METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART: GALLERIA 621: CARAVAGGIO and Southern Italy -- Paintings

Speranza

Born near Bergamo, in northern Italy, Caravaggio trained in Milan and moved to Rome around 1592. Once there, he reinterpreted north Italian models to achieve a new and unique approach to naturalism, producing paintings mostly for aristocratic patrons. His dramatic lighting and expressive intensity had a profound impact on his followers and on European art in general. Between 1606 and 1610 he worked in Naples, Malta, and Sicily, where his style was extremely influential on succeeding generations of artists. Southern painters such as Massimo Stanzione, Artemisia Gentileschi, and Mattia Preti responded in distinctly individual ways to Caravaggio's bold lessons.