TheCaravaggisti (or the "Caravagesques"; singular: "Caravaggista") were stylistic followers of the late 16th-century ItalianBaroque painterCaravaggio. His influence on the new Baroque style that eventually emerged fromMannerism was profound. Caravaggio never established a workshop as most other painters did, and thus had no school to spread his techniques. Nor did he ever set out his underlying philosophical approach to art, thepsychological realism which can only be deduced from his surviving work. But it can be seen directly or indirectly in the work ofRubens,Jusepe de Ribera,Bernini, andRembrandt. Famous while he lived, Caravaggio himself was forgotten almost immediately after his death. Many of his paintings were re-ascribed to his followers, such asThe Taking of Christ, which was attributed to the Dutch painterGerrit van Honthorst until 1990.[1]
Only in the 20th century was Caravaggio's importance to the development of Western art rediscovered. In the 1920sRoberto Longhi once more placed him in the European tradition: "Ribera,Vermeer, La Tour and Rembrandt could never have existed without him. And the art ofDelacroix,Courbet andManet would have been utterly different".[2] The influentialBernard Berenson stated: "With the exception ofMichelangelo, no other Italian painter exercised so great an influence."[3]
At the height of his popularity inRome during the late 1590s and early 1600s, Caravaggio's dramatic new style influenced many of his peers in the Roman art world. The first Caravaggisti includedMario Minniti,Giovanni Baglione (although his Caravaggio phase was short-lived),Leonello Spada andOrazio Gentileschi. In the next generation, there wereCarlo Saraceni,Bartolomeo Manfredi andOrazio Borgianni as well as anonymous masters such as theMaster of the Gamblers. Gentileschi, despite being considerably older, was the only one of these artists to live much beyond 1620, and ended up as court painter toCharles I of England. His daughterArtemisia Gentileschi was also close to Caravaggio, and one of the most gifted of the movement, including the workJudith Slaying Holofernes. Yet, in Rome and in Italy, it was not Caravaggio, but the influence ofAnnibale Carracci, blending elements from theHigh Renaissance andLombard realism, which ultimately triumphed. Other artists active in Rome, worth mentioning, includeAngelo Caroselli,Pier Francesco Mola,Tommaso Salini andFrancesco Buoneri.Giacinto Brandi was active mainly in Rome and Naples. Dutch painterDavid de Haen was active in Rome between 1615 and 1622.Bartolomeo Cavarozzi was active in Rome, but worked in Madrid from 1617 to 1618-19, and is believed to have played a role in spreading Caravaggism in Spain.[4][5]
In May 1606 after the killing of Ranuccio Tomassoni, Caravaggio fled toNaples with adeath sentence on his head.[6] While there he completed several commissions, two major ones being theMadonna of the Rosary, andThe Seven Works of Mercy.[6] His work had a profound effect on the local artists and his brief stay in Naples produced a notable school of Neapolitan Caravaggisti, includingBattistello Caracciolo,Bernardo Cavallino,Carlo Sellitto,Massimo Stanzione,Francesco Guarino,Mattia Preti,Andrea Vaccaro,Cesare Fracanzano andAntonio de Bellis.Giacinto Brandi was active mainly in Rome and Naples. The Caravaggisti movement there ended with a terrible outbreak of plague in 1656, but at the time Naples was a possession of Spain and the influence of Caravaggism had already spread there.
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Marco Antonio Bassetti is known to have been in Rome in 1616, and may have arrived there two years earlier. In Rome he came under the influence of the paintings of Caravaggio and Orazio Borgianni. On his return toVerona he painted a St. Peter and Saints for the church of San Tomaso and a Coronation of the Virgin for Sant' Anastasia. He died from the plague in Verona in 1630.
Bernardo Strozzi, born and mainly active inGenoa and laterVenice, is considered a principal founder of the Venetian Baroque style. In the 1620s Strozzi gradually abandoned his earlyMannerist style in favor of a more personal style characterized by a new naturalism derived from the work of Caravaggio and his followers. The Caravaggist style of painting had been brought to Genoa both byDomenico Fiasella, after his return from Rome in 1617–18, and by followers of Caravaggio who spent time working in the city.
Italian painterBiagio Manzoni was active inFaenza. Italian painterBartolomeo Schedoni fromReggio Emilia,Daniele Crespi fromMilan andLuca Cambiasi, also known as Luca Cambiaso and Luca Cangiagio, the leading artist inGenoa in the 16th century, often depicted brilliantly lit figures set against a dark background.Felice Boselli, active inPiacenza, used contrast Caravaggisti lighting for his still-lifes.Tanzio da Varallo (or simply il Tanzio) was active mainly inLombardy andPiedmont, including theSacro Monte atVarallo Sesia, where he worked contemporaneously withPier Francesco Mazzucchelli (il Morazzone). The Italian painter and engraverBernardino Mei worked in his nativeSiena and in Rome, finding patronage above all in the Chigi family.
Pietro Ricchi (or il Lucchesino), born inLucca, also often depicted brilliantly lit figures set against a dark background (see St. Sebastian).
Mario Minniti was an Italian artist active in Sicily after 1606. He, at the age of 16, even posed for Caravaggio's paintingBoy with a Basket of Fruit.
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Rubens was likely one of the first Flemish artists to be influenced byCaravaggio. During the period 1600–1608, Rubens resided in Italy. He settled inMantua at the court of DukeVincenzo I Gonzaga but also spent time in Rome. During his stay in Rome in 1601 he became acquainted with Caravaggio’s work. He later made a copy of Caravaggio'sEntombment of Christ and recommended his patron, the Duke of Mantua, to purchaseThe Death of the Virgin (Louvre). Rubens was after his return to Antwerp instrumental in the acquisition of Caravaggio'sMadonna of the Rosary (Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna) for theSt. Paul's Church in Antwerp.[7] During his stay in Italy Rubens broadened his interest in Caravaggio’s work to include the 1606Supper at Emmaus in Milan (Pinacoteca di Brera) and the 1600The Calling of St Matthew as well as the more recent work in theSanta Maria in Vallicella and theBasilica of Sant'Agostino. Although some of this interest in Caravaggio is reflected in his drawings during his Italian residence, it was only after his return to Antwerp in 1608 that his works show openly Caravaggesque traits such as in theCain slaying Abel (1608–1609) (Courtauld Institute of Art). However, the influence of Caravaggio on Rubens’ work would be less important than that ofRaphael,Correggio,Barocci and the Venetians.[8] Artists, who were influenced by Rubens, such asPieter van Mol,Gaspar de Crayer andWillem Jacob Herreyns, also used certain stark realism and strong contrasts of light and shadow, common to Caravaggisti style.
Rubens' contemporaryAbraham Janssens was another Flemish painter who travelled to Italy (from 1597 to 1602) where he became acquainted with the work of Caravaggio. His work after his return to Antwerp shows the influence of Caravaggio. The compositionScaldis and Antwerpia of 1609 derives its expressive power from the use of strong contrasts of light and shadow (chiaroscuro) as was pioneered by Caravaggio.[9]
It is mainly the Flemish artists from the generation after Rubens coming on the art scene in the 1620s who were most influenced by Caravaggio. It can even be said that there was a Caravaggist craze in Flanders from about 1620 to 1640.[10] The artists are often referred to as the Ghent Caravaggisti and the Antwerp Caravaggisti after the city in which they were principally active. There is, however, no discernible stylistic distinction between these two movements other than individual ones. Among the Ghent Caravaggisti can be listedJan Janssens,Melchior de la Mars andAntoon van den Heuvel. The list of Antwerp Caravaggisti is significantly longer reflecting the importance of this city as the pre-eminent artistic centre of Flanders. They includeTheodoor Rombouts,Gerard Seghers,Jan Cossiers,Adam de Coster,Jacques de l'Ange andJan van Dalen. InBruges,Jacob van Oost painted genre and history paintings showing the influence of the work of Caravaggio and Manfredi whose work he had studied in Rome.[11] Some Flemish Caravaggisti left their homeland for Italy where they were influenced by the work of Caravaggio and his followers and never returned home. This is the case ofLouis Finson of Bruges who after stays in Naples and Rome spent most of his career in France.[12] Another example of an expatriate Flemish Caravaggist isHendrick de Somer ofLokeren orLochristi who spent most of his life and career inNaples where he painted in a Caraviggist style influenced by the Spanish painterJusepe de Ribera.[13]
What most of these artists shared in common is that they likely visited Italy where they had first-hand contact with the work of Caravaggio or his Italian and Dutch followers. The influence of Caravaggio and his followers on their work can be seen in the use of dramatic light effects and expressive gestures as well as the new subject matter such as card sharps, fortune tellers, the denial of St Peter, etc.[10][14][15] Some of the artists focused on certain aspects of Caravaggio's oeuvre. For instance, Adam de Coster was referred to as thePictor Noctium (painter of the nights) because of his preference for the use of stark chiaroscuro and the repeated motif of half-length figures illuminated by a candle which is covered.[16]
Many of these artists such as Rombouts, Cossiers and Seghers later abandoned their strict adherence to the Caravaggist style and subject matter and struck out in different directions often under the influence of the older generation of Flemish artists who had such a dominant influence on Flemish art in the 17th century, i.e. Rubens andvan Dyck.[10][15]
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In the first three decades of the 17th century, some Catholic artists from the city of Utrecht in theDutch Republic travelled to Rome where they were profoundly influenced by the work of Caravaggio and his followers. The first of these artists to arrive wasHendrick ter Brugghen (first recorded in Italy in 1607) followed later byGerrit van Honthorst,Dirck van Baburen andJan van Bijlert. On their return to Utrecht, their Caravaggesque works inspired a short-lived but influential flowering of artworks inspired indirectly in style and subject matter by the works of Caravaggio and the Italian followers of Caravaggio. This style or school of painting was later referred to asUtrecht Caravaggism.[17] The brief flourishing of Utrecht Caravaggism ended around 1630, when major artists had either died, as in the case of van Baburen and Terbrugghen, or had changed style, like van Honthorst's shift toportraiture and history scenes informed by theFlemish tendencies popularized byRubens and his followers. In the following generation the effects of Caravaggio, although attenuated, are to be seen in the work ofVermeer,Rembrandt, andGerrit Dou's "niche paintings".
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One of the firstFrench artists to studio in Rome during the Caravaggio Years wasJean LeClerc, who studied under Saraceni during the early 17th century.Simon Vouet spent an extensive period of time in Italy, from 1613 to 1627. His patrons included theBarberini family,Cassiano dal Pozzo,Paolo Giordano Orsini andVincenzo Giustiniani.[18] He also visited other parts of Italy:Venice;Bologna, (where theCarracci family had their academy);Genoa, (where from 1620 to 1622, he worked for theDoria princes); and Naples. He absorbed what he saw and distilled it in his painting: Caravaggio's dramatic lighting; Italian Mannerism;Paolo Veronese's color anddi sotto in su or foreshortened perspective; and the art ofCarracci,Guercino,Lanfranco andGuido Reni. Vouet's success in Rome led to his election as president of theAccademia di San Luca in 1624. Despite his success in Rome, Vouet returned to France in 1627. Vouet's new style was distinctly Italian, importing the Italian Baroque style into France. Other French artists enamored by the new style includedValentin de Boulogne, who was living in Rome by 1620, and studied under Vouet and later Boulognes pupilNicolas Tournier.
Georges de La Tour is assumed to have travelled either to Italy or the Netherlands early in his career. His paintings reflect the influence of Caravaggio, but this probably reached him through the DutchCaravaggisti and other Northern (French andDutch) contemporaries. In particular, La Tour is often compared to the DutchmanHendrick Terbrugghen.[19]Louis Finson, also known as Ludovicus Finsonius, was a Flemish Baroque painter, who also worked in France.
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Francisco Ribalta became among the first followers inSpain of thetenebrist style. It is unclear if he directly visited eitherRome orNaples, where Caravaggio's style had many adherents, although through its Naples connection Spain was probably already exposed to Caravaggisim by the early 17th century. His sonJuan Ribalta,Vicente Castelló andJusepe de Ribera are said to have been his pupils, although it is entirely possible that Ribera acquired his tenebrism when he moved to Italy. The style garnered a number of adherents in Spain, and was to influence the Baroque orGolden Age Spanish painters, especiallyZurbarán,Velázquez andMurillo. Even the art of still life in Spain, thebodegón was often painted in a similar stark and austere style.Orazio Borgianni signed a petition to begin an Italianate academy of painting in Spain and executed a series of nine paintings for the Convento de Portacoeli, Valladolid, where they remain.Giovanni Battista Crescenzi was an Italian painter and architect of the early-Baroque period, active in Rome and Spain, where he helped decorate the pantheon of the Spanish kings at El Escorial. He rose to prominence as an artist during the reign of Pope Paul V, but by 1617 had moved to Madrid, and from 1620 on, he was active in El Escorial. Philip III of Spain awarded him the title of Marchese de la Torre, Knight of Santiago. His pupilBartolomeo Cavarozzi was active in Spain 1617–19.
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