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Caravaggio - Between genius and madness

A thematic walking tour in Rome

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On the tracks of Caravaggio in Rome

Caravaggio is considered one of the most revolutionary artists of his time.Follow us in his footsteps through a cityscape that has hardly changed since1600.

Immerse yourself in the life, work and imagination of the great painter. Wewill take you to the places where the controversial works of the innovationalartist were left (There are Caravaggio-highlights) in the maze of streetsaround the church of Sant'Ambrogio and San Carlo al Corso. We stop wherehe was arrested several times for bloodthirsty speeches, sabre-rattling andbrawls.

Auf Caravaggios Spuren in Rom

Caravaggio gilt als einer der revolutionärsten Künstler seiner Zeit. Folgen Sie uns auf seinen Spuren durch ein seit 1600 kaum verändertes Stadtbild.
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Tauchen Sie ein in Leben, Werk und Vorstellungswelt des großen Malers. Wir führen Sie zu jenen Schauplätzen, wo der revolutionäre Maler Caravaggio seine umstrittenen Werke hinterlassen hat: Caravaggio-Higlights im Gassenwirrwarr rund um der Kirche Sant’Ambrogio e Carlo al Corso und an jenen Orten, wo er wegen blutrünstiger Reden, Säbelrasseln und Raufereien mehrmals verhaftet wurde.

Cultural Walking Tour in Rome: "Caravaggio – between genius and madness."

Small groups minimum 2 or maximum 12 people or fewer
Fixed start time at 9.00 AM (Meeting Point at Piazza del Popolo)
Duration: 3 hours
Itinerary: 3 km / 1.86 miles
Tour price per person: 73,00 €

Cultural Walking tour - Description

The Cerasi Chapel in the Santa Maria del Popolo Church. The paintings "Conversion of Saul" and the "Crucifixion of Peter" give us insight into Caravaggio’s creative mind: into the drama of the representation, into the richly detailed reproduction of an introspective realism, and into the fascination of dread.
Caravaggio was often to be found frequenting the dark corners of the tavern "Osteria della Lupa".
Caravaggio's house in the Vicolo del Divino Amore, where he lived for more than a year.
The nearby Via della Pallacorda, where notorious disputes between Caravaggio and Ranuccio Tomassoni took place.
Workshops attended by Caravaggio were along the Via della Scrofa - his barber, his saddler, the tanner Sinibaldi, and also those owned by the painter Lorenzo Carlo, who had first hosted Caravaggio on his arrival in Rome.
Sant’Agostino and the painting „Madonna dei Pellegrini”
The final stop is the San Luigi dei Francesi with the Contarelli Chapel that contains Caravaggio’s first major masterpieces (Calling of St Matthew, St Matthew and the Angels, and the Martyrdom of Matthew).

Contarelli Chapel, Interior View

Rome, San Luigi dei Francesi
1599-1600/02

The huge canvases (approx. 3 x 3.50m each, completed in a very short time of period -  between 1599 and 1602) are the artist’s first important commissioned works.  The lateral paintings were executed for the French National Church, through the mediation of Caravaggio’s patron and promoter Cardinal Francesco del Monte. The altarpiece, The Calling of Matthew, was commissioned two years later and was to replace a unsuccessful sculpture of a Northern European sculptor.

Palazzo Medici, Engraving by Giuseppe Vasi (18th century) Rome

„Palazzo Madama” currently the houst of the Italian Senate.

Since its construction, the palace served as the representative seat of the powerful Medici family, in Rome where „The ambassador”, Cardinal del Monte, built his diplomatic network to represent the interests of the Medici family (and thus of Florence) in the papal city. In this palace lived Caravaggio 5 years (until 1600). He was discovered here, and promoted by the influential circles of the city.

Contarelli Chapel, The Calling of St Matthew

Rome, San Luigi dei Francesi
1599-1600

The painting was executed in connection with the artist's first major commission. After a difficult start in Rome he finally rose to fame and gained recognition - with the paintings in the Chapel of the Church of San Luigi dei Francesi. It shows the calling of Saint Matthew, who, surrounded by his revellers, is called to himself by Christ and Peter. The characters are dressed in contemporary costumes and the scene is immersed in everyday Roman life around 1600. The light effects work like spotlights: the painter becomes the director and guides them to the areas to be accentuated.

Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio (by Ottavio Leoni)

Florence, Accademia Colombaria
Around 1621

The copper engraver and graphic artist Ottavio Leoni, who worked in Rome, drew the only known surviving portrait of Caravaggio, in 1621. The painter had already died in 1610, the image probably shows him at the age of 35, shortly before his sudden departure for Naples (1606). The red chalk drawing with white heightening shows the painter in three-quarter view with his head slightly turned. His confident gaze is directed towards the observer, the facial features are strong/bold.

„Self-Portrait as Bacchus (Sick Bacchus)

Rome, Borghese Gallery
1593

This work is considered one of the first oil paintings Caravaggio made in Rome, immediately after his arrival in the Eternal City when he still had to beg his fellow painters for every commission. His contemporaries report that Caravaggio often depicted himself with a mirror in order to improve his portrait drawing skills. The self-portrait was executed when he was lying ill with high fever, in the Ospedale dell Consolazione. All the groundbreaking innoviations of his art can already be seen in this early work: this figure detaches itself from the dark background and emerges on the surface through acute naturalism.

Cavalletti Chapel, Madonna dei Pellegrini

Rome, Sant’Agostino
1604-05

The painting was donated as an altarpiece for a chapel in the Roman church of Sant'Agostino (first chapel on the left). The subject had been specified by its founders, the Cavalletti Family:  the masterpiece shall depict a „Madonna di Loreto” (or Pilgrim’s Madonna) named after the pilgrimage town Loreto on the Adriatic see, with which tha family had strong connections.  The actual theme is hardly recognizable here: instead of Mary, a lower-class Roman „houswife” greets a couple of pilgrims at the doorstep of her house. The plaster of the wall is damaged; the faithful’ heavily lined faces and their dirty feet are placed directly at eye level with the viewer. The depicted Maria is probably Caravaggio's mistress, Lena, a prostitute from the neighborhoods of the Tiber, with whom he probably fathered a child (public opinion in Rome is divided).

Cerasi Chapel, Interior View

Rome, Santa Maria del Popolo
1604-05

As soon as his first important work, the Contarelli Chapel in San Luigi dei Francesi, was completed, Caravaggio was commissioned by Monsignor Tiberius Cerasi, Treasurer of the Camera Apostolica, to decorate the Family Chapel in the Church of Santa Maria del Popolo. The Chapel also contains an altarpiece, painted on wood, by Annibale Carracci, Caravaggio’s famous and highly admired fellow artist.Caravaggio’s lateral canvases show key events in the life of apostles Peter and Paul: the Crucifixion and the Conversion which with altarpiece together form a complete work of art.

Cerasi Chapel, The Crucifixion of Peter

Rome, Santa Maria del Popolo
1604-05

The painting on the wall to the left shows the last moment of the martyrdom of Peter: the cross is being lifted up by three henchmen whose faces remain in the dark. Caravaggio creates a strong  compositional tension through the diagonal lines, the oblique field of vision literally pulls the viewer into the picture and draws his attention to the wounds and the face of Peter.Caravaggio creates a strong compositional tension through the opposite straight lines, the inclined filed of vision literally pulls the viewer into the composition and draws his attention to the wounds and face of Peter.

Cerasi Chapel, Details of The Crucifixion of Peter

Rome, Santa Maria del Popolo
1604-05

The wounds of St. Peter are depicted in this picture in a particularly naturalistic way (they almost become touchable). The observer identifies himself more intimately through this degree of reality with the biblical events. What could be considered as mere artistic ability is, in reality, a visual translation of the spirit of the times: the senses of the believer become the vehicle of religious content. It is the birth of the Baroque period.

Cerasi Chapel, Conversion of Paul

Rome, Santa Maria del Popolo
1604-05

It is the counter-image to the Crucifixion of Peter in Santa Maria del Popolo, painted by Caravaggio at the height of his fame in Rome. The scene of the Conversion of Paul is reduced to a few significant elements: to the blank background, to the reduction to the essentials, and to a strong shortening of perspective. The composition is designed to hang in this specific chapel: Caravaggio calculated the starting point of the observer.

Saint Jerome

Rome, Galleria Borghese
1605-06

A work commissioned by another conveyor of Caravaggio: Cardinal Scipione Borghese. The nephew of Pope Paul V (1605-21) lived like a baroque prince and conducted a flourishing cultural policy. This painting was probably intended as a gift: the Cardinal indeed pulled some strings in the court, when the unbridled artist was reported in 1605 in a dispute with the notary Pasqualone over the prostitute Lena. The honorable Church Father, Jerome, is shown as an elderly man sitting and pursuing his (translation) studies. Only a narrow ring of light gives the picture a religious context.

Saint Joht the Baptist

Rome, Galleria Borghese
1609-10

Caravaggio painted this picture during his second stay in Naples, after the death sentence against him was finally lifted. After a crime committed in Rome, the master fled to Naples, then to the island of Malta before heading back in Rome, via Naples in 1610. But he died in Naples, probably due to malaria. Saint John is depicted as a shepherd boy, looking at the observer without expression. The red feet and the ankles are swollen from the hard work.

„Madonna dei Palafranieri“

Rome, Galleria Borghese
1605-06

This large canvas (290x210cm) was a commission for the chapel of the "Palafrenieri" (standard-bearer for flags and statues in religious processions) in the most important church of Christianity, in Saint Peter’s Basilica. However, it was displayed on the altar only for 16 days, because after waves of protest the painting had to be moved to a smaller church: the Mother of God is depicted with push-ups and dirty feet, St Anne (her mother) has a heavily wrinkled-face, baby Jesus is (too) naked; the scene is set in a unreligious room – in a coal cellar.Scipione Borghese came up with a cunning plan, and the painting was sold him for a pittance – thus insured it for his art collection.

Boy with a Basket of Fruit

Rome, Galleria Borghese
1593-94

One of the artist's earliest works, painted immediately after his arrival in Rome. One of his first masters was Cavalier d’Arpino, Caravaggio lived in his workshop for a while as an apprendice. The cohabitation led to a violant argument, the older master requisitioned the paintings left by the artist. All the stylistic characteristics of the great artist are already indicated: the light coming from outside, the figure(s) in the foreground, the neutralization of the background, the blatant naturalism. This kind of technique was unique in Rome. The workshop of Cavalier d'Arpino was at times overcrowded with people who wanted to experience these nature illustrations "within reach".

David with the Head of Goliath

Rome, Galleria Borghese
1609

A second work painted by Caravaggio during his second stay in Naples was again intended as a gift for his patron Cardinal Borghese. The work is considered a kind of painted petition for pardon; the artist had to flee Rome following the assassination of Ranuccio Tommassoni. Caravaggio’s self-portrait is recognazible in Goliath facial features, he shows himself here as penitent. David can therefore be read as a merciful Christ who looks at Caravaggio/Goliath with a compassionate gaze.

David with the Head of Goliath - Detail

Rome, Galleria Borghese
1609

The detail of the head of the Goliath, from the "David with the head of Goliath" in the Galleria Borghese in Rome. With blatant realism, Caravaggio shows his face in self-portrait, as a penitent and repentant after he had to flee the city as a murderer. Through the mediation of various powerful cardinals close to the pope, he finally received permission to return to Rome. But he died in agony of malaria in Naples.

Façade of the Church of Sant’Agostino

Piazza di S. Agostino, Rome
1483

The façade of the Augustinian Church in Rome was built in pure Renaissance style by Jacopo da Pietrasanta, using travertine taken from the Colosseum. The first chapel on the left contains Caravaggio’s famouse painting, the Madonna of Loreto.

San Luigi dei Francesi, Engravement by Giuseppe Vasi (18th century)

Rome
1589

The church of the French community in Rome - showing the actual appearance of the original construction - was built by Domenico Fontana on the project of Giacomo Della Porta, two famous architects, both contemporaries of Caravaggio. Caravaggio’s works can be admired in the Contarelli Chapel, the third one on the left.  Like the chapel of Santa Maria del Popolo, this is a small world museum: it contains the treasures of the controversial master from Northern Italy who revolutionized the language of European art around 1600.

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„Like a madman, this Lombard walks through the streets at night, his roar and his misdeeds throw a negative light on your name too” - so writes the secretary of a cardinal about the mind of this eccentric artist from northern Italy.