:14:50.159 --> 00:14:52.320 Baglione. And this wasn't just a simple dispute. 00:14:52.620 --> 00:14:54.960 Caravaggio and his friends wrote and distributed 00:14:54.960 --> 00:14:57.740 these deeply offensive poems about Baglioni. 00:14:57.980 --> 00:15:00.580 He ended up in jail for a month. Then the next 00:15:00.580 --> 00:15:04.179 year, 1604, things get even worse. More arrests, 00:15:04.419 --> 00:15:07.360 illegal weapons, insulting city guards. But the 00:15:07.360 --> 00:15:10.419 most absurd and memorable incident involved food. 00:15:10.960 --> 00:15:13.740 The famous artichoke incident. Yes, he was sued 00:15:13.740 --> 00:15:15.799 by a tavern waiter after he threw a plate of 00:15:15.799 --> 00:15:18.379 hot artichokes in the guy's face. Why? What was 00:15:18.379 --> 00:15:20.240 the dispute about? He'd asked if they were cooked 00:15:20.240 --> 00:15:22.480 in butter or oil. When the waiter was, I guess, 00:15:22.559 --> 00:15:25.000 disrespectful in his answer, Caravaggio just 00:15:25.000 --> 00:15:27.960 lost it. Over artichokes. It's so petty, but 00:15:27.960 --> 00:15:29.919 it shows you that hair -trigger temper he had. 00:15:30.159 --> 00:15:33.460 It really does. Then in 1605, the violence gets 00:15:33.460 --> 00:15:36.659 serious again. He badly injures a notary, a man 00:15:36.659 --> 00:15:38.899 named Mariano Pasqualone. And this was over a 00:15:38.899 --> 00:15:41.440 woman, right? A model named Lena. Michelangelo's 00:15:41.440 --> 00:15:43.659 girl, as she was called in the deposition. This 00:15:43.659 --> 00:15:45.820 was serious enough that he had to flee Rome for 00:15:45.820 --> 00:15:47.700 three weeks until his patrons could smooth things 00:15:47.700 --> 00:15:50.679 over. He comes back and is right back to it, 00:15:50.740 --> 00:15:54.259 sued by his landlady for not paying rent. Prudenzia 00:15:54.259 --> 00:15:57.320 Bruni. And his retaliation for her lawsuit was, 00:15:57.580 --> 00:16:00.679 well, it was unhinged. He threw a bunch of rocks 00:16:00.679 --> 00:16:02.899 through her window at night. Which naturally 00:16:02.899 --> 00:16:04.860 led to another lawsuit. He was just living in 00:16:04.860 --> 00:16:08.080 constant chaos. Total chaos. But all of this 00:16:08.080 --> 00:16:10.759 was just the prelude to the catastrophic event 00:16:10.759 --> 00:16:12.919 that changed his life forever? The killing of 00:16:12.919 --> 00:16:17.919 Renuccio Tomassoni on May 29, 1606. This was 00:16:17.919 --> 00:16:20.460 the point of no return. Tomassoni was not someone 00:16:20.460 --> 00:16:22.759 to mess with. He was a gangster from a wealthy, 00:16:22.840 --> 00:16:25.559 connected Roman family. The fight, whether it 00:16:25.559 --> 00:16:28.000 was a duel or a brawl, happened at Campo Marzio, 00:16:28.100 --> 00:16:30.860 and Tomassoni ended up dead. And the reason for 00:16:30.860 --> 00:16:32.919 the fight is still debated, isn't it? The official 00:16:32.919 --> 00:16:35.259 story, or the clean one, is that it was over 00:16:35.259 --> 00:16:37.899 a gambling debt from a game of pellicorda, a 00:16:37.899 --> 00:16:40.539 kind of tennis. But there are other more dramatic 00:16:40.539 --> 00:16:43.179 rumors. Oh, yeah. Some accounts say it was jealousy 00:16:43.179 --> 00:16:46.120 over his model and lover, Felitti Melandroni, 00:16:46.120 --> 00:16:48.259 who Tomasone was apparently pimping. And there 00:16:48.259 --> 00:16:50.340 was a much more gruesome rumor. That the fight 00:16:50.340 --> 00:16:53.320 started after a botched castration attempt. We 00:16:53.320 --> 00:16:55.179 don't know the exact provocation, but the result 00:16:55.179 --> 00:16:58.750 is clear. Caravaggio wounded Tomassoni, possibly 00:16:58.750 --> 00:17:01.230 hitting the femoral artery, and the wound was 00:17:01.230 --> 00:17:04.349 fatal. And Caravaggio was wounded himself. Seriously 00:17:04.349 --> 00:17:07.230 wounded, but he managed to escape. But this time, 00:17:07.250 --> 00:17:10.190 his powerful patrons couldn't protect him. The 00:17:10.190 --> 00:17:12.329 Tomassoni family was powerful, and they wanted 00:17:12.329 --> 00:17:15.650 justice. And justice came swiftly. He was sentenced 00:17:15.650 --> 00:17:18.640 to beheading for murder. But it wasn't a formal 00:17:18.640 --> 00:17:21.400 execution. No, it was an open bounty, a bando 00:17:21.400 --> 00:17:23.779 capital. This meant anyone in the papal states 00:17:23.779 --> 00:17:26.039 could legally kill him on sight and just present 00:17:26.039 --> 00:17:27.940 his head to the authorities to collect the reward. 00:17:28.200 --> 00:17:30.720 So anyone could just kill him. Legally. Anyone. 00:17:31.099 --> 00:17:34.019 He became a marked man. He had to flee Rome immediately. 00:17:34.319 --> 00:17:36.500 And the psychological impact of this, of being 00:17:36.500 --> 00:17:38.799 a man condemned to lose his head, it shows up 00:17:38.799 --> 00:17:40.579 in his art right away. Of severed heads. He becomes 00:17:40.579 --> 00:17:42.920 obsessed with them. He starts painting his own 00:17:42.920 --> 00:17:45.779 face as the severed head of Goliath or John the 00:17:45.779 --> 00:17:48.859 Baptist. It was a continuous, grim self -portrait 00:17:48.859 --> 00:17:50.859 of a man living with his own execution warrant. 00:17:50.960 --> 00:17:53.819 The final four years of his life are just frantic, 00:17:53.819 --> 00:17:56.579 desperate movement across southern Italy and 00:17:56.579 --> 00:17:58.890 Malta. But despite all that turmoil, it was an 00:17:58.890 --> 00:18:01.849 incredibly productive period. He had to paint 00:18:01.849 --> 00:18:04.769 to live and to try and secure the pardon he so 00:18:04.769 --> 00:18:07.109 desperately wanted. His first stop was Naples. 00:18:07.210 --> 00:18:09.990 Right, safely outside Roman jurisdiction. He's 00:18:09.990 --> 00:18:12.430 protected by the Colonna family, and his fame 00:18:12.430 --> 00:18:15.089 had preceded him. He became the most famous painter 00:18:15.089 --> 00:18:17.750 in Naples pretty much overnight. And he's working 00:18:17.750 --> 00:18:20.130 at a furious pace, landing major commissions. 00:18:20.369 --> 00:18:22.789 Major ones. The Madonna of the Rosary and the 00:18:22.789 --> 00:18:26.029 monumental... The Seven Works of Mercy. The Seven 00:18:26.029 --> 00:18:28.150 Works of Mercy is incredible. He depicts all 00:18:28.150 --> 00:18:30.849 seven acts of compassion, feeding the hungry, 00:18:31.029 --> 00:18:34.109 clothing the naked in one single dramatic scene. 00:18:34.329 --> 00:18:36.670 It's a structural masterpiece, and it's still 00:18:36.670 --> 00:18:38.289 in the church it was commissioned for today. 00:18:38.730 --> 00:18:42.210 But he didn't stay long. In 1607, he moved to 00:18:42.210 --> 00:18:44.109 Malta. And that was a strategic move, wasn't 00:18:44.109 --> 00:18:47.029 it? Very strategic. He was hoping the Grand Master 00:18:47.029 --> 00:18:49.980 of the Knights of Malta. Alof de Wignacourt could 00:18:49.980 --> 00:18:51.960 use his influence to get him a papal pardon. 00:18:52.220 --> 00:18:54.140 And Wignacourt was impressed enough to make him 00:18:54.140 --> 00:18:57.599 a knight of Malta. He was inducted in 1608, and 00:18:57.599 --> 00:19:00.380 sources say Caravaggio was incredibly proud of 00:19:00.380 --> 00:19:03.019 this. It gave him status and protection. And 00:19:03.019 --> 00:19:05.440 his time in Malta produced some of his greatest 00:19:05.440 --> 00:19:08.160 work. Some of his darkest, too, like the Beheading 00:19:08.160 --> 00:19:09.960 of St. John the Baptist. Which is legendary. 00:19:10.000 --> 00:19:11.940 It's his largest canvas, and it's the only painting 00:19:11.940 --> 00:19:13.970 he ever signed. And the way he signed it is just 00:19:13.970 --> 00:19:17.869 morbidly perfect. He wrote his name, F. Michelangelo, 00:19:18.009 --> 00:19:20.990 for Fra Michelangelo, in the spilled blood of 00:19:20.990 --> 00:19:24.230 the Baptist on the pavement. Wow. But that status, 00:19:24.289 --> 00:19:27.069 that protection, it didn't last. Not at all. 00:19:27.190 --> 00:19:30.250 By August 1608, just a few months later, he was 00:19:30.250 --> 00:19:32.589 arrested and imprisoned after another brawl, 00:19:32.609 --> 00:19:35.450 this time with an aristocratic knight. The irony 00:19:35.450 --> 00:19:38.130 is just astounding. Isn't it? He sought refuge 00:19:38.130 --> 00:19:40.390 with the knights and immediately violated their 00:19:40.390 --> 00:19:43.490 code. He escaped from prison, we don't know how, 00:19:43.630 --> 00:19:45.970 and was formally expelled from the order. And 00:19:45.970 --> 00:19:48.529 the official statement called him... A foul and 00:19:48.529 --> 00:19:51.869 rotten member. So from Malta, he flees to Sicily. 00:19:51.910 --> 00:19:54.349 Where he's reunited with his old friend, Mario 00:19:54.349 --> 00:19:57.230 Minniti, the boy model from his early days. And 00:19:57.230 --> 00:19:59.569 Minniti helps him get new commissions. And this 00:19:59.569 --> 00:20:01.829 is where we see his late style really emerge. 00:20:02.410 --> 00:20:05.190 Definitely. Works like The Raising of Lazarus 00:20:05.190 --> 00:20:07.990 feature these isolated figures set against vast, 00:20:08.130 --> 00:20:11.430 empty backgrounds. It's an unnerving style. The 00:20:11.430 --> 00:20:13.509 figures seem almost overwhelmed by the space 00:20:13.509 --> 00:20:17.710 around them. It suggests this deep sense of desolation 00:20:17.710 --> 00:20:20.150 and paranoia. And his personal behavior reflected 00:20:20.150 --> 00:20:23.690 that. Reports from Sicily describe him as increasingly 00:20:23.690 --> 00:20:27.079 erratic. sleeping fully armed and clothed, reacting 00:20:27.079 --> 00:20:30.039 violently to even minor criticism. He was clearly 00:20:30.039 --> 00:20:32.720 under immense psychological stress. He returns 00:20:32.720 --> 00:20:35.460 to Naples in late 1609, still hoping for that 00:20:35.460 --> 00:20:38.119 pardon. But his enemies were closing in. Shortly 00:20:38.119 --> 00:20:40.920 after he got back, he was ambushed. likely by 00:20:40.920 --> 00:20:42.960 men seeking revenge, either for the knight in 00:20:42.960 --> 00:20:45.619 Malta or hired by the Tomassoni family. He was 00:20:45.619 --> 00:20:48.079 severely injured, his face disfigured. And this 00:20:48.079 --> 00:20:49.920 is when rumors started circulating in Rome that 00:20:49.920 --> 00:20:52.140 he was dead. Right. And during this final, desperate 00:20:52.140 --> 00:20:54.619 period while he was healing, he used his art 00:20:54.619 --> 00:20:57.559 as a direct political appeal. He literally painted 00:20:57.559 --> 00:20:59.759 his pleas for forgiveness. These are the self 00:20:59.759 --> 00:21:02.299 -portraits as severed heads. The two most powerful 00:21:02.299 --> 00:21:05.240 examples. He painted Salome with the head of 00:21:05.240 --> 00:21:07.519 John the Baptist, with his own sorrowful face 00:21:07.519 --> 00:21:10.140 on the platter, and sent it to Winnicourt in 00:21:10.140 --> 00:21:12.180 Malta, begging for the knight's forgiveness. 00:21:12.839 --> 00:21:15.279 And the other one, David with the head of Goliath. 00:21:15.460 --> 00:21:17.660 Goliath's head is another chilling self -portrait. 00:21:17.930 --> 00:21:20.170 He sent that one to Cardinal Scipione Borghese, 00:21:20.349 --> 00:21:24.190 the Pope's powerful nephew. The sword David holds 00:21:24.190 --> 00:21:27.869 is inscribed H .S. Humility Conquers Pride. So 00:21:27.869 --> 00:21:30.089 he's literally painting his own head on a platter, 00:21:30.170 --> 00:21:32.470 presenting himself as the vanquished monster, 00:21:32.609 --> 00:21:35.170 just begging for mercy. Exactly. And it seemed 00:21:35.170 --> 00:21:37.470 to be working. News arrived that the pardon was 00:21:37.470 --> 00:21:40.109 imminent. So in the summer of 1610, Caravaggio 00:21:40.109 --> 00:21:42.329 gets on a boat to travel north towards Rome to 00:21:42.329 --> 00:21:44.309 receive it. But he never made it. He never made 00:21:44.309 --> 00:21:46.190 it. The story of his death in Porto Ercole is 00:21:46.190 --> 00:21:48.809 still steeped in mystery. We know he died there 00:21:48.809 --> 00:21:52.029 of a fever on July 18th. But for centuries, the 00:21:52.029 --> 00:21:55.549 cause was debated. Malaria, syphilis, even lead 00:21:55.549 --> 00:21:58.089 poisoning from his paints. Modern forensics have 00:21:58.089 --> 00:22:00.619 narrowed it down quite a bit. Research from 2018 00:22:00.619 --> 00:22:03.240 concluded he most likely died from sepsis caused 00:22:03.240 --> 00:22:06.319 by Staphylococcus aureus, probably from the wounds 00:22:06.319 --> 00:22:08.460 he got in that Naples brawl. But what about the 00:22:08.460 --> 00:22:11.359 rumors of assassination? Did the Tomassoni family 00:22:11.359 --> 00:22:14.019 finally get their revenge? Well, Vatican documents 00:22:14.019 --> 00:22:16.960 released in 2002 strongly support that theory. 00:22:17.140 --> 00:22:19.460 They suggest the Tomassoni family did, in fact, 00:22:19.460 --> 00:22:21.900 hunt him down and have him killed just days before 00:22:21.900 --> 00:22:24.220 his official pardon was likely to be sealed. 00:22:24.440 --> 00:22:26.839 Before we wrap up his legacy, we have to touch 00:22:26.839 --> 00:22:29.839 on the debate around his personal life. specifically 00:22:29.839 --> 00:22:32.819 his sexuality. It's a major part of the scholarship. 00:22:33.180 --> 00:22:35.900 He never married, had no known children, and 00:22:35.900 --> 00:22:38.180 scholars point to his early private works for 00:22:38.180 --> 00:22:41.029 Cardinal Del Monte. Right. Art historian Howard 00:22:41.029 --> 00:22:43.670 Hibbard noted he never painted a single female 00:22:43.670 --> 00:22:46.569 nude in his entire career. But those early chamber 00:22:46.569 --> 00:22:49.230 pieces are full of these full -lipped, languorous 00:22:49.230 --> 00:22:52.430 boys, models like Manitti and Cecco, who often 00:22:52.430 --> 00:22:55.130 look very sensual, very solicitous. It suggests 00:22:55.130 --> 00:22:58.309 a clear erotic interest in the male form. And 00:22:58.309 --> 00:23:00.369 this wasn't just an academic discussion after 00:23:00.369 --> 00:23:02.970 his death. This was a dangerous topic in his 00:23:02.970 --> 00:23:06.000 own time. It was life -threatening. During that 00:23:06.000 --> 00:23:08.940 1603 libel trial, it was alleged that the offensive 00:23:08.940 --> 00:23:11.380 pamphlets against Baglione were distributed by 00:23:11.380 --> 00:23:14.839 a bardossa, a term for a boy prostitute, who 00:23:14.839 --> 00:23:17.460 was supposedly shared by Caravaggio and his friend. 00:23:17.680 --> 00:23:20.279 And in Rome at that time, sodomy was a capital 00:23:20.279 --> 00:23:23.480 crime. Punishable by burning. It wasn't just 00:23:23.480 --> 00:23:26.039 gossip. It was a weapon his rivals like Baglione 00:23:26.039 --> 00:23:29.079 used against him. But the sources also confirm 00:23:29.079 --> 00:23:30.700 he did have relationships with women, right? 00:23:30.759 --> 00:23:33.640 Prostitutes who modeled for him. Like Lena and 00:23:33.640 --> 00:23:36.359 Felitti Melandroni, the art historian Andy Graham 00:23:36.359 --> 00:23:39.140 Dixon probably summarizes it best. He suggests 00:23:39.140 --> 00:23:41.200 Caravaggio was unsettled in his relationships, 00:23:41.460 --> 00:23:44.140 that he likely slept with men, but certainly 00:23:44.140 --> 00:23:46.960 had female lovers. Unconventional for sure, and 00:23:46.960 --> 00:23:48.920 that only added to the controversy around him. 00:23:49.039 --> 00:23:50.920 Regardless of his private life, his artistic 00:23:50.920 --> 00:23:54.279 impact was seismic. He created an entirely new 00:23:54.279 --> 00:23:58.119 school of art, Caravaggism. The St. Matthew paintings 00:23:58.119 --> 00:24:00.720 caused a sensation that just ripped through Europe. 00:24:00.859 --> 00:24:03.640 Young painters flocked to his style. They recognized 00:24:03.640 --> 00:24:05.920 that this dramatic use of light and dark was 00:24:05.920 --> 00:24:07.859 the cutting edge. So who are the key figures 00:24:07.859 --> 00:24:10.700 who first adopted this style? In Italy, you have 00:24:10.700 --> 00:24:14.039 Orazio Gentileschi, but then guys like Bartolomeo 00:24:14.039 --> 00:24:16.420 Manfredi took his style of low -life scenes and 00:24:16.420 --> 00:24:18.559 built an entire career on it. And the influence 00:24:18.559 --> 00:24:21.440 spread internationally. Very quickly. Very quickly. 00:24:21.559 --> 00:24:24.599 In Spain, Giuseppe de Berra adopted that gritty 00:24:24.599 --> 00:24:27.039 realism, the dirty feet, the unwashed hands. 00:24:27.380 --> 00:24:30.640 In France, Georges de La Tour captured that mysterious 00:24:30.640 --> 00:24:32.859 single -source lighting. And in the Netherlands. 00:24:33.160 --> 00:24:35.819 The Utrecht Caravaggisti brought this style north, 00:24:35.960 --> 00:24:38.420 and their work eventually influenced masters 00:24:38.420 --> 00:24:41.380 like Vermeer and Rembrandt, who used light to 00:24:41.380 --> 00:24:43.019 define emotion in a way that would have been 00:24:43.019 --> 00:24:46.220 unthinkable before Caravaggio. So his influence 00:24:46.220 --> 00:24:49.299 was foundational, but paradoxically, his actual... 00:24:49.289 --> 00:24:51.490 sexual reputation in Rome faded almost immediately 00:24:51.490 --> 00:24:54.690 after he died. It did. His style was superseded 00:24:54.690 --> 00:24:57.089 by the more classical idealism of his rival, 00:24:57.269 --> 00:24:59.970 Annabelle Caracci. Why did it fade so fast when 00:24:59.970 --> 00:25:02.650 the influence was so widespread? The main reason 00:25:02.650 --> 00:25:05.230 is that Caravaggio never had a proper workshop. 00:25:05.490 --> 00:25:07.950 He didn't have devoted pupils to carry on his 00:25:07.950 --> 00:25:10.930 techniques. Without a school, his legacy was 00:25:10.930 --> 00:25:13.789 vulnerable to his critics, like Bellori and Baglioni, 00:25:13.990 --> 00:25:16.650 who worked hard to diminish him. He was overlooked 00:25:16.650 --> 00:25:20.369 for centuries. The huge modern reappraisal really 00:25:20.369 --> 00:25:22.789 only began in the 20th century. Thanks largely 00:25:22.789 --> 00:25:25.630 to the art critic Roberto Longhi in the 1920s. 00:25:25.630 --> 00:25:28.930 Longhi famously said that Ribera, Vermeer, Latour, 00:25:28.970 --> 00:25:31.009 and Rembrandt could never have existed without 00:25:31.009 --> 00:25:34.230 him. That really cemented his status as a pillar 00:25:34.230 --> 00:25:37.329 of the entire Western tradition. And today, he's 00:25:37.329 --> 00:25:40.150 the ultimate antihero superstar. He's in movies, 00:25:40.250 --> 00:25:43.950 TV shows like Ripley. His work is irresistible 00:25:43.950 --> 00:25:46.539 on the art market. And the authentication debates 00:25:46.539 --> 00:25:49.740 are just wild. That Judith beheading Holofernes 00:25:49.740 --> 00:25:52.240 found in a French attic, sold privately after 00:25:52.240 --> 00:25:54.799 the Louvre turned it down. Art historians are 00:25:54.799 --> 00:25:57.140 still fighting over whether it's real. And the 00:25:57.140 --> 00:26:00.000 Madrid AK homo, which might be a lost original 00:26:00.000 --> 00:26:02.140 worth hundreds of millions. And of course, the 00:26:02.140 --> 00:26:05.160 infamous theft of his nativity in 1969 by the 00:26:05.160 --> 00:26:07.940 Sicilian mafia. It's valued at $20 million and 00:26:07.940 --> 00:26:10.920 is still missing. It just cements this bizarre 00:26:10.920 --> 00:26:13.220 connection he has to the criminal underworld, 00:26:13.440 --> 00:26:16.089 even centuries after his death. The controversy, 00:26:16.329 --> 00:26:19.190 from the life to the art to the theft, it just 00:26:19.190 --> 00:26:21.269 proves that Caravaggio isn't just an artist. 00:26:21.450 --> 00:26:25.109 He's a cultural phenomenon. We began with the 00:26:25.109 --> 00:26:27.509 apprentice fleeing Milan, and we end with the 00:26:27.509 --> 00:26:30.720 fugitive dying in Porto Ercole. possibly assassinated, 00:26:30.819 --> 00:26:33.119 just days before he was going to be pardoned. 00:26:33.119 --> 00:26:36.079 The central tension of his life is just inescapable. 00:26:36.220 --> 00:26:38.460 I mean, he painted the most profound religious 00:26:38.460 --> 00:26:41.440 convulsions and the most tender deaths, all while 00:26:41.440 --> 00:26:44.420 living in this cycle of relentless violence and 00:26:44.420 --> 00:26:46.579 flight. He changed the course of Western painting 00:26:46.579 --> 00:26:49.839 in just 18 years of work. He ushered in the Baroque 00:26:49.839 --> 00:26:53.039 era by prioritizing raw reality, all through 00:26:53.039 --> 00:26:55.039 the dramatic instrument of light. And he died 00:26:55.039 --> 00:26:57.099 trying to get that pardon, sending those self 00:26:57.099 --> 00:26:59.680 -portraits of his own severed head to the patrons 00:26:59.680 --> 00:27:02.059 who held the keys to his freedom. His friend, 00:27:02.140 --> 00:27:04.579 the poet Marcio Malesi, wrote his epitaph, which 00:27:04.579 --> 00:27:07.539 claims he was in painting not equal to a painter, 00:27:07.640 --> 00:27:10.099 but to nature itself. And that phrase just captures 00:27:10.099 --> 00:27:12.480 everything. He refused to idealize. He showed 00:27:12.480 --> 00:27:14.660 us saints with dirty feet and a Virgin Mary who 00:27:14.660 --> 00:27:17.960 was recognizably human, flawed, and dead. His 00:27:17.960 --> 00:27:21.039 work was both deeply profound and, to his contemporaries, 00:27:21.059 --> 00:27:23.619 borderline sacrilegious. So is, as you reflect 00:27:23.619 --> 00:27:25.180 on the... the ultimate price of genius and the 00:27:25.180 --> 00:27:27.279 paradox of his life, will leave you to ponder 00:27:27.279 --> 00:27:30.480 this. Was Caravaggio's refusal to idealize his 00:27:30.480 --> 00:27:33.220 sacred subjects, showing them as common, earthy, 00:27:33.240 --> 00:27:35.859 and flawed, a revolutionary form of artistic 00:27:35.859 --> 00:27:38.000 honesty that honored the humanity of Christ's 00:27:38.000 --> 00:27:40.680 followers? Or was it, as his critics argued, 00:27:40.900 --> 00:27:43.079 an act of profound spiritual defiance against 00:27:43.079 --> 00:27:44.180 the decorum of the church?